World's largest wireless communications network - on a ship http://www.red-m.com word count 655 half page IMAGES: The world 2 .jpg Caption "The world of ResidenSea" asap.jpg Caption "data access points like this are distributed around the ship" simon Gawne.jpg Caption: Simon Gawne, vice president of Red-M, The world's largest public wireless communications network is not in an airport, office building or library.. its actually on a ship. "The World of ResidenSea". The ship is pretty well known.. its a cruise ship that people live on, for the "ultimate lifestyle" means of avoiding paying tax. There are 110 residences, 88 guest suites, 320 seafarers plus further hospitality staff. The wireless network enables users onboard the ship to connect to a computer network; it uses the "Bluetooth" protocol, which means that not only laptop computers but also applications such as digital cameras and telephones can communicate wirelessly with the network, connecting at 1 per second. The ship has 250 "access points", transmitters and receivers of radio data, including one in every cabin; these cost about $500 each and have a wireless communication range of about 100m. The access points are all wired up into the main computer network. The software to manage the system costs about $5,000. The main computer network then connects to the internet, shore based computer systems and terrestrial telephone network over a VSAT satellite communications system. Having a wireless network means that the wealthy executives onboard the ship never lose sight of their stock prices, whether in bed, by the pool or playing golf. So is there a problem communicating wireless data through metal walls inside the ship? Simon Gawne, vice president of Red-M, the company which was involved in installing the system at ResidenSea (along with shipping services provider ShipEquip.no) says that there obviously are problems sending data through the metal, but having plenty of access points means that it is still possible to communicate data from anywhere on the ship. SUBHEAD Commercial shipping The project raises interesting possibilities for commercial shipping. There are several applications where it might be useful to have appliances onboard the ship communicating with each other through a wireless computer network. For example, with one access point wired into the ship's engine room could communciate with hundreds of sensors fitted to the engine, without any need for additional wiring. Inspectors and surveyors could send data to the ship network as they walk around the engine room without requiring any cable; they could also receive data from the computer network, or even from shore, at the same time. The system would replace the walkie talkies commonly used onboard ships with crystal clear digital communications, enabling everybody to keep in constant touch with each other all around the ship. The system could be used to make a check on the shipping line's data about which containers are onboard, provided all the containers were fitted with low cost radio tags (likely to be implemented over the next few years). Tag readers, with a range of a few metres, can be placed around the ship, sending data by wireless communications to the radio data network. If a container has found its way onto the ship which shouldn't be there, or a container isn't there which should be, an alert can be flagged up. Another application is that wireless communications can enable computers onboard a ship to be networked without much additional cabling. One wireless communication point in the living quarters should communicate data with all of the cabins, offices and domestic areas. Another application is for monitoring the location of passengers onboard the ship. Each passenger is issued with a radio tag, to carry in their pocket or around their neck, which can be monitored by a tag reader, enabling the computer system to keep continous track of where all the people are. A pilot project at tracking people using such a scheme is currently underway at a US airport. The tags cost under $50 each.