Inmarsat-C DNID Management Tool User Manual: Version 4.0 July 2010
Inmarsat-C DNID Management Tool User Manual: Version 4.0 July 2010
Connectivity Anywhere
with Universat Italia Services
Revised: 18-Jan-12
INMARSAT-C
DNID Management Tool
User Manual
Version 4.0 July 2010
2 / 19
This manual describes the Universat DNID Management Tool Interface accessible via the Internet. (by Stratos
Gateway, LES partner Universat)
This edition of this Inmarsat-C DNID Management Tool User Manual has been updated with information available
at the date of issue. This edition supersedes all earlier versions of this manual.
This publication has been compiled with the greatest possible care, but no rights may be derived from its
contents.
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 INMARSAT-C: GENERAL DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................. 4
1.2 WHAT IS DATA REPORTING AND POLLING (DR&P) .............................................................................. 4
1.2.1 DATA REPORTING................................................................................................................................. 5
1.2.2 POLLING................................................................................................................................................. 5
1.2.3 DNID (DATA NETWORK ID).............................................................................................................. 5
1.3 BILLING AND CHARGES............................................................................................................................. 6
1.4 CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE CONTACT DETAILS ............................................................................... 6
2 AUTHORIZATION TO DOWNLOAD DNIDS........................................................................................... 7
2.1 SYSTEM INTEGRITY.................................................................................................................................... 7
2.2 ISSUING OF DNIDS BY Universat............................................................................................................. 7
2.3 DOWNLOADING DNIDS TO INMARSAT-C TERMINALS........................................................................... 7
2.4 DNID MANAGEMENT................................................................................................................................. 7
2.5 LIABILITY .................................................................................................................................................... 7
3 DNID MANAGEMENT TOOL (DMT)........................................................................................................ 8
3.1 OVERVIEW.................................................................................................................................................. 8
3.2 DNID MANAGEMENT - HOME................................................................................................................... 8
3.3 DOWNLOADING A DNID ........................................................................................................................... 9
3.4 DELETING A DNID.................................................................................................................................... 11
3.5 CUSTOM POLL ......................................................................................................................................... 12
3.6 CURRENT STATUS.................................................................................................................................... 15
3.7 QUEUED POLLS ....................................................................................................................................... 15
3.8 HISTORY.................................................................................................................................................... 16
3.9 BATCH PROCESS...................................................................................................................................... 16
1 Introduction
DNID Management Tool User Manual
www.universatitalia.it
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Inmarsat-C is a store and forward messaging system, which enables the user to send and receive messages and
data to and from Inmarsat-C mobile terminals.
The Inmarsat-C system offers:
Note that the first 3 above are rarely used in today’s more advanced terrestrial networks. Most users access the
system via Internet technologies.
1.2
1.3 What is Data Reporting and Polling (DR&P)
Data Reporting and Polling are Universat Value Added Services based on Inmarsat-C.
The Data Reporting service is intended for transferring small quantities of data (e.g. a position report) from an
Inmarsat-C terminal to a specific terrestrial destination defined by the customer. This address can be an Internet
email address or TCP/IP. Delivery to X25, fax or telex are also possible but are not widely used in today’s
industry.
The Polling service allows a fleet manager or other authorized entity to send control commands (polls) to the
Inmarsat-C terminals. The Poll command may initiate some action, for example program the terminal with a
DNID (Data Network ID – the first step in setting up a vessel for position reporting), ask for a Data Report to be
transmitted or to configure an automatic reporting interval. The most common polls are:
• Download DNID
• Delete DNID
• Set reporting interval
• Start reporting
• Stop reporting
• Send a report on demand
Data Reports make efficient use of the Inmarsat-C system. Data packets limited to a maximum of 256 bits (32
bytes) are transmitted via signaling channels of the Inmarsat-C network.
For details on how to configure the C-terminal for Data Reporting, please consult the manufacturers' manual of
the C-terminal.
1.2.2 Polling
A Poll is a short command to an individual C-terminal or group of C-terminals initiating some action, controlled by
the firmware of the C-terminal. A terrestrial user can ask for data reports, with for instance the position of the
ships or trucks.
