Improving data connection for maritime use Finding most suiting techniques for ship-to-ship and ship-to-land communication

Abstract

As there are new technologies developed using communication and data transfer between ships and between ship and land (including but not limited to engine surveillance equipment, additional navigational data, weather reports and services included in the concept of E-navigation) the performance of this connection needs to be improved in order to keep up with the increased demand. In this report the need of faster and better means of communication is discussed, the problems with the systems used today for maritime communication are also mentioned. This paper is looking to provide an overview of existing and future means of communication relevant for the maritime environment, describing advantages and disadvantages of each as well as discussing how networks can be made more efficient by optimization and by having them work together. There is a lot of recent research in the area of how to improve our communication systems, providing better coverage and much higher speeds. However most of the research does not consider maritime use. This paper covers recent papers on High Altitude Platforms (HAP), Low and Medium orbiting altitude satellites (LEO, MEO) as well as more classic ones like Geostationary (GEO) satellites and VHF based techniques like AIS and other relevant communication systems such as WiMAX. These will then be theoretically tried against the challenges of a maritime setting. The purpose of the paper is to give the reader an overview of potential services for internet and data communication within the maritime realm.