Availability of Automatic Identification System (AIS) Based on Spectral Analysis of Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) Determined from Dynamic Data Age

Abstract

Good marine practice and proper operation of navigation, radio navigation, and radio communication systems are nowadays of key importance for marine navigation safety. This applies to merchant vessels and navy ships and effectively monitoring unmanned vehicles along a set route. Technological progress has contributed to developing equipment for ships and unmanned vehicles, which are fitted out with devices of the automatic identification system (AIS). One of the issues in AIS operation is limited-service availability, which manifests itself in the presence of incomplete data for the navigation parameters sent by radio, compressed in dynamic data messages. This results in the unusability of the system information for ships equipped with an AIS transponder. This paper aims to develop an AIS service availability model based on the mean time of incomplete navigation parameter occurrence in AIS data messages and to present the test results in the time and frequency domain using a mathematical method—Fast Fourier Transform. The study results refer to five basic navigation parameters and are indicative of a high service availability index—over 0.99 for three out of the five navigation parameters tested. Data recorded by a ship’s system receiver were the key source of practical knowledge concerning the limitations of AIS service availability. The experiment revealed interruptions in regular data inflow from navigation devices. In effect, a description was provided of a functional relationship based on a spectral analysis of the frequencies of the times occurring between service repair (time to repair—TTR), and the use of the model to analyze other variables was proposed.