Danish delivery firm A.P. Moller-Maersk (Maersk) has recruited a complete ecosystem of personal community and IoT options suppliers to begin work on a brand new LTE ‘connectivity platform’ known as OneWireless to attach 450 vessels. The transfer will pave the best way for smarter cargo monitoring, it mentioned. Its band of tech suppliers embody Onomondo, Nokia, 42com Sat, Complea, and Zededa, and can see a complete overhaul of its present 2G comms and IoT system.
The OneWireless personal IoT platform is introduced as a “single, unified community to assist a number of wi-fi applied sciences”, together with NB-IoT, Cat-M, and LTE broadband, in addition to an improve path to 5G, plus interoperability with public networks. It acknowledged: “[It ensures] Maersk clients’ cargo is reliably monitored whether or not at sea, in port, or on land – thus enabling bring-your-own IoT (BYOIoT) options based mostly on requirements for patrons.”
Will probably be put in on Maersk-owned vessels and greater than 100 time-chartered vessels within the fleet. The improve includes {hardware} replacements aboard vessels, to be carried throughout scheduled port calls. The roll-out has began, and will likely be accomplished by the primary quarter of 2026. The platform will present sundry IoT sensor connectivity, together with asset monitoring, environmental monitoring, and high quality management. The agency will be capable to move the operational advantages to shoppers.
Kjeld Dittmann, head of vessel and cargo connectivity at Maersk, mentioned: “This platform is designed to assist hundreds of IoT units, making certain optimum efficiency for reefer monitoring and fleet IoT. This improve… is corresponding to the shift customers skilled transferring from 2G to 4G… [This will] remodel how it’s potential to speak with cargo aboard.”
No less than a few of its suppliers caught out press notes to proclaim their roles within the undertaking. Each Onomondo and Nokia talked about their roles to string-up personal 4G/LTE throughout Maersk’s ships. Danish agency Onomondo seems to be the mainstay within the train, listed first within the Maersk launch, and with the fullest info of its personal. It known as the deployment the “world’s largest personal LTE community at sea”, and claimed authorship of the personal LTE core community.
This will likely be deployed in each ship, it mentioned. It acknowledged: “This onboard core community creates a resilient, personal LTE surroundings that continues to be absolutely operational even when satellite tv for pc connectivity is unavailable, eliminating communication blind spots which have lengthy held again the potential of maritime IoT with new effectivity and innovation… Not like conventional maritime setups that depend on advanced coordination throughout a number of methods, [this is] a single community.”
Units can robotically and securely swap between the vessel’s personal LTE community and public terrestrial LTE networks with out SIM swaps or handbook reconfiguration. Onomondo has an MVNO take care of 700-odd operators globally; its system helps third-party MNO SIMs, as nicely. Different options embody “a whole at-sea LTE core… throughout 450 vessels within the Maersk fleet, making certain steady IoT operation no matter satellite tv for pc comms.”
For its half, Finnish vendor Nokia, the main participant within the personal networks sport, mentioned it has a contract with Maersk to “equip 450 vessels in its fleet with Nokia’s industry-leading personal wi-fi community options”. The press notice was from its cell networks group, quite than its enterprise options division, which handles its DAC and MXIE issues, sometimes geared to Trade 4.0 clients like Maersk. The deal is for Nokia’s radios, quite than these merchandise.
It clarified that the (OneWireless / Onomondo) answer makes use of Nokia’s small cells portfolio, together with its Shikra Distant Radio Heads (RRH) and compact baseband, plus customized antennas. It mentioned: “Every vessel has a small core related to the radio, using satellite tv for pc comms for backhaul.” Nokia’s community administration system, MantaRay NM, is to be put in in Maersk’s operations heart for a “consolidated community view for optimum monitoring and administration”.
Nokia acknowledged: “The brand new unified cell community powered by Nokia’s radio portfolio is designed to assist quite a few IoT units and safe interoperability between personal and public networks, making certain Maersk clients’ cargo is reliably monitored at sea, port, or land. That is particularly vital for monitoring parameters equivalent to temperature and humidity for fruit and different perishables.”
In the meantime, US-based Zededa mentioned it’s supplying an edge computing platform to the undertaking to take care of normal seafaring challenges with distant places, intermittent connectivity, and restricted on-board IT experience. It mentioned: “It permits Maersk to deploy and handle any utility on any edge machine, throughout its fleet, all from a centralized management level. This implies Maersk can now roll out new purposes remotely, replace current ones over the air, and preserve excessive efficiency requirements, with out the necessity for technical employees on each vessel.”
