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What is Inmarsat Fleet?

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Our Digital Ship conference in Hamburg, January 30 2002, sparked a lively debate about where Inmarsat Fleet, the new ship-shore communications service, can provide most benefit

PHOTOS

1) Hayley Jopson, senior product manager, digital products with the UK Hydrographic Office, chats with Aad van der Voort of Xantic and Douglas Watson from Inmarsat

2) Inmarsat’s Chris Insall shares a beer with Thrane and Thrane’s Torben Lapp

3) The irrepressible Paul Ashton, VP innovations with Xantic, with Stephen Evans of Stratos

4) George Hoyt, CEO of Newslink Services, makes a speech

5) Andrea Treat, manager of data products with Kelvin Hughes

6) Rex Fearn of Teekay Shipping

7) Jonathan Elder, COO of Brand Communications, with Serge Côté, senior project manager e-learning with Kongsberg Marine Ship Systems

8) Conference moderator Gregor Ross of the Maritime Consultancy Network (right) shares a view with Elisabeth Lemmens, general manager of Global Medical Assistance (GMA), and GMA’s Srinivas Chilukuri

9) Elisabeth Lemmens, general manager, and Srinivas Chilukuri, both of Global Medical Assistance (GMA), and GMA’s Srinivas Chilukuri

10) Ingmar Ahlqvist, monitoring systems architect, Wärtsilä

11) A device for monitoring health onboard vessels, which transmits data to doctor on shore over a ship-shore communications link. Kate Murphy, executive director of RDT, tests the health of David Walker, maritime marketing manager with Inmarsat

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So, Inmarsat Fleet, the new Inmarsat ship-shore communications service is among us. But what does it all mean?

Most of the delegates at the Digital Ship Hamburg conference had a vague understanding of the new Inmarsat service, but the implications of it on the ship’s definition as part of a business structure were not clear. Although representatives of the land earth station operators (LESO) tried their best to clarify the situation, some questions remained unanswered.

The main advantage of Inmarsat Fleet over the existing Inmarsat voice communications services (Inmarsat –A and –B) is the mobile packet data service (MPDS), which it enables users to only pay for the data they actually send, in terms of kilobytes, rather than the length of the call in minutes.

Because a portion of every Inmarsat –A and –B phone call, charged in minutes, is taken up by connecting the computers, users tend to batch communications to limit the number of connections actually made as much as they can. With Inmarsat Fleet MPDS, this is not necessary because users only pay for the data they send. Computers can be permanently connected, greatly increasing the power and flexibility of ship-shore communications.

There are also possibilities that the ISDN data communications and voice calls on Inmarsat Fleet will be charged at less than the current voice calls and high speed data offerings of Inmarsat –A and –B, but at the time this magazine went to press, pricing had not yet been announced.

The managing director of Transas Telematics, John Hardcastle, set the scene with his keynote speech and mentioned email and instant messaging as the applications benefiting most from mobile packet data service (MPDS).

MPDS enables data transfer to be billed by size instead of time, resulting in a bill independent of the line quality or equipment performance. The best feature, however, is the choice itself. Especially for e-mail, larger chunks of data can still be sent via the normal ISDN line – in a batched, compressed form. John Hardcastle said, “for e-mails you can denote whether or not it is urgent and denote the right path.”

Another advantage of the new terminal is that it improves the information flow within the business, he said. The ship becomes an integrated part of the company infrastructure, and all information based on the server ashore, can be accessed from onboard the vessel. On the other hand, information that is vital for analysing the ship’s performance can be accessed from ashore. Remote engine monitoring is only one of the new possibilities.

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Impact on shipping

Chris Insall of Inmarsat reported on the state of the roll-out of Inmarsat Fleet. “We are in an extremely heavy period of trials,” he said. “We have a whole host of applications being tested out at sea.”

Responding to the speculations about this year’s launch of I-4, the fourth Inmarsat satellite generation, that has cost the company $1.7 billion, he said: “Inmarsat Fleet will be compatible with I-4. I-4 has a solar array the size of a football field. It has been announced that I-4 is enabling a bandwidth of 432 Kbps, and we are looking at shipboard antenna sizes of 70-90cm diameter.

Paul Ashton, VP maritime of Xantic, said about Inmarsat Fleet, “I think it opens up a whole range of possibilities.”

