An IoT Sensor Network Framework for Real-Time Pharmaceutical Cold-Chain Custody Tracking

I. INTRODUCTION

Centralised track-and-trace databases for pharmaceuticals create a single point of failure and depend on custody events being logged manually and consistently at every handoff, whereas an IoT sensor network with RFID-tagged nodes and automated edge gateways can capture custody transfer and temperature events continuously without manual intervention.

II. METHODOLOGY

An IoT sensor network was configured with five distribution nodes representing a manufacturer, two distributors, a regulator checkpoint and a pharmacy chain, each equipped with RFID readers and temperature loggers reporting to a local edge gateway over MQTT. Gateway rule logic recorded batch creation, custody transfer, and temperature-log events, with an embedded rule rejecting transfers where logged temperature exceeded product-specific thresholds.

III. RESULTS AND EVALUATION

The network sustained 1,200 custody events per minute with average end-to-end reporting latency of 0.7 seconds under simulated load representative of a mid-sized distribution network, and genealogy queries tracing a batch full custody history returned results in under 200 milliseconds regardless of chain depth up to 12 hops tested.

IV. CONCLUSION

IoT sensor network infrastructure can support pharmaceutical traceability at throughput levels compatible with real distribution networks while enforcing cold-chain compliance automatically. Future work will pilot integration with existing ERP systems at a mid-sized distributor.

V. REFERENCES