COMMUNICATIONS | 33
Satellite communications technology is evolving to enable ships to use an almost worldwide Ka-band network with faster downlinks and uplinks. Inmarsat Maritime has commercially launched its Fleet Xpress Ka-band service that utilises a constellation of fifth generation satellites that were specifically designed for mobile communications. Inmarsat Maritime vice president of service development Peter Broadhurst expects Fleet Xpress, and the Certified Application Partner (CAP) programme, will enable ship operators to download applications from a maritime-optimised app store for numerous operations.
The UK-based satellite operator is setting up a gateway for ships to access these CAP applications via Fleet Xpress. It should help seafarers ensure that electronic charts are up-to-date and use different types of information. “In the past, updates were passed to vessels in a number of ways – USB sticks and compact discs, for example. But the transfer of this data was not in real-time and was not cyber-safe,” Mr Broadhurst said.
“Through our CAP programme, specialist third-party navigational data providers will be able to send chart corrections and updates in real-time,” Mr Broadhurst said. “The officer-of-the- watch and the master of the vessel need no longer worry whether or not the ship’s charts are up-to-date or, in the case of a vessel chartered for a different area, whether the correct charts are available on board.”
There will be two systems for obtaining the real-time updates. One, through a file-on-demand system, will enable a request for current chart updates to be made to a local server and the updates will then be downloaded. A second solution would be fully automated and more convenient for navigators. “Through the process of content pre-positioning, all ENCs are updated in a multi- vessel transmission, so that all ships are completely up-to-date 24/7. The data will be stored on the network service device on board and will be automatically and immediately available when interrogated by the ecdis. The whole process will be completely automatic and ships’ charts always will be current.”
Electronic charts can provide information on short-term exclusions, which are not possible using paper charts. Mr Broadhurst said as an example, an exclusion zone around a dredging operation can be made available to navigators in the area. Or vessels could receive real-time information on an exclusion zone around a drifting drilling rig.
Weather-related services could also be linked to an ecdis through Inmarsat’s CAP programme. “Third-party data providers will have direct access to vessels for their business applications,” Mr Broadhurst said. A number of software developers that attended Inmarsat’s developer conference in February are planning advances in weather routeing.
“A significant number of vessels already use weather routeing, principally to avoid bad weather which can cause delay and increase fuel consumption,” he explained. “But weather routeing systems are only in their infancy because mostly they are not in real-time. We believe that a new generation of weather routeing systems, made possible by always-on ship communications, will have a significant impact on ship operating efficiency.” He expects that planning the optimal arrival time at the destination port will become a routine aspect of ship operations. The voyage track, ship speed, as well as prevailing and forecast weather systems will all be factored in to make vessel navigation as efficient as possible. This would reduce fuel consumption and minimise emissions.
Mr Broadhurst expects always-on connectivity will also link shipping to smart international transport and logistics chains. “Until
now, ships have been relatively isolated when compared with other transportation assets, partly because the shipping industry has an in-built reluctance to share information. Now, though, far more control can be exercised over ship management at sea to maximise efficiency. Applications will focus on effective ship operations as part of a fully connected supply chain. Ship-to-shore communications are enabling a new era of improved vessel control and proactive maintenance. Shipboard components can be permanently monitored and fuel usage can be automatically recorded.”
KVH Industries has developed a system for delivering updated ENCs and weather routeing information to ships. It has agreements in place with Jeppesen to supply ENCs and updates, and Applied Weather Technology (AWT) for weather information. This is multicast to ships over KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband Ku-band service and the IP-MobileCast content delivery service. E-learning courses that enable officers to familiarise themselves with ecdis operations can also be sent to ships through IP-MobileCast. These are created by a joint venture between Videotel and Safebridge.
On top of the growing wideband Ku-band networks, there will be spot beam Ku-band delivered by a growing number of high throughput satellites. Intelsat has started testing the first of its satellites, I-29e, with EpicNG technology that delivers fast data transmission rates over the North Atlantic region. It will have multiple uses for maritime communications as Intelsat has sold some capacity to service providers EMC, Panasonic and Harris CapRock. Intelsat plans to launch more EpicNG satellites over the next two years to expand its fleet of high throughput systems.
Telesat launched its Telstar 12 Vantage high throughput satellite in the fourth quarter of last year to provide Ku-band coverage over Europe. Panasonic Avionics Corp recently agreed to use capacity on the satellite to provide bandwidth to shipping in the Mediterranean and along European waterways. Telenor Satellite has been testing its Thor 7 Ka-band satellite service to shipping with around 15 vessels connected during a trial period. SES has unveiled plans to launch Ka-band services to shipping in Europe in the second quarter of this year on two of its Astra satellites. It also expects to begin services for shipping between the Suez Canal and South East Asia this year. ECDIS
Inmarsat has launched a new constellation of satellites for Fleet Xpress solutions
34 | TRAINING