Technical
Name of the testbed: Western River Electronic ATON Joint Technical Capabilities Demonstration
Location: Mississippi River from Upper Mississippi River Mile 857 to Lower Mississippi River Mile 155
Duration:
Status: in preperation
Contact: Mr. Dave Lewald, Robert.D.Lewald@uscg.mil
Testbed website:
Initial Organisations: United States Coast Guard (USCG)
Initial funding:
The Western Rivers marking system differs from the U.S. Aids to Navigation System due to the unstable nature of the river waters and channels. The Coast Guard operates this system on the Mississippi River from Upper Mississippi River Mile 857 to Lower Mississippi River Mile 155; its tributaries including all or portions of the Arkansas, Green, Missouri, Monongahela, Ohio, and Tennessee River; South Pass and Southwest Pass to the navigational demarcation lines dividing the high seas form harbors, rivers and other inland waters of the United States. The biggest differences in the Western Rivers marking system are:
The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is an autonomous and continuous broadcast system that exchanges maritime safety/security information between participating vessels and shore stations. In addition to providing a means for maritime administration to effectively track the movement of vessels in coastal and inland waters, AIS can be a means to transmit information to ships in port or underway that contributes to navigation safety and protection of the environment. The intent is to transmit this additional information from shore-side AIS base stations in a binary message format as part of an overall e-Navigation (e-Nav) strategy.
Since 2007, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Research and Development Center (RDC) has been working on an AIS Transmit Project to determine what additional information is required by AIS users, recommend how the information should be transmitted, and test the transmission of this information at test lab sties. This information is transmitted using AIS Application Specific Messages (ASMs). Several standard ASMs have been defined and prototype methods developed for message creation, routing, queuing, transmission, and monitoring.
An initial Inland River test bed was established by RDC in Louisville, KY in October 2011. This test bed evolved through two phases, and tested the generation and transmission of information to users on the Ohio River. This information includes environmental data (wind, water levels, and currents) as well as lock queue information. Message reception was limited to the range of the base station located in Louisville, KY. Further work was done by RDC in support of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 2013-2014 to develop an AIS transmit capability using USACE’s network of AIS Aids to Navigation (ATON) transmitters located at the locks and dams operated by USACE.
The Western River Electronic ATON Joint Technical Capabilities Demonstration (JCTD) builds upon this previous work and expands upon it. The test area will be expanded to include most of the Ohio River and part of the Mississippi River. E-ATON and electronic Maritime Safety Information (e-MSI) will be provided to mariners in the test area by the USCG and USACE. The USCG will document the performance of the e-ATON test system and user community responses.
The goals of this demonstration are to:
To meet these goals a test bed will be established and operated in the Ohio River area for at least 12 months. Prior to establishing the Ohio River Demonstration, all system and processes will be tests in a RDC Test Lab. This Test Lab will be maintained during the Ohio River Demonstration to assist with any troubleshooting needed during the course of the Demonstration.
The Ohio River Demonstration will utilize the USCG base station at Louisville, KY and the USACD AIS network installed at the locks and dams on the Ohio River. This demonstration will be augmented with additional AIS ATON transmitters and base stations to improve coverage. AIS messages to be transmitted during the demonstration include:
Both government and civilian AIS users will be involved in the demonstration. During the demonstration, the AIS network will be monitored to document the system’s performance. Feedback from the AIS users will be collected during the demonstration to document effectiveness.
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Report available for download here
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