Key features of an onboard IoT platform
This white paper is created for executives, vessel owners, operators, and maritime industry professionals who are navigating the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in maritime operations. In our previous white papers we explored how to craft a successful vessel data strategy, as well as how to succeed with maritime digitalization. In this white paper, we offer a practical guide to what criteria you must assess when choosing an EDGE solution. You will get an overview of the key considerations you must make and how to evaluate whether the solution you are reviewing will meet your requirements today, as well as tomorrow. By reading this guide, stakeholders will be better equipped to develop requests for information or proposals, create comprehensive vendor assessment reviews, and prepare questions for vendor interviews. By following the recommendations, you will be able to future-proof your EDGE, becoming a data-driven maritime leader.
Introduction
The path to decarbonization starts with digitization. By using operational vessel data to optimize your fleet management, you can reduce emissions immediately. However, achieving this requires an EDGE solution that seamlessly connects to any data source onboard and provides a reliable, high-quality data feed.
An EDGE solution acts as a middle layer between your onboard systems and IoT devices, and the cloud platform where the data is stored onshore. It performs three primary functions:
- connecting to data sources
- processing and managing data locally
- making the data available in the cloud for analytics and specialized software solutions
Choosing the right EDGE solution requires understanding its nuances and ensuring that it meets your core requirements. Below are the key characteristics to consider for a future-proof EDGE solution.
The characteristics of a future-proof EDGE solution
System and vendor agnostic
Your EDGE solution must be independent of systems and vendors, allowing you to choose any sensor or system onboard and connect to any system across a heterogeneous fleet of ships. Avoid locking yourself into a specific vendor, system, or protocol-dependent EDGE solution that limits your choice of how to use the EDGE to serve your data needs on both existing and newly built vessels. This flexibility ensures that as technology evolves, you can integrate new systems without significant overhauls or compatibility issues.
Scalable and flexible
Your preferred EDGE solution should scale with your needs and run on different onboard hardware platforms or even within your existing IT infrastructure. As your fleet grows or your operational requirements change, the EDGE platform should seamlessly expand its capabilities to serve your future needs. This includes the ability to integrate additional data sources, increase data processing power, and adapt to new regulatory requirements.
Autonomous operation
Your EDGE solution must be able to function autonomously without connectivity, managing data capture locally for extended periods. It should also upload buffered data and install patches and software updates automatically when connectivity is restored. This autonomy is crucial for ensuring continuous operation during long voyages where connectivity may be intermittent or entirely absent.
Solid local buffering
Your EDGE solution should have ample local data storage to handle poor or missing connectivity and insufficient or costly bandwidth. It should also be able to automatically select whether to transmit or store data based on your preferences. This capability ensures that no critical data is lost during periods of connectivity loss and that data integrity is maintained irrespective of the bandwidth conditions. The solution should also be flexible enough to allow for tailoring the local storage capacity to your specific use cases.
Calculation and rule engine
Your EDGE solution must support the development and deployment of custom rules or calculations, such as the calculation of averages, the combination of time series using formulas, or the construction of new time series based on raw data observations. These rules and calculations should be customizable at the vessel level and updatable remotely and on the fly. This enables real-time data analytics and decision-making onboard the vessel. It also enables the development of hybrid or aggregated datapoints, for instance through down-sampling, averages, or the formulaic calculation of results.
Local applications
Your EDGE solution must support local applications running on the EDGE, leveraging real-time OT data from onboard systems and IoT devices. These applications should include analytics dashboards or machine learning algorithms and be deployable and manageable remotely. The EDGE solution should also share data locally onboard through APIs or an MQTT broker to enable widespread usage. This enhances the operational efficiency and decision-making process directly onboard.
Technology agnostic
Your EDGE solution must be agnostic to the communication protocols used by systems and IoT devices, allowing for a wide range of communication protocols and carriers including ModBus, CanBus, OPC UA, MQTT, or wireless LoRaWAN. This ensures compatibility with a wide range of current and future devices, protecting your investment from obsolescence as technology evolves.
Availability and reliability
Your EDGE solution should come with rich monitoring and alerting functionality allowing for observability of any issues related to the health of the EDGE unit, runtime, or connectivity, and be able to self-detect and self-heal, automatically rebooting or restarting, or even reverting to previous software versions, as needed. High availability and reliability are critical for ensuring that data streams remain uninterrupted, and that the system recovers quickly from any failures.
Remote management and update
Your EDGE solution should be 100% remotely configured, monitored, and managed to support vessels sailing globally. This allows for centralized control and updates, reducing the need for onboard technical expertise and ensuring that all vessels operate with the latest software versions and security patches.
Data quality
Your EDGE solution must ensure data integrity and continuously monitor data quality to proactively identify and mitigate quality issues. High data quality is essential for accurate analytics and decision-making, and proactive monitoring helps maintain the trustworthiness of the data collected.
Vessel data as a service
Your EDGE solution provider must be committed to delivering vessel data as a service with an SLA and KPI-based remuneration based on performance, to ensure that you can trust the data to be available when you need it. This service-oriented approach guarantees that the data is reliable, and that the provider is accountable for its performance. A future-proof EDGE is not merely hardware or software, but the operational capabilities of the team offering the service of reliable, high-quality data.
Support and troubleshooting
Your EDGE solution provider must offer continuous monitoring, proactive global support, and troubleshooting to ensure swift restoration of the data feed you rely on. Reliable support services ensure that any issues are quickly addressed, minimizing downtime and maintaining operational efficiency.
Secure by design
All these features must address and comply with strict cybersecurity concerns. As vessels become more connected, the risk of cyber-attacks increases. A robust EDGE solution will incorporate multiple layers of security, including data encryption, secure authentication mechanisms, and regular security updates to protect against threats.
Conclusion: think holistically
To future-proof your EDGE solution, you need to think holistically and retain the flexibility to meet current needs while being able to capture new opportunities, all with the same infrastructure. Thinking holistically today, and choosing your EDGE solution based on the above recommendations, will enable you to quickly adapt in the future when new needs arise, without having to rethink (or re-invest in) your entire EDGE infrastructure across your fleet.
By considering these characteristics and ensuring your EDGE solution meets these criteria, you can optimize your fleet's operational efficiency, ensure data integrity, and maintain the flexibility to adapt to future technological advancements and regulatory changes.
About Raa Labs
Raa Labs provides vessel data infrastructure for the maritime industry, the independent data layer beneath applications that captures, standardises, and delivers vessel operational data reliably at fleet scale. Working with leading global fleet operators, Raa Labs enables fleets to trust their data in everyday processes and decisions. Raa Labs is based in Norway and is part of the Wilhelmsen Group.