Communicating between ships or between land and ships will soon become twice as quick, thanks to a newly developed digital communications technology that is directly applicable to maritime vessels.

The Ministry of Oceans & Fisheries tested a new digital communications technology on a ferry sailing between Mokpo and Jeju on Jan. 21. This new communications technology was jointly developed in 2015 with the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning.

As more and more ships use the Automatic Identification System (AIS), the existing marine communications system, and since this consequently increases the amount of data required, the system sometimes gets overloaded and becomes unstable. This has increased the necessity for a digital communications technology that can process the data even faster.

The technology being tested this time is an "AIS-ASM integrated system." The system can transmit and receive quickly both the location of a ship at sea from the AIS and digital information about maritime accidents, climate or other bits of information required for safety. These all contribute to a safe passage and to instant information about any accident.

The tests on Jan. 21 were successful, the ministry said, and a follow-up test over a longer distance and with multiple ships will take place in March.

The ministry has been developing high-speed, digital marine communications systems for many years now, and starting this year it's working on a high-speed LTE marine communications system.

By Chang Iou-chung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: Yonhap News
icchang@korea.kr