An Information Framework for Internet of Things Services in Physical Internet

Abstract

The physical Internet (PI, or $\pi $ ) concept was developed to address the current unsustainability problem of logistics systems. The key physical elements in the PI include $\pi $ -containers, $\pi $ -nodes, and $\pi $ -movers. The $\pi $ -containers designed to be world-standard, smart, green, and modular are moved, handled, and stored throughout an open global logistic infrastructure. Meanwhile, the $\pi $ -nodes and $\pi $ -movers including physical systems and vehicles are designed to exploit as best as possible the characteristics of $\pi $ -containers to facilitate material handling processes. Thus, the logistics industry vision is a key player poised to benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution since millions of $\pi $ -containers with contained shipments being moved, tracked, and stored by a variety of the $\pi $ -nodes and $\pi $ -movers each day. This paper proposes first an information framework enabling IoT of the PI infrastructure and then a service-oriented architecture for the IoT applied for providing the IoT logistics services for the PI. A case study utilizing the architecture is presented to illustrate an efficient management service of logistics operations in the PI.