The idea of Inmarsat Fleet is to help “the business to be done more profitably,” he said. He also says that what is needed in terms of applications is not a re-write of what exists already but the creation of entirely new applications.

In the case of Inmarsat Fleet it will be the new technology that forces new tools to be developed. Otherwise, the communications channel won’t be used effectively.

On the other hand, Mr Ashton admitted that “most of the transfer between ship and shore is actually files larger than 100K, which means that most ship-shore transactions will continue to be on switched circuit.”

As the advantages of MPDS as a feature of Inmarsat Fleet, Mr Ashton counted the provision of services like news and digital chart updates, the cost of which can now be calculated in advance.

However he pointed out that because ships tend to send more data back to shore than they receive, and pay for both equally under conventional communications services, they can effectively send data from the shore, such as news services and chart updates, free of charge.

Although MPDS will enable a more flexible use of email and instant messaging, Mr Ashton described the replacement of Telex doubtful as the Inmarsat Fleet terminal does not print automatically.

Casting a look in the future, live video links, interactive learning and gaming as well as remote monitoring of navigational and engine equipment are set to become reality. Central databases will be stored ashore and can be accessed from onboard, which will make onboard servers, replication and constant synchronisation things of the past.

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Hardware and software

Kim Bille Gram of communications terminal manufacturer Thrane & Thrane talked about the hardware issue of Inmarsat Fleet. He says that the Alfa trials for the terminal went from mid July to December 2001, yet type approval has not been given. “We hope to achieve type approval in not too many weeks,” he says.

The system can be configured from the PC and is using standard cables. It weighs 26.5 kg and has a single coaxial lead which can bridge a distance of up to 70m from the control unit.

For Mr Gram, MPDS will play a significant role in e-commerce developments. “We need a closer relation between the equipment manufacturers and the people developed to test them,” he said. “I believe in the ability to achieve the office at sea. It is achievable but it does involve a lot of hard work.”

Mr Gram also mentioned that his company is working on a SIM card solution for the terminal, but there has been no indication of where this SIM card will be located. The Inmarsat Fleet terminal is to “not cost more than B.”

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Data applications

Jonathan Elder of Brand Communications presented his view on the main issues involved with creating data applications for Inmarsat Fleet. He said, “the issue is how do you get the corporate office out to the ship? Standard applications don’t do this yet.”

So far, one of the main problems with a web-based integration of the ship into the shore based intranet, seems to be the integrity of the IP (internet protocol) itself, he said. Losing the connection due to a bad line has so far meant having to start the data transfer again – from scratch, at an additional cost.

The answer is, according to Mr Elder, session management software, which can increase the effectiveness of ship-shore packet data communications. The applications can pick up where they left at the end of the last session or after an interruption. Data doesn’t get lost.

“Technology has to be able to cope with true two-way communication,” he said. Therefore, the network needs to be in real-time mode as most standard applications work real-time. The internet as a medium is pre-destined to satisfy this need.

Adding to the discussion about software requirements, Mark Story of Maritime Systems, spoke on the potential impact of the new Microsoft.Net on the development of new applications. He said, “Microsoft.Net is a natural fit with Inmarsat Fleet to replace store and forward replication for applications. It relies on the IP communication scheme and enables the vessel to become part of the company intranet.”

The feature web services of Microsoft.Net means that objects can be exchanged instead of plain data. These objects can be understood as complex sets of data which can invoke a code (command) that runs on the ship. The .Net technology hides this complexity and makes it easier for developers to meet sophisticated requirements, according to Mr Story.

Whereas a simple web application, as known so far, is pulling data from a database and presenting it through a user interface, the new .Net architecture allows access in both directions. “The data becomes accessible at any time, anywhere,” he said.

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Remote medical assistance

In a very ‘hands-on’ performance Kate Murphy of RDT demonstrated a remote medical assistance tool, highlighting an area very likely to benefit from a service such as Inmarsat Fleet. The instant transfer of data is most vital when it comes to telemedicine.

David Walker of Inmarsat was the mock patient who needed instant diagnosis from a medical expert situated not onboard the ship, but ashore. The idea of remote medical assistance as such is not an entirely new one, but in case of RDT’s little orange box, it can be handled by anyone onboard the vessel, without knowledge of either medicine or the equipment that is provided.

