Wireless communication, identification and sensing technologies enabling integrated logistics: a study in the harbor environment

In the last decade, integrated logistics has become an important challenge in the development of wireless communication, identification and sensing technology, due to the growing complexity of logistics processes and the increasing demand for adapting systems to new requirements. The advancement of wireless technology provides a wide range of options for the maritime container terminals. Electronic devices employed in container terminals reduce the manual effort, facilitating timely information flow and enhancing control and quality of service and decision made. In this paper, we examine the technology that can be used to support integration in harbor's logistics. In the literature, most systems have been developed to address specific needs of particular harbors, but a systematic study is missing. The purpose is to provide an overview to the reader about which technology of integrated logistics can be implemented and what remains to be addressed in the future

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed

Wireless Communications for Marine Sensor Networks

Peer Reviewe

An integrated wireless communication architecture for maritime sector

The rapid evolution of terrestrial wireless systems has brought mobile users more and more desired communication services. Maritime customers are asking for the same, such as the concepts of “Broadband at Sea” and “Maritime Internet”. Quite a lot of research work has focused on the development of new and better maritime communication technologies, but less attention has been paid on interworking of multiple maritime wireless networks or on satisfying service provisioning. To address this, an integrated wireless Communication Architecture for Maritime Sector (CAMS) has been introduced in this article. CAMS is aimed at 1) granting maritime customers uninterrupted connectivity through the best available network and 2) providing them with the best-provisioned communication services in terms of mobility, security and Quality of Experience (QoE). To address mobility challenge, the IEEE 802.21 standard is recommended to be used in CAMS in order to achieve seamless handover. CAMS provides application-level QoE support attending to the limited communication resources (e.g. bandwidth) at sea. Certain security considerations have also been proposed to supplement this architecture