Every organisation owns assets (e.g. machines, medical devices, containers, pallets, trolleys). These assets are often not stationary: they are transported all over the world by different kinds of vehicles; and the assets are also moved inside various kinds of buildings.
The ownership of assets can change many times during the life-cycle of the asset as different stakeholders take possession of the assets and pass them on to other stakeholders along the supply chain and value chain.
So, many stakeholders want to track their assets anytime and anywhere (indoor & outdoor) in a global and multi-modal context (e.g. sea, air, road, rail).
The asset tracking topic implies more than just knowing the location of an asset. Asset tracking includes real time and/or time-stamped monitoring of several asset-related properties depending on the asset and its content (e.g. condition of the asset and changes, environmental factors - temperature, mechanical shock).
The 5G system provides the capability to better support asset tracking in all its aspects in particular in term of coverage (need to support full coverage: e.g. indoor / urban / rural / harsh environments / metallic obstructions on land, sea) with the support of terrestrial and non-terrestrial network as well as use of relays when necessary and in term of energy efficiency (15 to 20 years' lifetime of an asset tracking device without changing the battery or the UE).
For asset tracking it is important to be able to have the asset on the field during a period corresponding to the life of the asset without changing the UE or the battery of the UE.
The battery life expectancy, message size and device density values required to support the potential opportunities in various asset tracking use cases are summarised in
Table G.2-1