Polls can be sent via Internet e-mail or with the 2-stage access method via X25 or TCP/IP. Further information on
polling using the DNID Management Tool can be found later in this document.
The Data Reporting and Polling services make use of a group address as well as an individual terminal address.
The group ID, or DNID (Data Network ID) which identifies a user group, is obtained from Universat when registering
for these services. The individual terminal is then a member of that DNID.
To enable Data Reporting and Polling, a closed network must be created between one or more C-terminals and
the terrestrial customer location.
In this closed network, a short address is used in the form of a unique DNID (Data Network ID) number.
Inmarsat-C terminals will address the data report to this DNID, such that the Universat systems will know how and
where to route the data report.
One DNID can be used for up to 255 C-terminals. To discriminate between C-terminals with the same DNID, each
C-terminal is given a member number from 1 to 255. Billing is to the DNID and as such customers do not share a
DNID, however a single customer can have more than one DNID, should they have more than 255 Inmarsat-C
terminals. To set up the service, Universat will issue a DNID and download this DNID and member number over the
For downloading DNIDs over the satellite, Stratos has developed the efficient online DNID Management Tool
(DMT) for customer use. This manual is a User Guide for the web-based DMT.
The possibility to download DNIDs directly to mobile terminals is offered by Univerat to selected customers, under
regulations defined and enforced by Inmarsat and outlined in the next section.
Since it is necessary for the sustained quality of the Inmarsat-C system to control the process and quantity of
downloads, Universat will allow selected customers and service providers to download DNIDs to Inmarsat-C mobiles
only under the specific conditions defined by Inmarsat.
Apart from these additional conditions, all Universat services are subject to the General Terms and Conditions for
Universat Services.
DNIDs are issued by Universat after receipt of the appropriate signed application forms, constituting acceptance of
the relevant Terms and Conditions for each below:
• Direct DNID Download application Form; this form is a request to Universat to be approved to download
DNIDs and signifies that the customer accepts all Terms and Conditions associated with granting this access; and
• Data Reporting and Polling Application Form; this form is used to request a DNID and is required for all
data reporting scenarios
Ownership of the DNIDs remains with Universat at all times. Universat reserves the right to change a DNID if
necessary, in the interests of complying with Inmarsat regulations or for the overall security of the Data Reporting
and Polling Service.
The customer (or the service provider on behalf of the customer) is allowed to download the DNID only to those
terminals for which they are receiving billing invoices from Universat. In the case of a third party to the end
customer, such as a distributor, the third party must receive written permission from the vessel owner or
operator to download the DNID and must also be able to produce such written permission to Universat within 24
hours of any request to do so.
Downloading a DNID to a terminal that is not owned by the customer or for which the customer has not provided
written permission to a third party to download a DNID is strictly prohibited.
The customer (or their service provider) is obliged to perform the management of the DNID address list
accurately. This also includes deletion of the DNID from mobile terminals when the DNID or terminal is no longer
in use. Failure to delete a terminal before decommissioning the terminal may result in ongoing position reports if
the terminal is re-commissioned under a new Inmarsat Mobile Number. Since Universat has no control over that
scenario, the original entity will continue to be invoiced for any position reports resulting from this situation.
2.5 Liability
Any grievance raised by a terminal owner, indicating that the originator of the DNID download has acted against
these conditions, and where no written permission can be produced within the 24 hour time period, will result in
Universat deleting the DNID from the terminals concerned and relinquishing the privilege to download DNIDs until
the matter is resolved in writing by all parties concerned.
The customer of the DNID shall indemnify Universat from claims of third parties, resulting from improper use of the
right to directly load DNIDs to mobile terminals.
3.1 Overview
Access to the DMT is via the Stratos online web portal, StratosGateway, and is granted via request to
the customer’s Universat Account Manager. Note that before access is granted, the customer must complete and
submit the Direct DNID Download Request Form.
For all Data Reporting and Polling customers, DNIDs are assigned to a customer by Universat both new customers
as well as existing customers with existing DNIDs (example, to obtain a new DNID).
For customers that have been approved to use the DMT, DNIDs will appear in the customer’s own DMT
automatically, as it is linked to the customer’s Universat account within our customer database. Note that the DMT
queries the database every four hours, which means that it can take up to four hours before a new DNID will
appear in the DMT.
The DMT is available via the StratosGateway web portal, under the Services Management menu option. Note that
your StratosGateway username is displayed in the upper right corner, next to Welcome. In this demonstration the
username is StratosUser.
Upon first entering the DMT you will see the screen below. Find the row with the required DNID and select in the
last column the action you want to perform: Download, Delete, Custom or History. Depending on the number of
DNIDs assigned to you, you may have to scroll down before you find the DNID. Alternatively, use the ‘Find’
function of your browser to quickly locate the DNID. Note that you will only have access to DNIDs registered to your
Universat account.
Here are the Actions that you can perform on the DNID:
Ocean Region: The Data Reporting and Polling service is available in all four Inmarsat Ocean Regions. A DNID is
only linked with the Ocean Region in which it is downloaded. Consequently if a C-terminal enters a new Region the
DNID has to be downloaded again. If the DNID was previously downloaded in that area this will not be necessary.
A Poll sent to an ocean region that the terminal is not logged into will be considered queued until the terminal
enters that ocean region. A queued poll will expire after six weeks should the terminal not log into that specific
ocean region.
Please note that with the recent implementation by Stratos of Multi-Ocean Region Polling (MORP), if the terminal
has MORP capability, a DNID can be downloaded once for all ocean regions, using the MORP ocean region 9.
Please consult your terminal manufacturer’s documentation to see if it supports this option. The DNID
Management Tool has no way of verifying whether or not MORP is supported by any specific terminal, and will
accept all requests without error. Multi-Ocean Region Polling downloads to all four ocean regions, therefore an
error will occur if MORP and any or all other ocean regions are selected at one time.
Poll Type: This is always an Individual poll and this cannot be changed within this screen. For group downloads
there is the possibility to set-up a batch process from the menu on the left.
Response type: This should be left as the default of Data Report for vessel position reporting. For specific
applications other than position reporting, please contact Universat for further assistance.
Sub address: This is set to 1 by default, which is the case for most Inmarsat-C terminals. Should you have a
Trimble manufacture of terminal, this should be changed to 0 (zero).
IMN/Area/Group: This is the field where the IMN of the target terminal should be filled in. For standard position
reporting this is where you enter the terminal’s 9-digit Inmarsat-C Mobile Number (IMN).
Serial number: This is where the serial number of the terminal must be filled in. This is checked against the
Inmarsat (ESAS) database to ensure compliance with Inmarsat Operational Procedure C-OP-010 that regulates
DNID downloads. This check is carried out by the Universat internal database before forwarding a request for a
DNID download to the Land Earth Station. For a standard Inmarsat-C terminal you must use the terminal’s
equipment serial number, while for Mini-C, you have to use the Inmarsat Serial Number (ISN).
If the combination of IMN and serial number is new for the DMT it will ask to authorize the download in a later
stage. Once such a combination has been authorized it will automatically be accepted in future.
Member number: This can be any member number from 1 to 255 that you select. The DMT will warn you if a
member number is already in use by another terminal.
For more detailed information on the fields and values, please consult “Inmarsat-C, DR&P services, User Manual”,
where you can find an explanation of the different parameters.
After filling in all fields click Submit. This will open up the DNID History page with the submitted download request
on top. In case all Ocean Regions were requested, this page will show four separate requests, one for each Ocean
Region. If a single ocean region or MORP was selected, only one request will show.
In the example above, the combination of IMN and Serial number is not correct, so the status is shown as “Not
Authorized”.
It can take up to 48 hours to update the database of terminal information once a new terminal is activated. If a
DNID Download request occurs prior to the database being updated, a status of “Awaiting Authorization” will be
displayed until such a time that the information is available within the system.
Just like the Download page, the Delete page consists of a number of pre-populated fields that need not be
changed for normal operations.
Ocean Region: You can select one or many ocean regions in any combination by holding down the Ctrl key while
you select the ocean regions. A DNID Delete will only occur in the ocean region to which the Inmarsat-C terminal
is logged in at that time. If more than one ocean region is selected, the DMT will keep the remaining DNID Delete
requests in the “pending” queue for a period of six weeks. The DMT will monitor the status of the terminal and if it
changes to an ocean region that is in the pending queue, the DMT will automatically delete the DNID in that ocean
region as well. If the terminal does not change ocean regions within 6 weeks, the delete DNID requests will be
deleted from the pending queue.
Please note that with the recent implementation by Stratos of Multi-Ocean Region Polling (MORP), if the terminal
has the MORP capability, a DNID can be deleted once for all ocean regions, using the MORP ocean region 9. Please
consult your terminal manufacturer’s documentation to see if it supports this option. The DNID Management Tool
has no way of verifying whether or not MORP is supported by any specific terminal, and therefore will accept all
requests without error. Because Multi-Ocean Region Polling deletes to all four ocean regions, an error will occur if
MORP and any or all other ocean regions are selected at once.
Poll Type: This is always an Individual poll and this cannot be changed within this screen. For group deletes there
is the possibility to set-up a batch process from the menu on the left.
Response type can be left at its default of Data Report except for special requests from the customer.
Sub address is normally not used for DNID delete and should be left default.
IMN/Area/Group is the field where the IMN of the target terminal should be filled in.
Serial number is where the serial number of the terminal should be filled in. This is checked against the ESAS
database to ensure compliance with Inmarsat Operational Procedure C-OP-010 that regulates DNID downloads.
For the moment this check is carried out by the Universat internal database before forwarding a request for a DNID
download to the Land Earth Station.
If the combination of IMN and serial number is new for the DMT it will ask to
authorize the delete in a later stage. Once such a combination has been authorized it will be automatically
accepted in the future.
Command type in this form is always Delete DNID and cannot be changed.
Member number must correspond to the member number that has already been downloaded to the terminal.
IMN/Area/Group: This is the field where the IMN of the target terminal should be filled in. For standard position
reporting this is where you enter the terminal’s 9-digit Inmarsat-C Mobile Number (IMN).
For more detailed information on the fields and values, please consult “Inmarsat-C, DR&P services, User Manual”.
After filling in all fields click Submit.
This will open up the DNID History page with the submitted delete request on top. In case all Ocean Regions
were requested, this page will show four separate requests, one for each Ocean Region, similar to the Download
DNID page, or just a single request if MORP was selected.
In addition to the download and delete functions, the DMT also has the option to send a custom poll. This follows
the same process as for download and delete and allows you to program the reporting interval, as well as start and
stop reporting.
Ocean Region: You can select one or many ocean regions in any combination by holding down the Ctrl key while
you select the ocean regions.
A Custom poll command will only occur in the ocean region to which the Inmarsat-C terminal is logged in at that
time. If more than one ocean region is selected, the DMT will keep the remaining requests in the “pending” queue
for a period of six weeks. The DMT will monitor the status of the terminal and if it changes to an ocean region that
is in the pending queue, the DMT will automatically send the poll command in that ocean region as well. If the
terminal does not change ocean regions within 6 weeks, the poll command requests will be deleted from the
pending queue.
Please note that with the recent implementation by Stratos of Multi-Ocean Region Polling (MORP), if the terminal
has the MORP capability, a poll can be sent for all ocean regions, using the MORP ocean region 9. Please consult
your terminal manufacturer’s documentation to see if it supports this option. The DNID Management Tool has no
way of verifying whether or not MORP is supported by any specific terminal, and therefore will accept all requests
without error. Because Multi-Ocean Region Polling deletes to all four ocean regions, an error will occur if MORP
and any or all other ocean regions are selected at once.
Poll Type: You will notice that for custom polls, the DMT allows five options, however you would only select
Individual for a single vessel or Group for the full group of vessels in the DNID. The options for Circular,
Navarea and Rectangular are reserved for authorized entities and are not available to commercial customers.
