Low Bandwidth Network-RTK Correction Dissemination for High Accuracy Maritime Navigation

More than half of the incidents reported to EMSA relate to nautical events such as collision, groundings and contacts. Knowledge of accurate and high-integrity positioning is therefore not only a need for future automated shipping but a base for today’s safe navigation. Examples on accidents include Ever Given in the Suez Canal and HNoMS Helge Ingstad in Norway. A Network-RTK (NRTK) service can be used as an augmentation technique to improve performance of shipborne GNSS receivers for future positioning of manned and unmanned vessels in restricted areas, such as port areas, fairways, and inland water ways. NRTK service providers generate RTK corrections based on the observations of networks of GNSS reference stations which enables the users to determine their position with centimeter accuracy in real-time using a shipborne GNSS receiver. Selection of appropriate communication channels for dissemination of NRTK corrections data is the key to a secure positioning (localization) service. In PrePare-Ships project, the modern maritime communication system VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) is proposed to distribute SWEPOS (NRTK in Sweden) correction data to shipborne positioning modules. VDES is a very reliable technique and it is compatible with most onboard functionalities. In order to minimize the impact on the overall VDES data capacity in a local area, NRTK correction data shall only occupy a single VDES slot with a net capacity of 650 bytes. Update rates may vary but are preferably at 1Hz. However, NRTK correction data size changes instantly, depending on the number of visible GNSS satellites, and the data rate can therefore sometimes reach in excess of 1000 byte/s. In this study, a smart technique is proposed to reduce size of NRTK correction data to instantly adapt with the VDES requirements by choosing a combination of specific signals, satellites or even constellations such that the data rate is not more than 650 byte/s, and at the same time it achieves optimal positioning performance with the accuracy required by the PrePare-Ships project application.