NETWORKING LAYER FOR THE EVOLUTION OF MARITIME PORTS INTO A SMART ENVIRONMENT

Abstract. The maritime transport is playing an increasing and critical role on the worldwide trade; because it guarantee the delivery of 80% of the goods worldwide. The maritime ports are the articulation of the maritime transports, and therefore are responsible of (long delay in the ports means high risks for goods deterioration, higher costs for the logistics companies, longer occupation of containers for containers management companies, etc. In recent years some publications are talking about smart ports. In this paper we take some of the most recent models of smart port, and propose some extensions by considering the recent recommendations from International Maritime Organization (IMO), which have been translated and issued legislation frameworks by the European Union, such as maritime environment monitoring, air pollution, etc. In the recent years, any “smart” environment is modeled through an Internet-of-Things (IoT) layered model. Thus, we discuss the model of smart port environment as IoT layered model, where the networking/communications layer plays the core role. Furthermore, we analyse the possible networking technologies which could support the different smart domains building the smart port environment. This is achieved by first defining the different sub-layers of the hierarchical communication layer, and then comparing different technologies for building the broadband mobile sub-layer.