Towards the Internet of Things for physical internet: Perspectives and challenges

Résumé En

The Physical Internet (PI, or π) paradigm has been developed to be a global logistics system that aims to move, handle, store, and transport logistics products in a sustainable and efficient way. To achieve the goal, the PI requires a high level interconnectivity in physical, informational, and operational aspect enabled by an interconnected network of inter-modal hubs, collaborative protocols, and standardized, modular, and smart containers. In this context, PI is a key player poised to benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution since it potentially provides an end-to-end visibility of the PI objects, operations, and systems through ubiquitous information exchange. This paper is to investigate opportunities of application of IoT technology in the PI vision. In addition, an IoT ecosystem (π-IoT) encompassing key enabling IoT technologies, building blocks, and a service-oriented architecture (SoA) is proposed as a potential component for accelerating the implementation of PI. The major challenges regarding the deployment of IoT into the emerging logistics concept are also discussed intensively for further research.