AIS based communication infrastructure and data aggregation for a safer seafaring

Today there is no possibility for precise and fine-grained live weather tracking in open waters available to seafaring vessels and other interested parties. The refresh period of weather data and the coverage of the already existing and stationary weather stations on seas are insufficient. In addition, for non-commercial seafaring vessels, there is little or no reliable information on depth for many regions of the seas. Both factors can increase the risk of accidents and thus compromise security and safety in open waters. To address the aforementioned problems, we introduce a communication infrastructure that is based on the Automatic Identification System. This new infrastructure allows non-commercial vessels to exchange live weather data among themselves, and also enables transmission of depth and weather information from vessels to a land-based server for further processing and distribution. The infrastructure leads to a much more fine-grained availability of information on seas than currently provided for example by commercial weather stations equipped to buoys. This paper focuses on the architecture of the communication infrastructure as well as on the different processing steps performed by the land-based server to normalize and distribute the incoming information.