Vessel traffic services for maritime autonomous surface ships within the maritime service portfolios framework

Under the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) e-Navigation strategy, standardised digital information exchange between ships and shore-based systems is essential for supporting both human operators and Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). However, the existing Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) within the Maritime Service Portfolios (MSPs) remain primarily designed for conventionally manned ships, and their applicability to MASS has not yet been sufficiently addressed in terms of machine interpretability, service delivery timing, and dissemination mode. This study proposes a shore-based MASS-oriented VTS framework at the service and architectural levels. First, a structured MASS-oriented VTS framework is developed within the MSPs by incorporating Autonomous Navigation Systems (ANS) decision requirements, fine-grained service content, and machine-interpretable data formats. Second, a hybrid VTS dissemination mechanism is designed by combining periodic dissemination with event-triggered delivery, as well as broadcast and addressed communication, to support both baseline situational awareness and decision-relevant service provision. Third, a platform-based implementation of the proposed VTS framework is presented through service generation and a case-based instantiation in Yingkou Port, illustrating how the proposed framework can be instantiated in a specific port context. This study provides a service-level framework for bridging conventional shore-based VTS provision and the decision-support requirements of MASS. The proposed framework is potentially compatible with S-100-based data modelling and VDES-based service dissemination, while supporting service information that is both human-readable and parsable by ANS.