Patent ID: 7516244

Claim:
A communication system comprising: an off-board computer; and a first work machine, comprising: an on-board data link; an on-board control module connected to the on-board data link, the on-board control module monitoring a value of a first parameter information data code of a mechanical system on-board the first work machine, and generating a first message containing the value of the first parameter information data code; and an on-board gateway embedded in the work machine, comprising: a first interface for connecting to the on-board data link; a second interface for connecting to an off-board data link; a server application configured to receive the first message from the on-board module via the on-board data link, to communicate with a second work machine via the off-board data link to receive a second message containing a value of a second parameter information data code of a mechanical system on-board the second work machine, and to communicate with the off-board computer; a communications application configured to convert formats of the first and second messages for communication to the off-board computer, based on types of data links used to transmit the first and second messages; and a Web server application configured to generate work machine performance data based on the converted first message or on the converted second message, and to provide a Web page containing the work machine performance data, the work machine performance data including the value of the first parameter information data code or the value of the second parameter information data code, the off-board computer being configured to communicate with the gateway, via the server application, to access the Web page containing the work machine performance data, and the gateway selectively executing the server, communication, and Web server applications based on a type of request received by the gateway from the on-board control module or from the off-board computer.