These latest revisions offer support for the new DataMessage (DM) type. The Data Message enables CompassCom Software customers to support a whole class of current and future telemetry products. Real world cases include the telemetry from Digital Spreader Controllers found in modern Snow Plows or OBDII engine diagnostic information.

Standard GPS data includes information about the position of the mobile asset (i.e. latitude, longitude, speed, and heading). This information is generally encoded in a message, sent over the air, written to a relational database and served to client applications in real time. The new DM type can include any number of “sensor” fields in addition to the GPS information. Because of the flexible message formatting and database schemas of CompassLDE, our customers have the ability to monitor the complete “state” of a mobile asset in real time and via historic reports and play back. The addition or subtraction of information from the data flow is handled with ease via simple configuration of the CompassLDE components.

Key advantages of this enhancement include:

· Better ‘future proofing’ – it is common in the real world, for data values and data protocols to change. This is often due to manufacture updating device drivers, different vehicles having different makes/models of telemetry equipment, and packets being transformed by middleware. Because the handling of sensor data is configurable on the backend, as these things change, custom development effort is not required.
· Multiple telemetry messages from the same vehicle – a scenario can occur where a snow plow, for example, will have a digital spreader controller outputting data relevant to the spread of salt and sand on the road. This same truck may have a different subsystem for the application of anti-ice liquid. This represents two completely different types of telemetry messages. In the past, customers had to have special one-time knock off software developed to handle this on the backend. V4.7 enables customers to simply define two message types via configuration – no ‘hard coding’ required.
· Faster replay and report generation – the addition of the DM tables in the CompassLDE database represents a streamlined schema that is easy on the eyes of administrators and easy on the CPU when querying information.