Multi-Ocean Region Polling is NOT available for group polls.
Response type: This should be left as the default of Data Report for vessel position reporting. For specific applications
other than position reporting, please contact Universat for further assistance.
Sub address: This is set to 1 by default, which is the case for most Inmarsat-C terminals. Should you have a
Trimble manufacture of terminal, this should be changed to 0 (zero).
IMN/Area/Group: This is the field where the IMN of the target terminal should be filled in. For standard position
reporting this is where you enter the terminal’s 9-digit Inmarsat-C Mobile Number (IMN). For group polls, this
value should be zero (0).
Command Type: This is where you select the specific poll command to send, as described below.
• Send unreserved report as required in response: Send a report immediately (on demand), regardless of
the reporting interval that may already be programmed into the Inmarsat-C terminal. This will not change
the interval programming.
• Program unreserved data reporting: Set the interval and start time
• Initiate unreserved data reporting: Start position reporting
• Stop unreserved data reporting: Stop position reporting
• Data Transmission: This is normally reserved for specific Data reporting applications such as a remote
application that may be reporting temperature or some other data measurement.
Member Number: Enter the member number of the terminal being polled (From 1-255). For group polls, no
entry is required (no entry will be allowed).
For detailed information on the fields and possible values, please consult “Inmarsat-C, DR&P services, User Manual”.
Note that if you obtained access to the DNID Management Tool after you have already downloaded some units, or if you
have sent polls using Multi-Ocean Region Polling, then their information will not be contained in your DNID Management
Tool database. This database can be manually updated, however, should you already know any missing information.
The option Queued Polls from the menu on the left, gives you the overview of all the polls that are placed in the
queue for the selected DNID. Polls can have the following status:
Holding your mouse over the status (specifically for “Failed” or "Queued") will give you additional information
about the poll. The most common reason for failure is that the Inmarsat C terminal is not activated.
3.8 History
The option History from the menu on the left, will give you an overview of the polling history for the selected
DNID. In this example, all polls that have been processed by the DMT are shown.
Similar to the Queued Polls page, it is possible to get additional information for a specific poll by holding your
pointer over the status. Please note that status "Sent" does not always mean that the poll has successfully been
sent to the terminal, but it has been successfully sent to the Land Earth Station.
In case a large number of polls need to be downloaded or deleted, it can be more efficient to do this via a batch
process rather than using the screens to do initiate individual polls for each terminal. Use of this feature requires
knowledge of polling syntax.
Separation of the Poll parameters on the command line should be done by commas. Any parameters that are left
blank still require a comma to separate them, as shown in the example below the table.
Only the necessary parameters have to be entered and are outlined below. More detailed information on Poll
Example: 0,i,1234,d,0,412345678,111AAA222BBB,11,2,,,,,
Each poll command in the batch process has to be entered on a separate line. If multiple commands are being
sent to the same terminal, they should be listed in the batch process in reverse order of how they are
chronologically to be completed. For example, if a DNID is to be downloaded, and then a data report started, the
download command should be listed below the data report command. If not, the land earth station will attempt
to start data reporting for a terminal which has yet to be added to the DNID.
Alternatively, commands can be uploaded to the tool using the “Upload” button. This allows the option to edit and
save a file in Microsoft Notepad to keep for future use. The files should be .txt and follow the same parameter
instructions as noted in the table above. For those who prefer to work in Microsoft Excel compatible applications,
files can be saved as .csv, but then need to be opened and saved as a .txt file in Microsoft Notepad in order for
the tool to accept the file. If going this route, please ensure that you put a comma in for each blank parameter.
After completing the batch process click "Next" to begin queuing the commands in the batch. In case there are
polls to a terminal for which the combination of IMN and serial number is not yet known in the DMT, the normal
authorization process will be used. All commands will be verified for syntax only, but not whether the parameters
are correct. If there are any errors, the commands will show up red, and these can be modified and fixed after
pressing the back key. No information will be lost by pressing the back button.
If all the parameters are filled in, the command will be displayed in green font, and can be sent to the Land Earth
Station by pressing the ‘Proceed’ button.