Over-the-sea radio propagation and integrated wireless networking for ocean fishery vessels

Abstract

To facilitate the mobile users on ocean fishery vessels to communicate efficiently and cost-effectively in any sea areas, this paper analyzes the applicability of existing wireless technologies to over-the-sea communications, especially their over-the-sea radio propagation effects. To make their respective advantages complementary to each other, this paper proposes an integrated wireless networking system which is composed of mobile ad hoc network, cellular mobile network, and satellite mobile network. The system architecture of the proposed heterogeneous wireless networking system is described, and the access selection mechanism is proposed with always-best-connected (ABC) concept for the benefit of mobile users. Lastly, this paper reports a developed prototype system to evaluate the feasibility and validity of our proposals. © 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.