Managing a network not located in the same place as your corporate headquarters is a challenge. You need the distribution of the workforce to better compete in the market, but you also need to ensure all users are online at all times. Short of putting an expert IT team at every location, how do you ensure your uptime exceeds that of your competitors? Out of band management may just have the answer.
Simply managing multiple locations is one thing. What if you also had to manage locations that rarely stayed in one place? This was the challenge for Pennsylvania-based Brookville Equipment Corp when it set out to supply new and remanufactured locomotives. The company won a contract in February of 2011 to supply Tri-Rail commuter services with 10 BL36PH passenger locomotives.
In this business, optimal operations are not dependent upon the performance of the app or the network supporting the corporate email systems. Instead, locomotives have to meet with specific emissions standards while still performing as expected. In this particular case, the systems on the locomotives are managed by a digital Traction & Engine Control Unit provided by TMV Control Systems to ensure the BL36PH would align correctly with Tier 4 standards.
One critical factor in the performance of the locomotive is the state of the exhaust filter. If it happens to get plugged, emissions compliance deteriorates quickly. To ensure a proactive approach to keeping the filter clear, a control unit was put in place to monitor the state of the filters and transmit information remotely if a filter needed to be changed. At the same time, the filters needed to be monitored in real-time, regardless of their location.
As such, these locomotives were prime candidates for out of band management to automate the process of gathering data on the whole fleet. This significantly reduced the time needed to access maintenance information and fault logs. The ultimate goal was to reduce the time between problem initiation and awareness so that operators or maintenance staff could address the issue in a timely manner. This required remote monitoring across long distances, varying geography and through secure transmissions. To accomplish this goal, Opengear (News - Alert) was brought in with its remote monitoring equipment.
Opengear’s out of band management equipment offered built-in 3G cellular connectivity and OpenVPN support for locomotive integration. As long as there is a mobile phone signal, the locomotives can transmit information anywhere, allowing Tri-Rail to monitor its locomotives regardless of location to better track and service any locomotive.
Regardless of the asset in question, providing the ability to monitor it across the miles is critical to ensure optimal uptime and performance. In doing so, Tri-Rail not only ensures its locomotives meet emissions standards, but they also protect their investment by addressing the issue before it becomes a problem.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson