Hybrid IoT network for real-time monitoring of maritime containers

Monitoring and traceability of maritime containers is challenging due to extreme environmental conditions and communication limitations at sea. This work presents an Internet of Things (IoT) architecture integrated with low Earth orbit satellites for real-time maritime container monitoring. Unlike traditional systems that focus solely on geolocation, the proposed solution supports internal condition tracking—such as temperature and door status—through onboard sensors. Two satellite communication models, indirect-to-satellite (ItS) and direct-to-satellite (DtS) along with two random access protocols (pure ALOHA and slotted ALOHA), to assess their energy efficiency, scalability, and communication reliability for LoRaWAN-based container networks are analyzed and compared. To validate the system, simulations of revisit times, visibility windows, and message capacity are detailed, encompassing five realistic maritime scenarios. Finally, a practical feasibility assessment is provided, addressing hardware constraints, energy consumption, satellite link parameters, and regulatory and cybersecurity considerations. The results demonstrate that, with optimal constellation configurations and communication parameters, it is possible to achieve global coverage, low latency, and a scalable capacity to integrate IoT nodes into maritime networks.