Vessel Information Service System Based on ECDIS and AIS

AIS (Automatic Identification System) and ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) are two new and very helpful technologies used in marine transportation recently. But information from AIS is simple and text-based, which imposes constraints to a great extent on the data mining of such information. Besides, the valid working range of AIS is limited. The AIS information is not available when the AIS receiver falls out of AIS transmitter's working range. Therefore, we propose in this paper to construct an information service system called VISSEA (Vessel Information Service System based on ECDIS and AIS), displaying AIS information on ECDIS platform, and relaying remote AIS information collected by AIS receivers scattered at different ports to a data server to provide remote AIS information service by the use of internet technology. In this paper, the authors discuss the purpose of constructing such a system; propose the framework of the system and principles of remote data collecting. Some key technical issues of this system are also discussed, such as remote AIS data transfer, decoding of AIS signal, displaying of AIS information on ECDIS and AIS information access based on internet. The system has been put into practice and proved to be valid in application.