How Nauticomm and TEKTELIC Improve Offshore Cargo Visibility with LoRaWAN®

By TEKTELICLast Updated: July 28, 2026

How Nauticomm and TEKTELIC Improve Offshore Cargo Visibility with LoRaWAN®

Summary

In offshore logistics, knowing exactly where every Cargo Carrying Unit (CCU) is — on which vessel, at which installation, or sitting on a shore base is the difference between a smooth supply run and costly delays.

Baskets, containers, tanks, and skips move constantly between supply bases, transport vessels, and offshore platforms, and each handover is an opportunity to lose track of an asset.

For oil & gas, offshore wind, marine, and drilling operators, that lost visibility is expensive. It means wasted vessel time, misplaced equipment, hours of manual reconciliation, and added safety and compliance risk. The hard part is that these cargo units have no power or signal of their own, and the moment a vessel leaves the quay, normal cellular and Wi-Fi coverage disappears.

Nauticomm Thailand developed an offshore asset-tracking solution designed specifically for the realities of marine operations. The company selected TEKTELIC's LoRaWAN® infrastructure as the foundation of the deployment, combining rugged onboard tracking devices, reliable vessel connectivity, and its own real-time location software.

Continue reading to see how the project came together, from the challenge to why TEKTELIC was selected to the value it delivers.

The challenge

Offshore operators need to answer simple questions reliably:

Which CCUs are on this vessel right now? Which ones were offloaded at the platform? What's still waiting at the shore base?

In practice, these questions are hard to answer because:

Assets are unpowered and mobile. CCUs have no onboard power or communications of their own, yet they're constantly transferred between vessels, installations, and bases.

Offshore has no terrestrial coverage. Cellular and Wi-Fi don't reach far past the coast, so any tracking system has to keep working with no shore-based network in range.

The environment is demanding. Salt spray, vibration, weather, and, on oil & gas sites, potentially explosive atmospheres rule out consumer-grade hardware and require certified equipment.

Manual processes don't scale. Clipboard inventories and radio check-ins are slow, error-prone, and provide no real-time picture of where assets actually are.

The solution

Nauticomm developed an offshore logistics and asset-tracking system for CCUs (cargo-carrying units) — one built to operate in exactly the conditions where conventional connectivity breaks down.

The solution uses TEKTELIC's PELICAN as the reader on the transport vessel. Each CCU carries a rugged, battery-powered Bluetooth® asset tag that broadcasts a unique ID. Operating in BLE scanning mode, the PELICAN detects nearby tags, captures each one's ID and signal strength, and sends the collected information through LoRaWAN®. Because the PELICAN is low-power and purpose-built for difficult RF environments, it performs reliably in the steel-heavy, vibration-prone setting of a working deck.

The TEKTELIC KONA Enterprise gateway receives this data and anchors the vessel-based LoRaWAN® network. Nauticomm selected the KONA Enterprise because an offshore vessel is one of the harshest places to mount a gateway, and the unit is built for it: a fully integrated IP67 design with optimized connector placement seals out salt spray and water ingress, integrated 18 kA lightning and surge protection guards against the strikes that exposed vessels and platforms attract, and a wide operating range with 10–100% condensing humidity tolerance handles constant marine moisture and temperature swings.

Just as importantly, its built-in LoRa, GPS, and cellular antennas mean there are no external components to corrode, work loose under vibration, or fail in the field, making it faster to install and far more dependable once deployed. From there, the aggregated CCU data is sent back to shore through Nauticomm's satellite communication system.

Key benefits

With the system in place, our client gained continuous, automated visibility of their cargo units across the whole journey between shore base, vessel, and offshore installation. In day-to-day operations, it helps to:

See assets automatically, in real time — replacing clipboard inventories with a live picture, with no manual scanning or check-ins.

Stay covered beyond the coast, where cellular isn't available, thanks to LoRaWAN® on the vessel and satellite backhaul to shore.

Reduce lost and misplaced assets — and the cost and delay that come with them.

Operate safely in hazardous zones with certified hardware.

Cut time spent on manual reconciliation and reporting.

Scale from one vessel to a full fleet on the same setup, without redesigning the system.

Why LoRaWAN® and satellite for offshore tracking

Offshore environments present unique challenges for asset tracking. Cargo Carrying Units often have no onboard power, move frequently between locations, and operate far beyond the reach of conventional communication networks.

LoRaWAN® provides an efficient way to collect information from large numbers of tagged assets without requiring wired infrastructure or frequent battery replacement. At the same time, satellite connectivity enables that information to be transmitted back to shore, even when vessels are operating far from land.

By combining LoRaWAN® infrastructure, satellite communications, and Nauticomm's software platform, operators gain a reliable way to monitor asset movements across the offshore supply chain and maintain visibility from shore base to offshore installation.

Conclusion

Offshore asset tracking presents unique challenges, from limited connectivity and harsh environmental conditions to the constant movement of equipment between vessels and offshore facilities. By combining TEKTELIC's LoRaWAN® infrastructure with satellite communications and Nauticomm's tracking platform, operators gain a practical and scalable way to maintain visibility of Cargo Carrying Units throughout the supply chain.

The solution helps reduce manual processes, improve asset accountability, and provide teams with timely information about the movement of critical equipment. Most importantly, it demonstrates how offshore organizations can extend asset visibility far beyond the shoreline, improving operational efficiency and supporting better decision-making across marine, offshore wind, drilling, and oil & gas operations.

As offshore operations continue to grow in complexity, solutions like this provide a reliable foundation for smarter logistics, better asset utilization, and greater control over critical resources wherever they operate.