Spectral Analysis of Maritime Communication Systems of Vessel Engine and Control Room

The maritime industry is increasing autonomy, reliability and energy efficiency by installing more digital equipment onboard. The number of sensors, computing resources and human interfaces is increasing, while the traditional way to interconnect equipment is through cabling. The use of wireless technology for onboard equipment interconnection is an interesting option to decrease installation costs, but the industry is reluctant due to uncertainty of performance and reliability of such technology.<br/>This paper presents the results of an on-ship test campaign measuring the electromagnetic spectrum in the control room and the engine room of a ship. The objective is to find out the variation of the spectrum, if there are significant disturbances visible from onboard equipment and based on this make an estimate on the applicability of wireless technology.<br/>