Lessons learned from an IoT deployment for condition monitoring at the Port of Felixstowe

Abstract

The ports sector is critical to global trade. While digitalisation of infrastructure asset management in other sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, water supply, railway and road is rapidly growing with the possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, the maritime industry lags significantly behind. IoT solutions and the near real-time data they produce provide new impetus to improve fault diagnosis of assets and prevent disruptions caused due to asset breakdown. Such solutions also require reliable communication systems to support low latency and high bandwidth. To this end, we are building an IoT-based asset management solution at the Port of Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port, using 5G technology. This paper presents the steps taken, challenges faced and the lessons learned with sourcing, installation, calibration and communication of sensors in this deployment.