PANYNJ recently awarded a contract to Impeva Labs as part of the federal Operation Safe Commerce (OSC) Phase III. Iridium and Impeva Labs, an Iridium value-added manufacturer and reseller, have collaborated during the past four years in several platforms and products.

This phase of field trials of Impeva's Global Sentinel system, which utilizes the Iridium constellation for global communications, will begin in December 2005.

"Effective monitoring of container location and condition for the PANYNJ can only be done through a reliable, wireless communications network," said Greg Ewert, executive vice president, Iridium Satellite.

"Impeva Labs has proven once more that they can deliver advanced solutions with highly effective use of Iridium's communications infrastructure and resources. We congratulate Impeva Labs as the front-runner in their achievements to date, and are looking forward to supporting their needs in providing the first ubiquitous communication system for intermodal shipping, resulting in a continuous chain of custody for vital global supply chains."

"The Impeva Labs team has intimate knowledge of how best to leverage the Iridium communication network," said Tony Moroyan, chairman and CEO, Impeva Labs. "We are very excited to take our relationship to yet another phase, supporting an historic effort through the PANYNJ program. Iridium adds further to our arsenal of communication resources by providing world-wide coverage."

The Impeva Global Sentinel and Impeva Device Management Center (DVC) system goes far beyond port-of-entry security, providing access to real-time data reports to logistics managers for even the most complex supply chains.

Through the Iridium system and Impeva Labs' cutting edge technology, logistics managers will be able to monitor the location, security and internal conditions of assets in transit, anywhere and any time. Added-value factors include reduced shrinkage, lower insurance premiums and enhanced logistics management efficiency.

"Not only is this a major security factor for the PANYNJ," Moroyan continues, "This system will help improve supply chain efficiencies and logistics management. Ultimately organizations can use our system for complete supply chain visibility."

The PANYNJ contract to validate the Impeva system is part of Operation Safe Commerce (OSC), a U.S. Department of Homeland Security program trialing technology and commercial practices to make container shipping safer. PANYNJ is concentrating on testing internal sensor technology that tracks and reports a container's global location and detects if someone breaks into the box in transit.

Of specific interest to PANYNJ is the ability to use sensors, intelligent processing and wireless communication systems to receive reports on the global location and condition of containers.

The Impeva system securely notifies the PANYNJ within minutes of a container experiencing an abnormal event -- unauthorized entry, mishandling, environmental extremes, route deviation or unscheduled delay -- regardless of location.

PANYNJ will work with two companies in Germany and Jordan to "stress test" the Impeva system for reliability and effectiveness by having these firms use Impeva's Global Sentinel security module on their container shipments. The port hopes to use the Impeva system to evaluate at least 1,000 container loads over the next year.

The Impeva monitoring system is based on the Global Sentinel, a rugged wireless module that mounts easily inside containers. The module is capable of integrating a variety of sensor types and a GPS receiver as well as intelligently processing sensor data and event identification.

For the PANYNJ testing, Iridium's constellation of 66 low-earth orbiting satellites will be one of the primary means of global data transmission besides multi-band cellular and wireless LAN. The Global Sentinel communicates securely with the Impeva Device Management Center (DMC) to provide immediate and continuous reporting of location, condition and security status as required, without deployment of costly infrastructure.

The first OSC phase in June 2002 tracked a single container as it made its way along international trade lanes from Slovakia to New Hampshire. The Department of Homeland Security announced the second phase of OSC in November 2002 and that phase tested a variety of approaches.

The OSC is now in Phase III of its testing program, focusing on the most promising solutions and development of international container security standards. In planning Phase III, a task force of U.S. government agencies identified twelve (12) discrete technical questions to be answered by field-testing.

All systems offered for Phase III have endured rigorous testing by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. Phase III is intended to result in information that policy- makers can use as well as a return-on-investment for shippers.

"We hope supply chain security will some day be a requirement for everyone in our industry," said Beth Rooney, manager, port security, PANYNJ. "We are in the process of rigorously testing what we envision as an easy-to- implement, international standard for continuous custody and knowledge of any commercial container shipment's condition and security."

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