Piping Technology & Products

ASSET TRACKING

ASSET TRACKING

SMARTER ASSET TRACKING IN LAYDOWN YARDS: BLUETOOTH BEACONS

PT&P is the first company in ANY supply category to offer EPC and other customers an asset tracking solution using revolutionary Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. PT&P has looked extensively at the various technologies that can be used for asset tracking and believes there are significant limitations with historical RFID and Mobile technologies in terms of cost/performance.

FIGURE 1 – TYPES OF BLE BEACONS

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) was a protocol that was developed by Nokia starting in the early 2000s as an extension of the Bluetooth standard.  It is a one-way protocol with very low data rates which allows for optimization on cost and battery life.  BLE support was built into Android and iOS in 2011-2012 and is currently supported on the vast majority of Apple and Android phones.  Its largest application is in the consumer market with Tile asset tracking beacons that are commonly used by consumers for tracking assets such as car keys.