Australian IoT satellite operator Myriota has been named as one of the first customers of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) AWS Ground Station, a service that enables satellites to be controlled from AWS and data from satellites to be downloaded into AWS Global Infrastructure Regions using a network of ground station antennas around the world.
Other initial customers include Capella Space, D-Orbit, Maxar Technologies, NSLComm, Open Cosmos, Spire, and Thales Alenia Space.
AWS says satellite operators can save up to 80 percent of their ground station costs by paying for antenna access time on demand and using AWS Ground Station’s growing global footprint of ground stations to downlink data when and where they need it.
Myriota already uses AWS for its processing and cloud-based delivery and CTO Dr David Haley said the AWS Ground Station network represented an opportunity to further increase operational efficiency and reliability at massive scale.
The move follows Myriota’s recent announcement of a partnership with Eagle.io, the operator of an IoT platform for environmental monitoring, to provide a global software and telemetry service for water management.
With AWS Ground Station, AWS says, once operators have downloaded their data, they can process it immediately in an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance, store it in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), apply AWS analytics and machine learning services to gain insights, and use Amazon’s network to move the data to other regions and processing facilities.
“There are no up-front payments or long-term commitments, no ground infrastructure to build or manage, and customers pay-by-the-minute for antenna access time used,” AWS says.
It says the service enables satellite operators to avoid large investments they would otherwise need to make, building or leasing ground antennas in multiple countries.
“…the antennas are just the beginning of the infrastructure requirements because customers need servers, storage, and networking in close proximity to the antenna to process, store, and transport the data from the satellite,” it adds.
“And then customers must build business rules and workflows to organise, structure and route the data to employees or customers before it can be used to deliver value. This requires significant capital investments and operational costs to build, manage, and securely maintain antennas, compute infrastructure, and business logic at each antenna location.”
Myriota and Eagle.io team for water monitoring
Earlier this month Myriota announced a partnership with Eagle.io to provide global software and telemetry service for water management.
Under its partnership with Eagle.io Myriota will integrate monitoring technology with Eagle.io’s cloud based IoT platform to manage alerts from over 100,000 environmental sensors deployed globally, with Myriota providing connectivity via its planned satellite network.
Myriota will integrate the Captis data logging module from Australian manufacturer MIoT and Eagle.io will build a feature that will allow device configuration and management for Captis via the Eagle.io platform.
Eagle.io CEO Ben Starr said the partnership would improve the capability of non-urban water meters and put an end to manual data collection.
“With drought and climate change on the rise, satellite technology is the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to coverage and connectivity,” he said.
Myriota CEO Dr Alex Grant said partnership would allow the agricultural sector to increase the accuracy of its water measurements through regular, automated recordings.
“In addition to providing accurate, tamper-proof and auditable data, the partnership will minimise undue costs on users; maintaining maximum levels of data security and privacy,” he said.
Myriota recently announced the development of a direct-to-orbit connected water sensor with Davey Water Products, after completing work with the Australian Livestock Spatial Innovation Program to enable farmers to reliably monitor water systems.
Eagle.io has a continuing engagement with two Australian states situated along the Murray Darling Basin; acquiring and storing water data from non-urban meters in New South Wales and Queensland.
The Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines & Energy (DNRME) Eagle.io to manage water harvesting entitlements. It is implementing an automated system that notifies landholders of flow-based extraction triggers via email and SMS, and that will eventually collect water data from 40,000 meters.
Eagle.io has also been engaged by the NSW Department of Industry to acquire, store and visualise non-urban water data from 15,000 meters across the state.
In January this year Myriota named Californian company Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems as the developer of its planned satellites.
My iota is commercialising technology developed at the University of South Australia designed to provide two-way communication via satellites for IoT applications from a device the size of a matchbox that will be able to run for several years on a battery. It was spun off from the University in November 2015.
