Asset tracking system installed at a Long Beach marine terminal

Asset tracking system installed at a Long Beach marine terminal Tracking system manufacturer iControl Inc. Thursday completed installation of an asset monitoring, tracking and communications system at an undisclosed Port of Long Beach container terminal.
   Manufactured under the name iGATE, the system creates a wireless computer network that can communicate with mobile radio transmitters placed on equipment or containers within the facility. Terminal or law enforcement staff in a central location can then track and monitor data from the equipment via their existing computer network.
   The Long Beach iGATE installation is part of a larger pilot program the Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm is running for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
   The iGATE product is one of several components in a Marine Asset Tag Tracking System, or MATTS, that iControl is developing for DHS.
   Last June the DHS — through the Small Business Innovation Research Program — issued a challenge to small high-tech businesses to develop a viable MATTS. The system, as envisioned by DHS, needed to provide worldwide container tracking, monitoring and communications in order to help government agencies identify and intercept containers that might have been tampered with prior to their arrival at border crossings or in ports.
   The MATTS project, which along with related programs under the Advanced Container Security Device program, falls under the control of the DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate. The pilot program is attempting to prove that system can be secure, economical and provide tracking from loading to unloading.
   The first phase was a proof of concept test on the MATTS equipment, and the second phase was the creation of a complete end-to-end tracking system that will now be tested in the third and final phase.
   DHS has awarded iControl a contract worth up to $2.4 million for the third-phase work. Five pilot programs, each involving a foreign government, will make up the 18-month test. One of the pilot programs is already underway, with a recent iGATE system installation in an undisclosed foreign port. The new phase will also tag containers for shippers and customers to track as they move toward the United States.
   Two further pilots will be testing the MATTS worldwide by letting the containers go through an open-loop system. The remaining two pilots will explore the utility of the system for end bond shipping through the United States and destined for another country.