So with the rising costs of fuel affecting various shipping industries. The viability of a strong rail system is more valuable than ever. Today we will review one of the tracking mechanisms used by this our rail system called RailNet AEI (Automatic Equipment ID).

From the Company Website:

“SAIC’s RailNet^® Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) reader system identifies rail equipment by reading electronically coded radio frequency identification (RFID) tags mounted to locomotives, railcars, trailers, end-of-train units and intermodal containers”

In its simplest form this system uses RFID tags mounted on rail cars and RFID stations that pick up and forward this information to the rail systems NOC.

Since it is possible to actually purchase some of these devices directly from the manufacturer I hope to be able to dig up more details info on the specs of these devices. Specifically the types of encryption used and any reverse engineering done on the software itself.  They may also offer some type of developmental kit for plugins as they hint on their website.

In combination with the new Next Generation AEI Version 5.0 software, SAIC’s RailNet product becomes a platform upon which new applications can be rapidly prototyped and deployed.

This seems like an interesting topic and we will revisit this soon stay tuned..

It should also be noted that a recent security breach by the developer itself could also play a role in the overall security of these rail system devices.