Engineering Bandwidth for Smarter, Safer Trucks & Off-Highway Equipment

While many of the conventional physical and environmental hurdles have been resolved, such as the effect that metal components and antenna placement in trucks can have on disrupting wireless signals, fleet operators must focus on the performance impact that heavy vibration, dust, mud, and electromagnetic noise can have on complex communications technologies, particularly in off-highway equipment.

Effective performance on the site and on the road is no longer simply about enabling a data connection, it’s increasingly about managing that connection. With trucks and heavy equipment generating terabytes of data from systems such as high-definition cameras, LiDAR scanners, and engine logs, vehicles and equipment need telematics systems capable of running advanced algorithms capable of organizing and prioritizing crucial activity and performance data and determining what can be buffered and what can be processed on the vehicle itself. By managing data through advanced communication protocols and analyzing data on the edge (in the vehicle’s own computer) and only sending summarized insights or urgent alerts over the network, fleet managers can reduce data latency, conserving available bandwidth for the most critical information.

Latency is the make-or-break factor when it comes to using communications systems effective when the stakes are high. Even the slightest delay can escalate into a critical service disruption when heavy machinery is involved. Consider the dangers if a 20-ton robot bulldozer were to lose its connection with its operator – even briefly – while performing an intricate task on a active work site.

This is why ultra-low latency communication – getting data from A to B now, not a second later – is vital for real-time operations and real-time decision making. Without it, even the most mundane operation can become much riskier if crucial hazard warning or braking commands happen too late. When thinking about vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) connectivity used in trucks, ultra-low data latency can improve roadway operations by enabling emergency braking and lane keeping. For example, if a driver suddenly slams the brakes on his vehicle, a communications system could immediately send an alert notifying the other vehicles around the truck of the driver’s action, enabling them to respond that second sooner, which could make all the difference – but only if the available networks are fast enough and reliable enough to send that alert instantly.

With all the connectivity increasingly designed into trucks and heavy equipment, and the ever-evolving role these machines are expected to play as rolling data centers, fleet owners must prepare for a new level of theft unfamiliar to them: cyber theft. Any truck or excavator that’s connected is under threat of attack from a wide array of wrongdoers, as noted by TE’s Mark Brubaker, senior manager for business development. “After all, trucks move nearly 80% of intrastate goods and carry natural gas and fossil fuels, gasoline, foodstuffs, electronics, pharmaceuticals and more. They represent a target for bad actors who may seek to use the vehicle’s software to interrupt the flow of goods or worse. In the off-highway space, this scenario could mean construction projects are disrupted, or farming operations are impeded.”

In an extreme case, this could involve a nefarious act of tapping into a truck’s communications system and remotely disabling the brakes on an 18-wheeler rolling at high speed along a highway. Or more subtlety, this could involve stealing sensitive route data, making valuable cargo – from food and electronics to fuel and chemicals – vulnerable to theft at the transport destination. In either case, the outcomes could undercut trust in enabling robust data connectivity across fleet operations.