Ship

Congested spaces

Ships are very confined spaces to start with, but when you start adding the systems and equipment modern ship crews rely on, the minimal space available is quickly consumed. It’s often very challenging to find space to install the indoor and outdoor antenna systems required for wireless connectivity.

Corrosive environments

Salt is one of the most harmful substances to communications equipment, but it’s hard to escape on ships. Only wireless connectivity solutions that are specially designed and constructed to withstand extremely corrosive marine environments will last any length of time. Unfortunately, many solutions will have a very short lifespan.

Ship movement

Heavy seas and oceans can lead to significant rolling on all ships, but especially smaller ships. These movements make it extremely difficult to maintain the line-of-sight wireless transmissions need. Ship movements also restrict the antenna types that can be used, as narrow-beam antennas are often too difficult to use.

Variable range

Ships and the vessels they communicate with are constantly changing their location relative to land and to each other. The antennas on ships must be able to transmit signals over long distances to reach the visible horizon. But they must also be able to reach land-based transmitters and other moving vessels.

Bandwidth

Ships rely on wireless connectivity to support different types of communications and applications, each with their own bandwidth requirements. To support these various needs, including multiple marine radio channels, wireless communications solutions must provide reliable, tailored and scalable access to broad bandwidth throughout the ship.