Luceor’s WiMesh enables GMP’s migration to a new TOS information system for operations management
February 18 2015 – Générale de Manutention Portuaire (GMP) is a subsidiary from the group Port Synergie held by two shareholders: Dubai Port World (DPW) 3rd port operator in the world and CMA-CGM 3rd shipping company. Two years ago, GMP decided on a major upgrade of its port operations management system in order to increase its capacities, take charge of new handling activities and improve the efficiency of its operations.
Decision was made to migrate towards the new TOS (Terminal Operating System) SPARCS N4 system designed by Navis, worldwide leader for TOS solutions. It also lead to a new design of the technical infrastructure of the information system and the necessity for a new broadband network that could support this new TOS, as well as other applications such as remote maintenance or inventories on all GMP port terminals.
The management of mobile vehicles (straddles, reachstakers…) through a new information system and on a wide area of several km² obstructed by fixed and movable obstacles (building, containers) requires by nature the deployment of a wide network which has to deliver very high throughput in order to convey new application flows, be resilient because of the critical nature of the operations, work in motion (the vehicles operate at speed up to 40km/h) and be perfectly interoperable with the rest of the IP infrastructure.
“Those constraints could not be overcome by the traditional solutions, neither narrow band nor WiFi or operated cellular solutions. That’s the reason why we turned to a new generation of meshed network and more specifically the WiMesh solutions designed by Luceor. Their performance seemed consistent with our evolution strategy for the future.” declared Patrick Labbé, GMP’s Information Systems Director. “After an extensive tests campaign, we decided to deploy Luceor solution on all our terminals and are proud to announce that the migration was a success. It represents a major improvement in the efficiency of our port operations and a real help for our users.”
As of today, a network composed of 171 routers composed of a combination of Luceor’s GigaMesh and MegaMesh WiMesh routers interconnected to the existing LAN has been deployed and is operated. 102 mobile straddles are equipped with MegaMesh routers and move containers within the two terminals (“Terminal Nord” and “Terminal de France”) occupying a 76 hectares area.
The WiMesh network is meshed bring the expected service level SLA through resilience, relaying capacity and while allowing a throughput of 5 Mbps per mobile in order to enable all communications flows from real-time traffic generated by the TOS, digital geolocalization (D-GPS system) and remote maintenance applications (Remote Maintenance Interface– RMI) as well as upcoming new applications. Additional WiMesh routers have also been deployed aiming at relaying distant WiFi infrastructure for agents positioned at various port terminals specific areas (RoRo, Customs Checkpoints, etc.).
WiMesh routers on straddles guarantee a reliable IP communication between the embedded equipment (hardened PC and sensors) and the TOS Information System. Each and any of these straddles remain connected to all the terminals at all time, even when in motion. The embedded routers can indeed communicate with the fixed routers connected to the fiber infrastructure of GMP terminals but also with each other. They can furthermore do all this in real time and without discontinuity thanks to LuceorOS, the Luceor embedded operating system and especially its LQA (Link Quality Algorithm) algorithm for mobility.
“We are very proud and grateful to GMP and its teams, for their vision of the future and the calculated risk they took in favor of innovation. It is those projects and companies that make it possible to overcome thresholds and allow other to benefit from it.” Christian d’Orival, CEO of Luceor said. “At this level of performance, constraints and mobility, it is a world premiere that we are currently reproducing on many new projects. This embodies the vision we had from the beginning as for the key role of meshed network technologies and the decisive contribution of our solutions to the new generation of mobile operations networks.”
About Luceor
Luceor is a network equipment and solutions provider that designs, develops and sells high performance wireless secured network solutions, indoor and outdoor, easy and fast to install. Luceor WiMesh technology makes it possible to deploy networks that can be temporary or permanent, fixed or mobile, for critical applications. Luceor products offer unmatched performance – up to 450 Mbits/s of real throughput per node – and a great flexibility in the configuration -1, 2 or 3 radios can be activated on demand – which allow to set up network from a simple point-to-point to a fully meshed architecture. Luceor is already a major player and has gained the trust of many prestigious references (state security forces, industrial sites, local administration…) for a wide range of uses: temporary or permanent video surveillance, perimeter security, enterprise backhaul, whether for building, agents, vehicles or mobile systems…