GPS for Maritime Transponders: "The Standards Versus Market Forces"

George Gillow, Paul Geiser, and Don English

Abstract:	The Exxon Valdez grounding and oil spill in 1989 changed the maritime world's perception of technology. Shipboard radar had been the main instrument for detecting the location of other vessels and landmasses. The results of the Exxon Valdez event were that the US Coast Guard (USCG), State Governments and ports started to set up shore based vessel traffic service (VTS) systems for monitoring ship traffic. Most of these VTS systems are radar based and until recently there has been no requirement for transponders on vessels; except in specific areas. For example, the USCG requires transponders for tanker ships in Alaska. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has been developing a standard for an onboard transponder that is called the Universal Automatic Identification System (UAIS). The IMO has set a time schedule for carriage where all oceangoing vessels will be required to carry UAIS by 2008. UAIS is a Global Positioning System (GPS) technology based transponder system with Self- Organizing Time Division Multiple Access (SOTDMA) protocol. The UAIS units are relatively expensive at a price of about $12,000 for each transponder system and the system does not have an adequate bandwidth to allow for the tracking of a large number of vessels at a high data rate. ARINC is involved with several projects in California that illustrate how there will be a market for transponders with performance beyond the IMO UAIS standards. ARINC has been developing a high precision portable GPS-based system called PilotMate that harbor pilots carry aboard arriving and departing ships. PilotMate provides GPS position, course and heading resulting in the determination of the accurate position of a vessel. In addition, there is a transponder capability that allows for a high data-rate ship- to-ship and ship-to-shore capability. This allows shore monitoring at a Pilot Station for assisting with vessel movements, particularly in poor weather conditions such as fog. The system interacts with a VTS system. On the other end of the spectrum is a need for local area, inexpensive transponders for smaller vessels such as tugboats, ferryboats, fishing boats and pleasure craft. The IMO and USCG will not require that these vessels have UAIS. So there is a market niche for inexpensive, high performing GPS-based transponder systems. In preparation for this type of system, ARINC has developed an interoperable transponder/AIS system that is capable of integrating various types of transponder technologies (including UAIS). A number of test vessels have been equipped with lower cost transponders that have higher data-rate transmissions than the UAIS. Another requirement not resolved by the UAIS standard or local area transponders is that some customers will want a long-range/over-the-horizon tracking capability. The interoperable system concept has the capability of integrating these types of systems as well. The conclusion is that the IMO UAIS will represent a quantum leap forward for VTS operations, but UAIS alone is not a complete VTS system, nor does it meet all transponder needs. A maritime industry market exists for systems that augment the UAIS with transponders that cover local areas at reduced costs, higher performance, and systems that are capable of tracking over the horizon. ARINC has shown how a VTS system can accommodate all requirements and products.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2002) September 24 - 27, 2002 Oregon Convention Center Portland, OR
Pages:	2688 - 2695
Cite this article:	Gillow, George, Geiser, Paul, English, Don, "GPS for Maritime Transponders: "The Standards Versus Market Forces"," Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2002), Portland, OR, September 2002, pp. 2688-2695.
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