Penteon partners with hiSky to supply satellite-based M2M and IOT for heavy industry. Photo: Pixabay.

Penteon Corporation and hiSky have announced a partnership to jointly supply satellite-based Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) solutions for enterprise and heavy industry. Integrating hiSky’s portable satellite terminals with Penteon’s industrial remote sensing platforms will enable the companies to provide mobility and seamless connectivity regardless of location. The resulting solutions will extend the coverage offered by Penteon’s terrestrial Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), which is currently being implemented across the North America for smart city and smart industry applications.

The partnership leverages Penteon’s remote sensing product portfolio to resolve the high costs and mobility challenges associated with satellite-based connectivity. HiSky’s Smartellite flat-panel, phased-array satellite technology will enable Penteon to deliver remote sensing and asset-tracking solutions at significantly lower costs and reduced physical size anywhere in the world, according to Penteon.

Peneon stated that its LoRa LPWAN coverage is engineered to be continuous in populated/commonly traversed railway segments, while more rural/unused areas may not have continuous coverage, and be serviced by hiSky’s Smartellite satellite terminal technologies.  The area covered by LTE provides high bandwidth intermittent coverage in communities and villages along the railway line where terrestrial internet is available for backhaul. The sensors are placed on the train, providing 24/7 monitoring of the locomotive(s) and rail cars. Penteon’s Intelligent data routing hardware manages onboard preprocessing and selects the most appropriate off-board communication method based on the performance and cost of the available networks. Terrestrial communications are typically chosen when available, within reach of cities, while hiSky’s terminals become active outside populated areas.

“Augmenting our network with hiSky’s low cost satellite based solutions assures coverage at dramatically lower costs, and enables us to offer availability of crucial data in real-time, regardless of location. This will greatly increase the safety and efficiency in many industries,” said Clay Perreault, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Penteon.