Performance Analysis of a Medium Frequency Offshore Grid for Identification of Vessels Sailing on High Density Maritime European Routes

Abstract

The paper analyses the performance of an Automatic Vessel Identification System on Medium Frequency (AVISOMEF), which works with the Grid Method (GM) on high density maritime European routes using real data and uniformly distributed data. Compared to other systems, AVISOMEF is a novelty, as it is not a satellite system, nor is it limited by a given coverage distance, in contrast to the Automatic Identification System (AIS), though in exceptional circumstances it leans towards it. To perform the analysis, special simulation software was developed. Moreover, a number of maritime routes along with their traffic density data were selected for the study. For each route, two simulations were performed, the first of which based on the uniform traffic distribution along the route, while the second one made use of real AIS data positioning of vessels sailing on the selected routes. The obtained results for both simulations made the basis for formulating conclusions regarding the capacity of selected routes to support AVISOMEF.