Standards Development

Scope

This technical specification specifies the system composition, data format (storage data of the seal, interaction data and format between seal and APP, interaction data and format between smartphone APP and platform, data exchanged between platforms), technical requirements, data communication requirements and operation requirements of container NFC seals, QR code seals, NFC and QR code seals.

This technical specification applies to the design, manufacture and application of freight container NFC seals, QR code seals, NFC and QR code seals.

Purpose

For container seals, ISO has published ISO 17712 (Freight containers - Mechanical seals) and ISO 18185 suite standards (Freight containers - Electronic seals). To ensure safety, seals specified are non-reusable to evidence tampering or intrusion through the doors of a container during the transportation.

ISO 18185 suite standards are designed to provide long-distance, automatic-reading container electronic seal solutions at 433MHz and 2.4GHz. However, various issues exist, such as the high usage cost of electronic seals and dedicated handset, difficulties in popularizing the installation of fixed readers, and the unsolved fixed readers’ anti-collision problem of automatically reading when multiple containers exist at the same time. Because of these reasons, some problems were encountered in the promotion.

Mechanical seals, which are still widely used, are extremely easy to counterfeit and cannot carry information. As a result, the security of container transportation cannot be guaranteed. Theft, baggage, smuggling and illegal immigration have occurred almost every day in countries all over the world. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, the annual loss of container cargo in the world is as high as 30-50 billion US dollarsA speech by Professor Gisele Bennett from Georgia Tech at the TC104 SC4 WG2 meeting, September 30-October 2, 2013 in Atlanta, USA. 39 bodies discovered 23 October 2019 in a truck container in Essex southeast England once again shocked the world (REUTERS: The 39 people found dead in truck near London, October 24,2019).

If someone replaces a mechanical seal, it is exceedingly difficult to verify the authenticity of the counterfeit, to trace the truth and to hold accountability for container operators.

In addition, the mechanical seal number, without an automatic identification function, requires manual recording and entry every time installed. During transportation, inefficient manual comparison of the seal number through visual observation, will create transcription errors and high labour costs. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt new technologies to better define the transfer responsibility, to give seals uniqueness, and to make the process monitoring and rapid identification possible. This technical specification proposes a new solution for container NFC or/and QR code seals, which can use smartphones to quickly identify and verify container seals, so that container transportation related information can access the Internet quickly.

This proposal includes NFC seal, QR code seal, NFC and QR code seal.

1.Principles

1.1 The NFC seal is a seal embedded NFC tag in mechanical seal. NFC is a short-distance high-frequency wireless communication technology that allows non-contact point-to-point data transmission (within ten centimetres) to exchange data between electronic devices. Its reading and writing are performed by a radio frequency field when a smartphone or device with NFC function close to the tag. Although it is a passive NFC tag, it is high anti-counterfeiting. On the one hand, the NFC chip has a unique UID in the world, which has been written into the chip when manufactured. On the other hand, some NFC chips also have a tamper-proof function. Taking NTag213TT (figure 1) for example (see annex), it has the detection wire, which is detecting the status of a tag tamper wire during the activation. In case of an open detection wire, the NT ag213TT permanently stores this event. Information status of the tag tamper wire can be mirrored in ASCII code into the user memory which contains the NDEF message or can be read with a dedicated command. This will improve seal’s anti-counterfeiting performance when manufacture.

1.1.2 QR code seal is a seal printed with QR code on the surface of mechanical seal. QR code uses a number of geometric shapes corresponding to the binary system to represent text and numerical information, which can be automatically read by image input equipment or photoelectric scanning equipment to realize automatic information processing. The QR code seal can be read by a smartphone, and the seal can be quickly connected to the Internet.

1.1.3 NFC and QR code seal is to print QR code on the surface of NFC seal. The seal manufacturer prints the UID, seal ID and manufacturer ID in NFC seal in the form of a QR code on the surface. At present, when NFC function has not been fully configured on the smartphone, an NFC seal printed a QR code is a supplement to the only NFC function seal, enabling the seal has technical advantages of both. 2 Operations: These three types of seals are optional. They need smartphones to interact with platform for information interaction and security certification. Platform must set status of the seal according to the operation: unused, sealed, inspected, opened, abnormal, to achieve the anti-counterfeiting authentication. Use APP to read the seal at close range, and the location, operator, photo or video information will be uploaded to a related platform/user interface at the same time. The specific operations are as follows:

1.2.1 Operations of NFC seal a. When the seal is manufactured, necessary information is written in the NFC tag and locked: seal ID and manufacturer ID, chip UID of the NFC tag (the UID is a unique ID in the world, written by the chip manufacturer). They are the basis for seal security authentication and information exchange.

