Invited Lecture#7 – Hybrid networks for heterogeneous distributed maritime observation systems – Wednesday 03/10 from 9,00 to 10,30 am – Room Trilussa

Abstract. Maritime subject domain plays an important role in up to date world economy. World ocean covers over 70% of the Earth and forms many sources of energy and food. Needless to say that Maritime Observation Systems (MOS) serve as an important part of the world ocean investigation programs. Currently many different subject domains directly or indirectly incorporate MOS as a core of investigation and real business processes. Traditionally MOS bore somewhat military nature, however, in recent years the business and safety aspects became more important in the trends aimed at developing MOS for different purposes. And currently we observe many initiatives, groups and other real MOS related works around the Globe; like EU Marine Observation and Data Expert Group (MODEG) (http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/eu-marine-observation-data-network-mission_en.html). The mission of MODEG is to provide the Commission with the scientific, technical and operational expertise to ensure that the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNET) best meets the needs of its future users.

In Russia there exists a large program: National Unified System for Information on Situation in the Oceans that has been started a couple of years ago (NUSISO).

NUSISO is the information system which integrates technologies working in the Russian Federation for the observation, data acquisition and data processing regarding the situation in the oceans. This system is designed for information support of maritime activities at all levels: Federal, regional and departmental.

NUSISO encompasses over 1300 organizations from 45 departments of Russia, at that, using the databases of Data Center: All-Russian SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE for Hydro meteorological information-world data center. Detailed information about the NUSISO program is presented on the NUSISO Web-portal(www.oceaninfo.ru).

The system of buoys “ARGO” can serve as an example of the international system. The ARGO project objective is to create and maintain a global network of 3000 buoys that should correspond to more than 100000 measurements performed by different sensors. The project objectives consist in: placing the specified number of buoys in the world ocean; establishing the Argo national centers; free access to data; transfer data to the global network within 24 hours after their receipt.

Detailed information about the ARGO project is available on web-sites given below:

The MOS analysis indicates that the following constituents are peculiar to the systems: the first and foremost to the point are monitoring and detection means, such as sonar, radar, optical and infrared detectors, magnetic, gravitational, and several others. The second – data centers and decision-making support systems at various levels of the hierarchy, depending on the MOS scale. The third – networks for data transmission and data exchange that implement (at the physical level) the MOS state of distribution and heterogeneity. All constituents are interconnected and mutually stipulated. Currently the number of data transmission networks is enormous, and consideration of the networks totality is hardly possible or practical. In the above regard the presented approach proposes to consider the standard MOS and the Hybrid Networks (HybNet) by example of MOS.

The paper proposes two basic MOS: ECDIS and AIS for further consideration. ECDIS is one of the first marine information systems, which has found wide commercial application. Here the requirements to data networks are minimal: transfer of maps’ corrections, weather, and information about the navigating-hydrographical conditions. AIS appeared due to the advent of GPS with capabilities of continuous monitoring of any surface ship. AIS is a supplementary system in the greater global MOS. VTMS is more complex and distributed heterogeneous system by right. VTMS meets in full the challenge of HybNet implementation. ECDIS and AIS VTMS analysis allows to develop a general approach to DMOS including: architecture, hierarchical levels, goals; networks: cell networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, optic networks etc. Based on the first hand experience in DMOS research and production the paper proposes to consider two more DMOS types developed by SPIIRAS: Sonar Monitoring System (SMOS) and Maritime Surveillance and Recognition System (MSRS).

Plan of the paper

  1. Introduction: state-of-the-art, classification of data sources, DMOS data flows and networks

  2. ECDIS (Electronic Charts Navigation Systems), and AIS (Automatic Identification Systems)

  3. VTMS (Vessel Traffic Management System)

  4. DMOS: architecture, levels, goals, networks: cell networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, optic networks etc.

  5. Case studies. Sonar Monitoring System, Maritime Surveillance and Recognition System

  6. Conclusion

Vasily V. Popovich
Prof., Deputy Director SPIIRAS for Research

Vasily V Popovich
Vaily V. Popovich is a Professor, Deputy Director for Research of St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPIIRAS) and Head of Object Oriented Geographic Information Systems Laboratory (OOGIS Lab.) of SPIIRAS. His research interests include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Object Oriented Analysis, Design, Programming, Modeling and Simulation for GIS, Situation Awareness and Assessment, Monitoring Systems Development, Operation Research, Theory of Search for Moving Objects. He is specifically interested in Information Harmonization, Integration and Fusion Concept for GIS (IF&GIS). Science 1986, he has published more than 90 papers in journals, books and conference proceedings on selected above topics. He is a co-editor of the proceedings of the international conference CORP2008 and workshop “Information Fusion and GIS (IF&GIS) 2007″ published by Springer. Popovich serves as a Director for different projects on GIS base for Russian and USA Government´s Departments and Russian and International Business Companies.