At the other end of the line, a doctor has got access to the same data that is displayed on the patient’s screen. Via a two-way connection, the functions of the unit, which include facilities measuring pulse, ECG, temperature, blood pressure and breathing, can be controlled from ashore.

Kate Murphy said that especially in the current staffing situation at sea, critical situations can arise as 43 per cent of seagoing officers are above 50 years of age. Health conditions weaken with age, after all.

On the other hand, “false alarms and diversions are expensive, they can cause delays and possibly high penalties,” she said. This is, perhaps, the main reason why, “the commercial shipping community is seriously looking at remote medical assistance.”

In the case of an apparent emergency, “technology must simplify, not complicate the incident” and the expert work is being done remotely from ashore. The main requirement for this is a permanent voice line and the ability to transfer data, i.e. file attachments such as images, both still and moving. Inmarsat Fleet would offer a communications channel with sufficient bandwidth for voice and data transfer at the same time.

While the functionality and life-saving potential of the remote medical assistant should be convincing argument for shipowners to equip their ships with such systems, even the providers of those have to admit that their main selling point is money, not necessarily life-saving.

Global Medical Assistance (GMA) is another company offering medical services to seafarers, connecting the vessel by e-mail to a network of doctors around the world. It also offers medical data management software, fitness examination and case management (patient follow-ups). Onboard medical care is provided via GMA’s web-based remote assistance.

The onboard medical data management application, Medi-Assist, is based on MS Access and can be customised. “This is a more complex systems to be administered by a trained person crew member,” said general manager Elisabeth Lemmens. The results of any medical examination onboard will be logged and files be kept for a full record of each crewmember.

Especially across a whole fleet of ships, this is an advantage, as those files can be transferred as the crewmember leaves the vessel. For the examination itself, GMA takes for granted the presence of a crew member with basic medical training who can, in more complex cases, contact the 24/7 medical centre ashore for support.

Especially in this area of data transfer via the internet, GMA sees huge opportunities with new technologies such as MPDS. “It is very exciting for us to explore Inmarsat Fleet for the purposes of remote medical assistance,” said Ms Lemmens.

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E-procurement

Paul Mount of e-procurement provider, MarineProvider, spoke about ship supply purchase and the management of supplies onboard. Using a communications technology which enables a more economical use of web-based applications, would certainly be beneficial, he said.

“Ships can access suppliers’ websites or catalogues, they can access the corporate intranet ashore with lists of suppliers and catalogues. Updatable price lists become available and contract information can be maintained onboard.”

The latter can be stored on a ship-based server and is synchronized with the shore-based server, or it can be accessed from the shore-based database in the first place, via a channel such as MPDS, for instance. For the future, this promises more efficient communication between the ship, the shore-based office and the manufacturers and suppliers.

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Engine monitoring

Ingmar Ahlquist of engine manufacturer Wärtsilä, introduced the issue of troubleshooting engines from ashore. He described the components of an engine to be categorised: some are to last, some to wear down, and some to wear down with the need of monitoring their performance.

Wärtsilä has developed a condition-based monitoring scheme, which consists of an analysis tool that shows the optimal condition and compares it with the actual performance of the engine part. This tool determines the optimal, most economical time for maintenance. “Running the engine to the last breath is not the most economical way,” said Mr Ahlqvist. It certainly isn’t the safest option either.

The engine is on the vessel, whilst the expert to monitor it, are ashore. Wartsila is developing systems to bring the two together. “Its easier to move bits than boots,” said Mr Ahlqvist. “The data is moved now, not the experts.”

Wärtsilä’s WISE system is collecting data from various sensors attached to the engine. It is then utilising the communications channels to send that data ashore – compressed and filtered. Analysis, diagnosis, prognosis and management appear in a CBM report which is advising on the right ‘treatment’ of the engine part concerned.

Those expert centres of Wärtsilä are situated in places all around the world to enable 24/7 access. They all have access to a central database which stores and controls the WISE systems onboard the ships connected to it. Mr Ahlqvist said: “Inmarsat Fleet will be very useful in cases of instant connection, data doesn’t need to be batched.”

