OSV owners require tailored connectivity with high throughput and LTE coverage to enable smart ships
Developments in satellite communications are enabling smart OSVs for advanced operations.
High-throughput satellites (HTS) offer remote diagnostics, monitoring, big-data analysis and early warning systems, but all have a significant impact on bandwidth.
“By employing new systems, today’s owners are able to reduce downtime,” says Telenor Satellite director of the data services division Jan Hetland. “This could be by monitoring systems to facilitate the planning of repairs and retrofits around times when the vessel would already be in dock, or for carrying out repairs of systems and equipment remotely, or with the support of onshore technicians.”
Connectivity also enables vessel owners to implement internet-of-things (IoT) on board.
“It is about connecting ever-more equipment to the internet, so IoT and smart ships are inextricably linked, and both place enormous demands on connectivity,” says Mr Hetland.
Connectivity is also important to crew retention and well-being.
“Owners have tended to keep staff and seafarers longer on a vessel because every crew change runs the risk of bringing infection onboard,” Mr Hetland observes.
“In offshore, crew change times have as much as doubled. Having great communications links onboard goes some way to making crew feel closer to home,” he says.
For offshore vessels to compete with onshore jobs, owners need to provide the facilities and amenities that people are used to.
“This is especially significant now that much offshore exploration has moved further north into the Barents Sea, which is a much tougher and harsher environment than the North Sea,” says Mr Hetland.
“That means staying connected with family and friends has moved even higher up the list of requirements for new recruits.”
“It is about connecting ever-more equipment to the internet”
It is difficult to provide high-throughput connectivity over satellite for vessels operating above the Arctic Circle. “You are pushing the boundaries of what normal or conventional geostationary satellites can do,” he explains, “because you are approaching the point where the satellite is sitting just a couple of degrees above the horizon and the antenna needs to be pointing virtually parallel to the ocean.”
Telenor Satellite covers the Svalbard Archipelago and its satellites are at 1° west. “That means that our coverage also spreads to the northernmost reaches of the Barents Sea,” says Mr Hetland.
Another trend he has identified as a growth sector for satellite communications is the rising number of vessels built to support offshore renewables.
“As the focus on green energy grows, we are seeing a noticeable shift in OSVs being repurposed for windfarm developments,” he says. “It is suggested that as much as 20% of the offshore supply fleet is now engaged with green energy initiatives, rather than the traditional oil and gas.”
Mr Hetland also highlights how more vessel owners are seeking customised services to fit their requirements.
“We are finding, in addition to connectivity, our users require a tailored solution to their specific needs, often involving a bespoke network configuration that enables the end-user to interface the network onboard with their own corporate network,” he explains.
“The satellite communications industry needs to stay abreast of the evolution to ensure that connectivity is sufficiently robust to support these changes.”
Telenor Satellite has now extended its coverage to include all of the Barents Sea, the Greenland Sea and large parts of the Labrador Sea off Canada. This is in addition to wide coverage over Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
This is in the Ku-band of radio frequencies over several satellites and Ka-band with spot beams over HTS Thor 7.
Long-term evolution
OSV owners are looking to use long-term evolution (LTE) technology in the North and Norwegian seas, along with HTSs. Solstad Offshore has set its sights on enhancing connectivity to its vessels using LTE where available. In Q3 2021, the Norwegian owner contracted Inmarsat to augment satellite communications to its vessels with LTE/4G links within network coverage.
It became the first major offshore vessel owner to switch to Inmarsat’s Fleet LTE, which integrates satellite communications with cellular services. Fleet LTE will be available for Solstad’s vessels operating in the North Sea around production infrastructure, with LTE routers in the Tampnet network and when close to shore and offshore windfarms.
Inmarsat Fleet LTE integrates this cellular connectivity with its own Fleet Xpress Ka-band coverage from the Global Xpress constellation and FleetBroadband L-band services. This enables vessel owners to save money by transferring files over LTE instead of VSAT.
“The Fleet LTE combination of bandwidth, reasonable pricing and guaranteed connectivity makes sense in today’s offshore market,” says Solstad Offshore ICT director Christian Nesheim.
Solstad switched to Fleet LTE for its North Sea fleet following successful trials on board three Solstad vessels over the first three months of 2021.
Algorithms within the Fleet LTE router switch communications between LTE and VSAT to optimise service integrity, high-speed data transfer and latency.
This three-in-one service provides 4G, Ka-band and L-band without the complication of dual billing or the risk of disconnection.
“As much as 20% of the offshore supply fleet is now engaged with green energy initiatives”
“Inmarsat has supported Solstad’s requirement for connectivity over many years, which makes its commitment to our new Fleet LTE service package especially welcome,” says Inmarsat Maritime vice president for offshore and fishing Eric Griffin, ahead of his presentation at this year’s Annual Offshore Support Journal Conference, in London, 16-18 November.
Inmarsat launched Fleet LTE offshore services for North Sea vessels in 2020 and plans to develop an equivalent bundled offering for offshore vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, after extending its agreement with subsea fibre and offshore LTE network operator, Tampnet.
Inmarsat’s plans for seamless integration of multiple technologies took another positive turn in August when it announced plans for Orchestra, which will integrate existing geosynchronous satellites with low-earth orbit satellites and terrestrial 5G into an integrated solution.
Elsewhere, SES is launching new satellites to expand its connectivity for offshore vessels. The process will start in November, when it will be commissioning its new geostationary HTS, SES-17, with Ka-band spot beams over the Americas, Caribbean and across the Atlantic.
In 2022, SES will commission its O3b mPower satellites in medium-earth orbit (MEO), with huge broadband capacity, to augment coverage from existing O3b satellites.
These O3b mPower satellites will provide “exponential increases in coverage”, according to SES Networks chief executive John-Paul Hemingway.
“They will have thousands of steerable digital beams,” he says. “We can dedicate beams to ships and augment this with our geostationary coverage. We are lifting the bar and keeping ahead of demand, enabling digital twinning, cloud services and enhancing crew experiences.”
Space X is scheduled to launch 11 O3b mPower satellites from Florida in batches of three, and then two, to begin service with a minimum of six satellites in 2022.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.