Abstract
Increasing digitalization in the society at large, including international ship operations, requires careful consideration of what communication system to deploy and how to use it. This includes basic communication basics, such as quality of service, whether the system supports fine grained API calls or only document transfers and how the system can be influenced by external factors, such as weather or geographic location. Wireless communication will be susceptible to a wide range of factors that can reduce the expected quality of service.
It is also necessary to consider how the ICT architecture is implemented in a larger system that includes the ship. In many cases, one will want to reduce direct ship to shore communication to only trusted parties on shore, e.g. only the owner or the manager.
While ships use a wide range of dedicated communication systems, most of these are used for very specific purposes and cannot be used for general internet type communication. Internet connectivity will normally be limited to various satellite communication systems or mobile data when close to shore.
When access to internet has been established, there are also several different protocol specifications that can be used. The different protocols have different features that make them suited for different applications. Some protocols may be best suited for general data acquisition, others for implementation of service APIs to service providers on shore, while other may be better for remote control and monitoring.
The data models employed by the different protocols also differ. Of particular interest is the abstract and mainly semantic IMO Reference Data Model (“IMO Compendium”) that form the sematic baseline for several other technical standards.
It is also necessary to consider how the ICT architecture is implemented in a larger system that includes the ship. In many cases, one will want to reduce direct ship to shore communication to only trusted parties on shore, e.g. only the owner or the manager.
While ships use a wide range of dedicated communication systems, most of these are used for very specific purposes and cannot be used for general internet type communication. Internet connectivity will normally be limited to various satellite communication systems or mobile data when close to shore.
When access to internet has been established, there are also several different protocol specifications that can be used. The different protocols have different features that make them suited for different applications. Some protocols may be best suited for general data acquisition, others for implementation of service APIs to service providers on shore, while other may be better for remote control and monitoring.
The data models employed by the different protocols also differ. Of particular interest is the abstract and mainly semantic IMO Reference Data Model (“IMO Compendium”) that form the sematic baseline for several other technical standards.
