Enabling Real-Time Remote Monitoring of Ships by Lossless Protocol
Transformations
Abstract
This paper uses data processing techniques to reduce the required
transmission bandwidth in ship-to-shore communications. The proposed
framework (ONline Efficient Sources Transmission Optimizer - ONESTO)
leverages state-of-the-art technologies and novel algorithms to
automatically optimize transmissions under structural (e.g., available
bandwidth, fixed packet overhead) and user-defined (e.g., maximum
latency) constraints. In addition, ONESTO authenticates and encrypts the
communication between the ship and the shore via mainstream free and
open-source software components. Initially, we present the abstract
mathematical formulation of the problem, with its assumptions, goal
function, constraints, and significant quantities. Then, we introduce
the architecture of a system capable of continuously estimating the
compressibility, processing and transmission time of streaming data.
Such estimations allow ONESTO to calculate and apply optimal parameters
for achieving the best compression ratio. Lastly, using a prototypical
implementation, we evaluate the system performance with a Class B ship
simulator on two realistic use cases. Our experiments show an excellent
compression ratio with maritime protocols (more than 40:1) and a limited
latency impact, demonstrating the approach’s viability.