He mentioned about less than 1MB of data to be transferred at least once a day (at the moment), and this potentially from every single engine delivered by Wärtsilä since August 2001. “They are all set up for remote monitoring now,” said Mr Ahlqvist. Furthermore, the sensors can be re-fitted to engines that are up to ten years old.”

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Electronic chart updates

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is aiming to increase its output of Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC) by 60 per cent in 2002. “The coverage has been quite slow so far,” admitted Hayley Jopson, senior product manager, digital products with the UK Hydrographic Office, but “data integrity and security is our upmost concern.” Referring to the much discussed internet updates of ENCs she said, “they need to be reliable.”

Ms Jopson acknowledged the advantages of remote (electronic) delivery of updates and counted “faster delivery, a decrease of human error, the alleviation of the burden of bulk corrections and a reduction of cost of the weekly Notices to Mariners” among the most important benefits.

She said, “the current situation is not ideal. There is the high cost of satellite communications. Web-browsing is almost non-existent and e-mail use is limited.” The aim for the future should be “faster, better and cheaper and not faster, better and more expensive.” Inmarsat Fleet might be a solution to the problem, but this is not to be judged entirely until pricing information is available.

Ms Jopson announced the future (electronic) plans of the UKHO to be free online services and chart updates available from the UKHO website from spring 2002. This will, however, be additional to the update channels already existing, enhancing the choice, not limiting it.

The online updates will include Admiralty Raster Charts, the Digital List of Lights (with the global version available in May), the digital catalogue and the Notices to Mariners.

Andrea Treat, data products manager with Kelvin Hughes referred to the risks and benefits of electronic charts and satellite updating. She said, “the main benefits of ENCs are that they interface with weather and tidal data, routes can be saved and they allow fast access to new routes via e-mail permit.” But she also acknowledged that the official chart data coverage of the world is still patchy.

Ms Treat said, “navigating is all about reducing risk,” yet the unavailability of the next chart required or a chart not updated correctly is always looming. The potential of viruses and system failures cannot be ignored, either.

Procedural hazards can also occur, such as over-reliance on ECDIS, not paying enough attention to the outside, confusion caused by a cluttered screen and an information overload. Kelvin Hughes has therefore developed a risk assessment tool which allows the vessel operator to conduct the assessment himself.

Despite the possible risks, Ms Treat regarded Inmarsat Fleet as tool to support the safe handling of electronic chart updates. She said, “Inmarsat Fleet is compatible with the ChartCo broadcast. It allows for larger files to be sent, and web browsing becomes more viable. If transmitted data is incomplete because of a problem in the connection, it can be e-mailed instantly or re-broadcasted.

“Although there are potential problems, with proper training and the correct use, electronic chart updates will increase safety and be more efficient,” she concluded.

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E-learning

Serge Côté, senior project manager e-learning with Kongsberg Marine Ship Systems started his presentation saying, “when operating costs are important, professionals with broad experience and proficient training are needed.” He painted a rather depressing picture about the state of competence among officers, referring to junior officers in particular.

“There is a shortage of 18,000 officers,” he said and predicted this number to grow to 46,000 by 2010. Short voyages and short stops don’t allow for enough off-time, which could be used for education and training, he said.

Kongsberg Marine figured that e-learning could be a solution to this. It delivers teaching whenever and wherever, including onboard the vessel. The learning management system keeps track of the process and examination of the ‘student’ and connects them with teachers. It can be adapted to the individual learning ability of each student.

With geographics becoming irrelevant, travel cost decrease. Mr Côté said, “You can now allocate the training budget to learning instead of travelling. There are also indications that e-learning needs less time than in the classroom. Yet, some of the classroom aspects cannot be reproduced through the internet.

“In class there is better supervision and interaction by face to face contact between teachers and students and among the students themselves,” he said. Wishing to transfer this interaction and permanent supervision onto the web, it would need real-time applications and cheaper internet connections. Ashore, this may be reality, but via satellite, it has been impossible so far.

“Satellite packet data would provide a first step towards e-learning onboard,” said Mr Côté. But until prices and bandwidth issues aren’t solved entirely, the training onboard will have to be done via CD-ROMs. Real-time internet access is still far from reality. An intermediate solution would be the transfer of exam data via the web, with an offline use of the actual application.

