Our Location Engine (an extension to Device Manager) is a critical part of the ‘Edge’, 'Core' and ‘Fusion’ device ranges - handling a variety of tasks key to the overall device performance. These devices send 'raw' GNSS, WiFi, and Cell Tower data - which the Location Engine resolves into lat/long positions. In order to achieve this, data is sent to a variety of lookup providers. 

Location Engine Charges

The charges that apply to the Location Engine are on the DM price list - contact your sales team for a copy.

Examples -
Device reporting to Telematics Guru only-
TG Classic OR TG PPM per device
+
Lookups including LE-GNSS, LE-WIFICELL-PER1K or LE-WIFICELL-BUNDLE

Device reporting to 3rd party platform only-
LE-Device per device
+
LE-Forwarder per endpoint/server (cost scaled across all active LE devices)
+
Lookups including LE-GNSS, LE-WIFICELL-PER1K or LE-WIFICELL-BUNDLE

Device reporting to TG and 3rd-party platform. -
TG Classic OR TG PPM per device
+
LE-Device per device
+
Lookups including LE-GNSS, LE-WIFICELL-PER1K or LE-WIFICELL-BUNDLE
+
LE-Forwarder per endpoint/server* (cost scaled across all active LE devices).
* Here, there are 2 endpoints - Telematics Guru and the 3rd party platform

LE-Device

This is the charge per active device.

An active device is a device that has a Location Engine Connector set for a period of greater than 24 hours during a calendar month. 

The threshold of 24 hours allows for some testing/provisioning to occur without attracting charges. This allows for quick testing or firmware updates prior to later deployments. Be sure to set your connector to None once testing is complete, or if you are no longer using the device, if you want to avoid billing. 

Lookup Charges

Each lookup provider charges a fee per lookup (each time raw data is sent to them to be resolved). To provide the best possible value for partners, this charge is passed on in a usage-based model. It means if a device is only getting 1 location per day, the charges are lower. 

If you configure your device for 1 position update per day, you can expect around 30 lookups per month. And if an Edge device is mostly outdoors, expect mostly LE-GNSS lookups; if mostly indoors, expect mostly WiFi lookups. It is hard to predict exactly ahead of time, a few weeks of testing generally clear up any questions around this. 

LE-Forwarder

A forwarder is an outbound queue that will push data (in time order) to a customer endpoint.

So in the Device Manager UI

• A Connector is set on the device, to push data into the Location Engine for processing
• A Forwarder is configured on the Connector – the Forwarder sends data out of the Location Engine, and into the partner’s endpoint.

See Forward Edge Device Data to my Endpoint (Cellular) for an overview of the above.

Most partners have 1 single endpoint for device data, and as such will only have one Forwarder, so on their invoice, the charge will be 1 x Forwarder charge - no matter the number of devices active.

A dedicated server queuing resource is created per forwarder (which has costs). This keeps each queue partitioned so that failure on a single external system does not affect or hold up processing of other systems. Make sure to disable the forwarder to stop the LE-Forwarder charge (Device Manager → Forwarders tab. Then, edit the Forwarder you want to disable)

Note: If a device is pushing data to Telematics Guru only using a ‘default’ connector named “Location Engine -> TG (Region 0X) [WiFi tier]”, we do not charge the LE-Device and LE-Forwarder fees. We've created connectors for all Telematics Guru servers and WiFi tiers. 

The LE Billing Report

In order to view the number of each type of lookups per device, the LE-Billing Detail Report can be run within Device Manager.

• The user will need the Billing Detail permission to access this report.
• The report can be run from the toolbar in Device Manager. If you can't see it, contact DM support to have the Billing Detail report enabled.
  
   

• To avoid excess clutter, only the last 12 months are shown in the Billing Detail List. However, previous reports can be accessed by navigating to the report URL manually. E.g. if you enter 
  https://devicemanager.digitalmatter.com/Report/BillingReport?date=202208&report=LEBillingDetail
   into your browser - it will take you to the Aug 2022 report. Entering Date = 201911 will give November 2019.

Example output:

LE Costing Calculators 

The Excel-based calculators below should provide a rough indication of the ongoing costs involved in pushing data to a third-party platform or Telematics Guru, from our LE-Style devices (Edge, Core and Fusion ranges).

For Third-party Platforms:
Location Engine Calc - 3rd Party Platform

For Telematics Guru:
Location Engine Calc - Telematics Guru
Note: The calculator for Telematics Guru is for assets using the TG-PPM (Pay Per Message) plan.