Using Ship Movement in the Irish Sea for MANET Evaluation

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring multi-hop network that does not rely on infrastructure being available. Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET) are an application of MANET, with most research focusing on road traffic. The possibility of constructing a VANET for shipping at sea is presented in this paper. Most research into MANET technologies is done using simulations that contain models of the physical space in which the MANET operates, the number of nodes deployed and the movement patterns and communications requirements of the nodes. A method of producing a realistic model for a specific application is presented. Data from the international standard automatic identification system (AIS) used by commercial shipping is gathered and processed to produce a realistic movement model. This model is used in ns-2 simulations to evaluate the application of MANET technologies to shipping. Experiments are performed using different transmission ranges with 802.11 wireless Ethernet as the MAC layer and marine VHF radio as the physical layer. It is demonstrated that the model produces results that are in line with known transmission ranges of marine radio and further concluded that it is possible to construct a MANET for ships in the north Irish Sea using marine VHF as the physical layer.