Edward Hackett of the School of Maritime Operations at the Blackpool and Flyde College stated that the traditional way of teaching at his institution was to “bring the students to the college.” But there are both costs and rewards.

The advantages are, for instance, the interaction between the student, its teachers and the peer group, the access to up-to-date learning resources and a social environment outside the classroom.

“The drawbacks are certainly the high tuition fee, travel and accommodation costs and the loss of earning during the course,” he said. A 36-week Chief Mate course, for instance would cost a fee of $6000, result in travel and living costs of around $12,500 (from the far east, where most of the students are from) and create a loss of earnings worth around $38,000. This makes a total of $56,500, according to Mr Hackett.

He acknowledged that complex training cannot be done on short trips at sea, “but on long routine trips study can be done. Students can be highly motivated, most of them want to move on with their career,” he said.

“If you’ve got a job, you can afford the software package and costs for data transmission via satellite. The travel and accommodation costs are reduced, but a short period of attendance at the college is necessary.

“What is required for the distance learning part is interaction, that means available IT and a satcoms link,” he said. “Assignments, for instance, need to be submitted by e-mail.” This is where the communications providers should come in with solutions.

“In education, it should be a partnership; the students will benefit and so will their employers and the communications providers (because of the increased airtime). They should all invest into a solution - it is gonna cost everyone something.”

On a slightly different, yet partly educational note, George Hoyt of NewsLink Services spoke about the revolution at sea, brought in by Inmarsat with its new Fleet service. He predicted that the cost will be much lower than at present, and that messaging services will become more viable. “Even internet browsing is possible. It is realistic.”

This would mean a new era of opportunities for news and information services, said Mr Hoyt. Newslink Services is publishing a website comprising news of 22 areas of the world. It features regional, national, international and sports news and selected industry news.

Additional to the daily newsletter and website, NewsLink Services is also providing an infotainment CD, which is released quarterly. The CD includes computer-based training and marine safety news among other things.

“At the moment, it would be more cost-effective to subscribe to the e-mail newsletter than to access the website from onboard a vessel,” he said, “but we are very excited to see what Inmarsat Fleet will offer to content providers and news services.

“There is a shortage of skilled seafarers. They are the most important aspect of the shipping community. Technology should be used to make their life better and keep them,” he concluded.

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The last word

Although the conference provided an overview about the opportunities of Inmarsat Fleet for the maritime industry – covering aspects from maintenance to seafarer welfare, there was little information available on the cost of the service. Both Inmarsat and service providers kept the lid on what is to expect in terms of prices.

Most voices speculated that it may not replace the terminals onboard ships already going to sea, but may be considered first choice for implementation onboard newbuilds. The consensus among the audience as well as the speakers was that Inmarsat Fleet would encourage the design of a new generation of applications and tools and opens up possibilities to adjust the sea-specific operations to shore-based procedures.

Summing up the conference, moderator Gregor Ross of the Maritime Consultancy Network, said: “We have had a long but extremely worthwhile and interesting day. I for one have learnt a great deal about the new INMARSAT Fleet service and some innovative applications that will make use of that service.

“I found it particularly refreshing that a significant proportion of these applications are aimed at improving the quality of life and work at sea.”

“For Fleet to succeed and the industry to benefit, this new technology must be introduced on board in such a way that it simplifies working life for the seafarer rather than complicating it. Introduced in such a way that it reduces workload and stress rather than increasing it.

“I think our presenters today have shown that there is a significant pool of innovation and talent in the industry to provide Fleet with the capability of doing just that.”

RELEVANT WEBSITES

Inmarsat Fleet http://www.inmarsat.com/fleet

Transas www.transas.com

Xantic www.xantic.net

Thrane and Thrane www.tt.dk

Brand Communications www.brandcomms.com

Maritime Systems www.maritimesystems.com

RDT www.rdtltd.com

Global Medical Assistance www.gma.be

MarineProvider www.marineprovider.com

Wärtsilä www.wartsila.com

UK Hydrographic Office www.ukho.gov.uk

Kelvin Hughes www.kelvinhughes.com

Kongsberg Maritime Ship Systems www.kmss.no

Blackpool and Flyde College www.blackpool.ac.uk

Newslink Services www.newslinkservices.com

Maritime Consultancy Network www.mcn.eu.com