Wireless OnBoard

[wirelessworlds]

What do you think about having wireless onboard your Ship?
Give us the good, bad and unknown.

[Sergey Muravskiy]

I tried create wireless network onboard one vessel.
This is idea has good and bad moments.
First of all, good moments.
Easy installation :-) it's no need to install any cables, power supply module, hub or switch. For me, as service engineer, it's great plus. :-)
Good traffic's capacity.
Bad moments.
On my vessel wireless worked only on level of one deck. For example, server was placed on bridge, user#1 - radioroom (level of bridge) and user#2 in capitan's room (one deck below). So, user#2 lost communication with Server and user#2 very often. I think because radinoise or because ship made from steel :-).
And more worse that no radiofficer on our vessels . When some errors appears on one of PC (virus or somebody "do nothing" :-) ) and wireless shutdown, crew can do nothing.

[John Schrempft]

Interesting point about having no radio officer on board.
the shipowners preferred this to cut down on crew costs, maintaining that the bridge personnel could cope with most problems.
this is indeed the case, but it does leave the vessel with one person less who could manage most electronic equipment because of his background.
many electricians have taken over the electronics role of the radio officer...
I speak from experience after having spent 10 years at sea as a "sparks" on all types of ships.
Some captains would also have preferred the r/o remaining on board as the radio man often did most clerical and administrative work as well as maintain equipment such as radar, radio and sat gear.

[Peter Martin]

wireless on board is the future. besides the advantage of datacommunication and easy installation it gives the possibility of VoWLAN - Voice over WLAN which is the killer application provided you can build an intelligent network with seamless handover between access points. this can support the internal communication but can also be used for crew calling when connected to VSAT. See more on www.7ccell.com

[Wasim Kayani]

Been running wireless on our ships for over a year now. Have set up access points in the public areas and works fine. On some ships, the signal will run into cabins if doors are open but generally, in the area they are installed, they work fine. Been on a ship where I have seen 10+ users accessing the internet through their personal laptops.
The downside is that with more people on the pipe, the slower it gets.

[Peter Martin]

We have now completed a few installations without running network cabled to the access points. the network connectivity goes over the air as well as remote network monitoring and management. the access points are dual mode working on 2.4 and 5 GHz. With only 6 access points we have full coverage on three decks + outdoors which supports internal communication with voice over WLAN. Did this on a bulker and an OSV.

Free internet to everybody is a very nice move of the ship owner. Downside as described by Wasim. You think you make everybody happy but they´re not because of slow speed.
We use the captive portal to assign bandwidth to users on an individual basis using self creating PIN for temporary internet access. Only a few users online at a time which improves the entire performance.
No internet radio, no skype, no youtube. blocked on the firewall.

[Andrew Ward]

I'm interested in all of the thoughts on this topic as we are looking at providing super yachts and cruise liners with a wireless speech activated voice system called Vocera that we are the UK distributors for.
We've been told by "experts" that wifi is too difficult on board ships due to materials used but I fail to see this as we have had some very interesting "on land" deployments that have proved to be quite challenging.

[Jn]

The more access points, the more points of failure

It makes troubleshooting more complicated for the not so IT crew

It is not impossible, but anyone could list the benefits of deploying a wireless network vs wired?

[Peter Martin]

In principle you are right. If you use an integrated solution like we offer you will have access points showing their status and condition each. in addition we are able to remotely monitor the network and its components and can assist the crew in finding or replacing the faulty device.

the benefit is to both, crew and ship manager. having a wired solution means you have network plugs that will be misused to either fit own WLAN routers or just to access the net via cable etc. you are loosing control over the network, not only for security reason but also in terms of usage, think of skype, youtube etc.

the integrated WiFi solution can include crew internet access only on a limited and timely shifted basis so that not everybody can be online at the same time which gives better quality of service to everyone.

we have deployed WiFi networks with MESH technology meaning you don´t have to run LAN to every access point - they will connect each other over the air. Easy set up, no cabling except power.

[Jn]

Thank you for the explanation.

WiFi could be the future for the connection onboard a vessel with intergrated solutions as you mentioned. However, that would only truly benefit if the vessel will be on a good bandwithe perm link to shore. Such services (affordable ones) would only come from VSAT, for now.

My experiences with VSAT are not convincing enough for me to put my team on remote assistance and monitoring. All these would change I believe so, with broadband being cheaper and faster.

I am also quite interested in an quite old technology for althernative LAN solution such as the PLC LAN.

[Peter Martin]

also interesting. could also be a combined solution of PLC LAN and WiFi. using the PLC LAN as carrier for the access points