Highlights:
- Reliable, high-quality connectivity has become essential for crew welfare, IoT and broader digital transformation efforts. However, it’s difficult to balance increasing data demands with critical and corporate communications in ways that are efficient and cost-effective.
- Neuron automates connectivity management in complex shipping environments, dynamically orchestrating multiple providers, orbits and networks in a way that optimizes bandwidth and costs, without compromising quality.
- Neuron does not require manual traffic policies or interventions. The solution continually learns from the data it ingests, dynamically adapts its decision-making and behavior, and its machine learning model is continually refined.
Neuron is gearing up for SMM in Hamburg, September 3-6! In advance of the event, we wanted to share more about how Neuron helps shipping companies get the most from their onboard communications and digital applications, with an intelligent platform that optimizes communications to enhance the crew experience, drive digital innovation and operational efficiency.
Volatility in shipping markets creates a need to keep vessel operating costs lean, while also upholding high standards. Reliable, high-quality onboard communications have always been seen as an essential cost for safety. However, the industry is now facing growing pressure from increasing data and connectivity demands in other areas – from crew, who want to use their everyday apps, like YouTube and Netflix, on their personal devices with performance like on shore; and from IoT, for uses such as equipment monitoring, preventative maintenance and voyage optimization systems. In many cases, an estimated 70-80% of onboard data consumption is now attributed to crew and IoT.
The industry recognizes the importance of reliable, high-quality connectivity for crew welfare, IoT and broader digital transformation efforts, however, they are challenged to balance this traffic with critical and corporate communications in a way that is efficient and cost-effective. This requires a complex mix of connectivity providers, orbits, and networks, with advanced network orchestration that optimizes bandwidth and costs, without compromising quality.
The First AI-Powered QoE Management Platform for Shipping
Neuron is the first AI-powered QoE management platform for shipping. It uses AI and machine learning to deliver seamlessly blended connectivity across multiple providers, orbits and networks – all managed through a single, vendor-neutral platform that provides independent visibility and control of onboard QoE. Unlike rule-based SD-WAN platforms, Neuron does not require manual traffic policies or interventions. It continually learns from the data it ingests, dynamically adapts its decision-making and behavior, and its machine learning model is continually refined.
As a result, shipping operators can automate connectivity management in complex vessel environments, get detailed analytics on performance, and manage communications more effectively. Examples of key benefits for shipping include:
- Improve Crew Retention: Understand trends in crew application demands to help determine connectivity allowances and deliver improved QoE.
- Control Costs: Streamline operations and automate network optimization to make the most of bandwidth resources and keep within budget.
- Increase Resilience: Automate traffic routing across one or more providers for reliable coverage, and reduce downtime with a self-healing network that predicts and prevents common outages.
- Enhance Performance: Improve SLAs and get the best application QoE with a network that predicts future traffic demands, intelligently routes traffic and optimizes bandwidth.
- Increase Agility: Automate network orchestration to allocate bandwidth by application and use case, quickly roll out new digital experiences, and avoid vendor lock-in with an independent platform.
Breaking Down Neuron’s Solutions for QoE Visibility and Control
The Neuron platform offers shipping operators comprehensive analytics and network management solutions for full visibility and control of their networks.
- Neuron 360: Our end-to-end connectivity analytics solution, Neuron 360, integrates and provides visibility for real-time connectivity data, including from the antennas, routers and third-party systems throughout a ship’s end-to-end network. It provides deep insights that can be used to understand performance and QoE, and quickly pinpoint and troubleshoot issues. It also provides insights on network usage and consumption patterns to help improve operational processes, such as bandwidth procurement and QoS traffic policies.
- Neuron Grid: Our dynamic, AI-powered network management solution, Neuron Grid, consolidates all available bandwidth – LEO, MEO, GEO, 5G and LTE – into a single pipe, to optimize network resources and provide redundancy at lower cost. Grid automates network management by analyzing traffic patterns and trends to predict future demands on the network, and dynamically orchestrate traffic over the right service at the right time for reliable coverage in any location, with the best QoE – all while managing bandwidth and cost constraints, and taking CIR and best-effort SLAs into account.
Accelerate Digital Transformation and the Future of Shipping
With Neuron, shipping operators can worry less about the connectivity itself, and focus more on driving digital transformation. That includes enhancing crew welfare, telemedicine, and improving operational efficiency and reliability for data-hungry IoT applications, such as engine monitoring, voyage optimization, cargo monitoring, security and more – as well as laying the foundation for new IoT, augmented and virtual reality applications to stay ahead.
Interested in learning more?
- Check out this Q&A with Nick Pinkney, VP of Shipping at Neuron, where he shares more on the evolution of satcoms in the industry, and how AI-driven network orchestration can enhance crew welfare, safety, operational excellence, and cost efficiency.
- Interested in scheduling a demo? Drop us a line!
