A Review of NAVDAT and VDES as Upgrades of Maritime Communication Systems

For a long time, the development of maritime communication has been restricted by the low data rate, high-latency and high cost of the current communication systems. The upgrade of new generation mobile communication technologies is attracting more and more attention to conduct a shore-based broadband mobile communication network with high-latency and high reliability to serve the maritime industries. This paper presents a solution by means of building a ship-to-infrastructure (S2I) and a ship-to-ship (S2S) wireless communication networks for an offshore region. We characterize the S2I and S2S channels at 5.9 GHz band based on the channel measurements in realistic environments. The channel characteristics, including power delay profile, delay spread, propagation path loss, are extracted and analyzed. In view of the difference between marine and terrestrial communications, we analyze the influencing factors of the offshore water, including effective reflection, divergence and shadowing from the water surface, and diffraction loss caused by the earth curvature. We also predict the power coverage range and the channel capacity for S2I and S2S wireless communications. Finally, the communication performance is evaluated according to the channel measurement and characterization analysis. The research results can be a reference for the construction of maritime communication networks.

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Analysis of advantages and disadvantages of existing maritime communication systems for data exchange

Pomorstvo ◽

10.31217/p.30.1.4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 28-37

Author(s):

Sanjin Valčić ◽

Zoran Mrak ◽

Marko Gulić

Keyword(s):

Frequency Band ◽

Communication Systems ◽

Data Exchange ◽

Safety System ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Data Rates ◽

Modulation Techniques ◽

Maritime Communication

Maritime communication systems and devices that are required onboard ships under the SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) Convention are determined by the communication functions of Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). This system was fully implemented on the 1st February 1999, and since then maritime communications methods have not been significantly changed. As a result, numerous researches and studies were conducted, intended to improve existing communication systems. Furthermore, the exchange of data in maritime communications is of great importance for the purpose of safety of navigation and commercial services. For this reason, the advantages and disadvantages of existing maritime communication systems for data exchange are systematically analyzed in this paper, in order to determine the guidelines for their improvement or replacement by new communication systems. The focus is on the used modulation techniques, as well as the maximum achieved data rates. According to these characteristics the possibility of applying certain communication systems in communications infrastructure of the strategy called “e-Navigation” is determined. In addition, an overview of international recommendations and guidelines for the modernization of maritime communications in the VHF frequency band is elaborated in this paper.

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netBaltic System – Heterogeneous Wireless Network for Maritime Communications

Polish Maritime Research ◽

10.2478/pomr-2018-0050 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 14-26

Author(s):

Michał Hoeft ◽

Krzysztof Gierłowski ◽

Jacek Rak ◽

Józef Woźniak

Keyword(s):

Wireless Communication ◽

Information Exchange ◽

Communication Systems ◽

Wireless Systems ◽

Base Stations ◽

Wide Audience ◽

Satellite Systems ◽

Node Architecture ◽

Maritime Communication ◽

Maritime Environment

Abstract In case of maritime communications, we observe a growing interest in deployment of multitask satellite-based solutions and development of new maritime-specific systems intended for improvements in safety of e-navigation. Analysis of different types of currently used maritime communication systems leads, however, to a conclusion that neither global and still very expensive satellite systems nor cheaper, but short-ranged transmission technologies can, on their own, fully meet the today’s expectations and quality requirements formulated for broadband maritime systems. This lack of reliable solutions, offering high throughput and ubiquitous availability of coverage to a wide audience at a relatively low price is one of the main barriers in a widespread implementation of e-navigation initiatives. This issue is addressed in the netBaltic project with the objective to design, deploy and validate in a real maritime environment a non-satellite wireless communication system enabling ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore information exchange via a multi-hop network composed of onshore base stations, maritime vessels and other transit elements such as buoys. In this paper, the idea of a heterogeneous wireless maritime system is presented. Details of the proposed netBaltic node architecture are described highlighting the solutions introduced in the project as a response to specific maritime communication requirements. Numerical results of communication area coverage are presented for four different scenarios utilizing different wireless transmission technologies. In particular, they indicate that when using appropriate wireless communication solutions, the number of vessels being able to connect to Internet is significantly increased as compared to traditional wireless systems (capable of one-hop communication) from 14% for short-range transmission technologies up to as high as 127% in case when relatively long-range transmission technologies are employed within the system.

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