Case Study

agrirouter 2.0: A modern data platform as basis for smart farming

DKE–Data and Reply have modernized the proven data exchange platform for smart farming, enabling farmers  to optimise their production processes and reliably meet the requirements of legislators and the food retail industry.

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#IoT
#Automation
#Smart Farming

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The challenge

To make the use of data in agriculture not only efficient but also user-friendly.

The scenario

Seamless data exchange between farmer machines and agricultural software applications

Digital data plays an essential role in the control and automation of modern agriculture. From managing farmland more efficiently to meeting documentation requirements for subsidies or demonstrating a sustainable supply chain, this data is collected in large quantities and used in a variety of ways.

To ensure smooth operation, agricultural software, intelligent machines and telemetry terminals need to communicate reliably. With the agrirouter, the non-profit company DKE-Data ensures seamless data exchange between different agricultural machines and applications. As this multi-vendor platform was no longer state of the art, DKE-Data asked Reply to give it a new lease of life.

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The solution

Easier access and changes

Farmers can now manage the exchange of data between their agricultural machinery and software solutions even more conveniently. The new agrirouter 2.0 not only features a redesigned user interface and simplified login, but thanks to the new backend, it can be easily connected to the wide range of agrirouter-compatible products available on the market from a variety of manufacturers. To simplify the management of access data for farmers, DKE-Data is planning to implement a single sign-on procedure with Concept Reply in the future. Remote control from agricultural software solutions or machine manufacturers' portals is also being considered.

How we did it

New code, same interface

In order to improve the usability of agrirouter, while at the same time minimising the changeover effort for farmers, our experts opted for a greenfield approach, using the existing API. As this connection remain the same, farmers do not have to reconfigure their equipment or farm management software and operations continue without interruption.

The new microservice architecture, running in Kubernetes on AWS, communicates with the agricultural machinery and software solutions via HiveMQ and uses Kafka internally as a message broker. This ensures that the usual privacy standards are maintained: Data is not stored permanently and is reliably protected from unauthorised access.

The result

Optimised data exchange

Thanks to Reply's expertise, the around 5,000 users of the agrirouter worldwide now benefit from a completely new application architecture which takes the interoperability of agricultural machinery and agricultural software solutions to the next level, thereby increasing working comfort. As a result, more and more farmers are using the data sharing platform, with around 150 new users joining every month.

DKE-Data GmbH & Co. KG

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DKE-Data GmbH & Co. KG, a company with non-discriminatory access, was founded in July 2016 by 10 well-known agricultural technology companies and is based in Osnabrück, Germany. By mid-2024, the DKE-Data network of companies had already grown to more than 100 partners. The partnership focuses on the development, operation and promotion of data exchange systems along the agricultural value chain. The aim is to ensure interoperability between agricultural machinery and software products across manufacturers and products. This will enable farmers, contractors and consultants to continuously optimise their production processes, while taking into account legal, economic and environmental requirements.