Equipment such as heavy tractors and mine trucks now carry enormous computing power onboard, enabling engineers and technicians to monitor vehicle health, perform preventative maintenance, analyse and control payload, and integrate the machine into a wider civil engineering project, such as exploiting a mine or building a road.
 
 

Where equipment is operating within range of terrestrial 3G and 4G mobile telecom networks, this data is constantly streamed off the machine and beamed via the Internet or a private network to a central engineering control office that can be located anywhere in the world. But in areas beyond the reach of terrestrial networks, the data from mobile equipment can presently only be reliably delivered via satellite at very low data rates suitable for voice or text, which are not broad enough to handle the large amounts of data that are required to maintain maximum productivity from the equipment.

The EstrellaSat EMDP service will address this gap.
 
 
Operational Scenario
 
A logical scenario for a heavy equipment application is where heavy equipment is operating at a remote mine site. The local equipment dealer has maintenance personnel at or near the site. Polling identifies a potential equipment problem that may imminently cause expensive equipment stand-down, and with a technical problem that can only be solved by an engineer based off-site. Currently, the engineer would need to travel to the remote mine site in order to assist the on-site technicians in solving the problem.
 
Example 1

With EMDP the on-site technician, using a laptop computer wirelessly connected via 802.11 to a satellite modem in the cabin of the machine, can communicate in real time with an engineer located off-site. Simple, easy to use and publicly available Internet systems such as Skype can be used. The technician has a web-cam attached to the laptop, and uses a headphone and microphone headset to leave his hands free. The off-site engineer can both see the problem and talk in real-time to the technician, and can immediately use the Internet to transfer specific written technical instructions, diagrams and illustrations to the on-site technician's laptop based on his diagnosis. A useful analogy is the common scenario of a medical surgeon based in Europe or the United States using the Internet to participate in a difficult real-time surgical procedure on the other side of the world.
 
Example 2

With the complexity of on-board diagnostic and other systems increasing all the time, EMDP broadband allows real-time remote access via satellite to far more of the onboard systems than can be achieved with existing mobile satellite systems, and is a reliable remote areas addition to terrestrial 3G mobile networks. Using broadband access, engineers at HQ can gain remote access to the machine and service the machine’s electronic systems without any intervention or physical assistance from the machine operator or field engineering staff.
 
Example 3

Broadband access to the machine potentially allows remote control using video, infrared and GPS by an operator located anywhere in the world via the Internet or via the enterprise’s own systems.
 
 
Economic Value

Significant cost savings can be achieved both in shortening the time required to get a machine back into service after an equipment problem, and in reducing the number of occasions that a high value engineer needs to travel to remote sites from either regional or global headquarters. Because the EstrellaSat system is a private and a specifically enterprise system, significant competitive advantage can also be achieved when competitors cannot use a similar system.
 
 
Global System

The EstrellaSat system will be a global one, with access via satellites throughout the world.