Investigation on wireless communication for sensors in IoT cold chain

Thermal monitoring is a key requirement for cold chain management. In this context, the Internet of Things (IoT) offers new opportunities for dense and/or large-scale deployment of sensors, which need to collect data to effectively control the cooling system. Various technologies are used for data transmission. Although Bluetooth is widely exploited for transmitting data in IoT applications, its use in the cold chain management is rare. In this paper, the architecture of an IoT temperature monitoring system is studied and the technological choices of its components are analyzed and compared. In particular, the paper focuses on IoT node boards with Bluetooth, in order to highlight the opportunities of a currently undervalued technology. A theoretical analysis highlights its benefits for the application context and evaluates its suitability for monitoring systems suitable for cold rooms. The theoretical results are supported by an experimental analysis based on the implementation of different systems.