b. When sealing, operator needs to get authentication through the smartphone APP, then authorized operator, who is authorized by the cargo owner or an agent or carrier representing the cargo owner (same as below), uses the smartphone to read the information in the seal and chip UID, seal ID and manufacturer ID will be uploaded automatically to a platform. And the verification and pre-recording operation are finished. Currently, the status of the seal on platform is unused. After the pre-recording, type in the container ID into the NFC seal and lock it through APP. Take a photo (at least one of the fronts, which can clearly show the seal number and location of the seal). The smartphone automatically uploads the sealed container ID, time, location, operator, photo and other information to the platform and complete sealing operation. At this time, the status of the seal on the platform is sealed.

c. At the unpacking point, operator firstly checks the integrity of seal’s appearance, and after getting authentication through APP, the authorized operator uses the smartphone to read the information in the seal: chip UID, seal ID, manufacturer ID and container ID. APP will upload them to platform, automatically verify the relevant information stored in the platform to determine the authenticity of the seal. After the verification, the time, place, operator, and photo of the sealing operation will be displayed on APP for comparison by the unpacking personnel. After confirming, the unpacking operation can be carried out. After taking a photo (at least one on the front, which can clearly display the seal number and location of the seal), information will be uploaded automatically to platform for storage: location, operator, and photo. At this time, the status of the seal on the platform is “opened”.

d. In process of container transportation, user’s needs of knowing information of the logistics node can be realized through inspection operation, which is optional. Authorized operator uses smartphone to read the information in the seal: chip UID, seal ID, manufacturer ID, and container ID, which will be uploaded to platform, and verified with the relevant information stored to determine the authenticity of the seal. Then inspection operation could be carried out. Take a photo (at least one on the fronts, which can clearly display the seal number and location of the seal), and the smartphone will upload automatically the inspection time, location, operator, photo, and other information to platform, completing the inspection operation. At this time, the status of the seal on platform is inspected. Multiple inspections will form a logistics track.

e. When operator finds the integrity of the seal has been damaged, such as physical damage or the inability to read by a smartphone, operator could submit the abnormal state of the seal to a platform through the smartphone according to the container ID, then platform reports related parties an alarm. At this time, the state of the seal on platform is abnormal.

Platform is a prerequisite to above operations. It is not a certain one. Users can choose different platforms. Data is stored in a distributed manner. The most basic information is exchanged between platforms, including the internal information of NFC seals (chip UID, seal ID, Manufacturer ID, container ID) and NFC seal status information (unused, sealed, inspected, opened, abnormal). Uniqueness of the seal can be verified by this exchanged information, while user's sensitive logistics information is still stored in user's platform without sharing. Therefore, such a system is no longer a closed system. The basic information sharing of platforms can be called through the API interface and realized in the form of broadcast.

1.2.2 Operations of QR code seal: A QR code is an image with a large amount of information, up to tens of thousands of bytes. It can be quickly read by smartphone and connect the information to Internet. Therefore, QR code seal can realize the accurate identification of the seal information and eliminate the error rate of manual operation. Different from NFC seals, the unique confirmation of QR code seal needs to be realized by a dedicated platform database. Multiple platforms will be put into use, and the operation process is similar to that of NFC seals.

1.2.3 Operations of NFC and QR code seal: When sealing and unpacking, the uniqueness of the seal needs to be confirmed through NFC function; as to transportation, the QR code can be scanned to realize information interaction with the platform, such as inspection operations. The operation of NFC and QR code seal brings more choices to users.

1.3. Comparison See in annex Table 1 Comparison of mechanical seal, electronic seal, NFC seal, QR code seal, NFC and QR code seal. In summary, NFC and QR code could have advantages that other technologies do not have, though they cannot realize automatic reading from a long distance. In the case that it is difficult to revise for ISO 17712 and ISO 18185 to cover all seals’ operation scenes, there is a necessity to develop a new technical specification that is different from mechanical seals and electronic seals. The new technical specification for freight container- NFC seals will be a useful complement to seal standards, as well as a guide for application.

2.Reasons In the era of digital economy, compare to the booming internet-enabled industries, the way of sealing, identifying and information acquisition are the same that we used ten years ago, together with the standards a decade before. With the development of mobile Internet and the popularization of smartphones, QR code and NFC technology have been widely used in various fields such as information acquisition, Internet connection, electronic vouchers, and security traceability. Their advantages such as large information storage capacity, low-cost wide application range and strong fault tolerance, provide new possibilities for the widespread application of NFC and QR code for containers.

2.1 Technical-level Advancement

2.1.1 With increasing maturity and popularization of the mobile Internet technology, it is possible to enable interconnection quickly and easily between freight container seals and the system by NFC and QR code, thus realizing information identification and interaction.

2.1.2 After an NFC chip is embedded into the seal, the UID of the chip will be pre-recorded into the system platform. In the transportation process, the system will automatically check information of the seal carries, which ensures the uniqueness of the seal, and thus overcomes defect of that the mechanical seal is easily counterfeited. It will facilitate container transportation node and door seal information to get quickly access to the Internet and automatically integration into the container information system, thereby the information level of container transportation could be improved.

2.2 Operational level Progress

2.2.1 A smartphone or any similar device (here and after “smartphone”) can be used for NFC and QR code reading. Noticeably when the current NFC function has not been fully configured on the smartphone, the NFC and QR code combined seal can not only be verified by NFC’s feature of high security when sealing and unpacking, but also can realize the rapid rapid identification and access of information to the Internet through QR code by smartphones. Users could choose APP and system platform of any IoT company by themselves.

According to the description of A 1(2.1), as long as the platform adopts unified international standards and can store the most basic information exchanged. Then authenticity of the seal can be verified, and the required information interaction can be achieved. Each time the logistics data collected by APP (time, location, operator, photo or video, etc.) is stored in the system platform corresponding to the APP. This system platform does not need to be unique, there can be multiple. But the platform is up to the user’s choose, manage and control yourself. This technical specification only regulates the basic information of the seal and the state information of the seal.

2.2.2 Through NFC reading of the seal, a smartphone with various functions can easily realize the basic function of the seal and expand further, including automatic acquisition of relevant information: status, operation time, position, operators, etc. Thus, users can trace the tampered interval and the relevant time and location. Therefore, it improves the informatization level of container transport.

2.2.3 Container NFC or/and QR code seals are conducive to clarifying the transfer accountability during transportation. At present, both container shipping and multimodal transportation use close-range visual inspection of mechanical seals to define cargo handling accountability. NFC or/and QR code seals prove an efficient way to define accountability, to speed up handover process, to eliminate human error, and to realize electronic and paperless service.

2.3 Economical-level Improvement

2.3.1 Broad application prospects. Smartphones and cloud platforms have provided broad application prospects for NFC or/and QR code seals. Users can enhance the security and informatization of container transport without changing the existing container management system and instead just adding the NFC seal information by purchasing an NFC seal or print QR code on seals. This will get real-time information automatically integration into the container information system and improve transport security. In view of the above, with the new trend, it could be assumed, that a new NFC or/and QR code seal technical specification will be compliant with the need for container transport node tracking, safety tracing and real-time information automatically integration.

3 Applications A technical specification must be tested in practice before it is widely accepted. In recent years, NFC seals have been tested and applied on the global scale. China has conducted extensive research and practice on NFC seals. They as been applied in inspection and quarantine, ports, domestic trade container transportation, dangerous goods transportation, petrochemical industry, energy transportation, food and daily chemical products transportation, logistics and express delivery. Chinese delegation is willing contribute to the working group by sharing its experience and research results. China accounts for about 70% of the world's container seal production. Among them, some big manufacturers have begun mass production of NFC and QR code seals. According to statistics, nearly 6 million electronic seals have been sold to the United States, Europe, Canada, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, India, Brazil and other countries, and the order volume has increased year by year. The application of QR code seals has also been widely carried out in countries such as China and Germany, and the gradual adoption of NFC or/and QR code seals laid the foundation for the development of new technical specification. ISO 18185 specifies an electronic seal that is automatically read by a fixed reader and handset.

This proposal specifies an NFC or/and QR code seal that is manually read by a smartphone, which will be a strong complement of ISO 18185. The new technical specification will give users a new choice for the booming container shipping, multimodal transport and container logistics. It is believed that NFC or/and QR code seals will gain high popularity among users. China calls for ISO TC104/SC 4/WG 2 members to join the effort in defining this technical specification for NFC or/and QR code seals.

4. Data Security This technical specification shall specify the system composition and data format of container NFC seals, QR code seals, NFC and QR code seals (storage data of the seal, interaction data and format FORM 4 – New Work Item Proposal Version 02/2019between seal and APP, interaction data and format between smartphone APP and platform, data exchanged between platforms), technical requirements, data communication requirements and operation requirements, used for container NFC or/and QR code seals’ design, manufacture and application. The stored data of NFC seal include at least: NFC chip UID, seal ID, manufacturer ID; stored data on QR code of the QR code seal includes at least: the unique QR code number, seal ID, manufacturer ID; stored data of NFC and QR code seal includes at least: NFC chip UID, seal ID, manufacturer ID, and the external QR code should be the same as the data stored in the NFC tag.

These data can be encrypted or unencrypted, and the information transmission can be either in cipher text or in plain text. For example, at present, the seal ID is printed on the surface of the mechanical seal. This technical specification may also raise the issue of security measures for stored data, such as data encryption, data transmission encryption, platform data security encryption, etc. These contents to be included upon decision of the working group.