International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 5

Number 1

March 2011

1 INTRODUCTION

The International Maritime Organization (IMO)

identified the need to equip shipboard users and

those ashore responsible for the safety of shipping

with modern, proven tools optimized for good deci-

sion making in order to make maritime navigation

more reliable and user friendly. In this framework

the IMO decided on proposal of several member

states to develop an e-navigation strategy to inte-

grate and utilize new technologies in a holistic and

systematic manner to make them compliant with the

various navigational, communication technologies

and services that are already available.

The e-navigation strategy aims to enhance berth

to berth navigation and related services by harmo-

nizing the collection, integration, exchange, presen-

tation and analysis of marine information onboard

and ashore by electronic means (IMO, 2007a). The

e-navigation strategy is supposed to be user-driven

not technology driven to meet present and future us-

er needs (IMO, 2007a).

On behalf of the German Ministry of Transport,

Building and Urban Affairs (BMVBS) an e-

navigation user needs survey was conducted (Höckel

& Motz, 2010; IMO, 2009a; IMO, 2009b). One of

the major issues which were identified was the need

for user-selectable presentation of information re-

ceived via communication systems on the naviga-

tional displays of the ships bridge. This need relates

to, e.g., hydrographical, meteorological and safety

related information, and was also found in user

needs assessments of other member states and or-

ganizations provided to the IMO (IMO, 2009c).

The integration and presentation of information

on board pertaining to planning and execution of

voyages, assessment of navigational risk and com-

pliance with regulations is an essential part of the e-

navigation concept. The current separation of com-

munication systems and navigational systems

doesn’t meet the e-navigation requirements of safe

navigation to include all means and information in

the decision making. Hydrographical, meteorologi-

cal and safety related information is presented on the

communication equipment without filtering or as

print-outs solely. Technical as well as legal condi-

tions (separation of responsibilities in the Safety of

Life at Sea Convention – SOLAS chapters IV and

V) hamper the integration of information provided

Development of Requirements for

Communication Management on Board in the

Framework of the E-navigation Concept

F. Motz, E. Dalinger, S. Höckel, & C. Mann

Fraunhofer Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and

Ergonomics, FKIE, Wachtberg, Germany

ABSTRACT: The current separation of communication systems and navigational systems on the ships bridge

doesn’t meet the requirements of the e-navigation concept of the International Maritime Organization (IMO)

for safe navigation to include all means and information in the decision making. Hydrographical, meteorolog-

ical and safety related information is presented on the communication equipment without filtering or as print-

outs solely. A task oriented integration and presentation of this information on the navigational displays will

support the officers in their decision making and enhance the safety of navigation. The core element onboard

for the integration is the INS (Integrated Navigation System) concept of the IMO where a task and situation

dependent presentation of information is specified based on a modular concept. Information should be auto-

matically processed, filtered and integrated in the navigational information systems to support the users in

their tasks. To achieve this goal a concept for communication management was developed. An Applied Cog-

nitive Work Analysis (ACWA) is conducted to identify requirements for the design of a communication man-

agement system based on the cognitive processes of the operators. This paper describes the concept for com-

munication management and, as a first result, gives the description of the domain of maritime communication

that provides a basis for the identification of requirements for communication management in the framework

of the e-navigation concept.

by communication equipment in the navigational

systems, which reduces their utilization.

A task-oriented integration and presentation of

this information on the navigational displays consid-

ering the fact that all necessary information for the

respective task and situation, is on its disposal fast,

reliable, consistent and easily interpretable will sup-

port the officers in their decision making and en-

hance the safety of navigation. The task-oriented ap-

proach for presentation and integration of

navigational information as introduced with the re-

vised performance standards for Integrated Naviga-

tion Systems (INS) (IMO, 2007b) based on the

modular concept (IMO, 2008a) forms the basis for

the integration of further information on board.

Modular Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) ac-

cording to the revised IMO performance standards

for INS (IMO, 2007b) combine and integrate the

validated information of different sensors and func-

tions and allow the presentation on the various dis-

plays according to the tasks.

A communication management system should be

employed on the bridge as an aid for the mariner in

the accomplishment of communication tasks and as

a mean for the provision of information to INS.

2 INS AND MODULAR BRIDGE

The aim of the INS specified according to the IMO

performance standards (IMO, 2007b) is to promote

safe procedures for the integration of navigational

information and to allow that an INS is considered

as ”one system” that is installed and used as other

means under SOLAS Chapter V regulation 19, in-

stead of stand-alone navigational equipment onboard

ships. These performance standards can be applied

via a modular concept for either comprehensive in-

tegrations which are specified as INS or only partial

integrations.

The purpose of an INS is to enhance the safety of

navigation by providing integrated and augmented

functions to avoid geographic, traffic and environ-

mental hazards. The INS aims to be demonstrably

suitable for the user for a given task in a particular

context of use. An INS comprises navigational tasks

such as “Route planning”, “Route monitoring”,

“Collision avoidance”, etc. including the respective

sources, data and displays which are integrated into

one navigation system. An INS is defined as such in

the performance standards, if it covers at least two of

the following navigational tasks / functions:

− Route monitoring

− Collision avoidance

An alert management is a required functionality of

the INS as well as the presentation of navigation

control data for manual control. Other navigational

tasks may also be integrated into the INS.

The following six navigational tasks are de-

scribed in detail within the performance standards

for INS (IMO, 2007b):

− Route planning

− Route monitoring

− Collision avoidance

− Navigation control data

− Alert management

− Status and data display

The scope of the INS may differ dependent on the

number and kind of tasks and functions integrated

into the INS. The performance standards for INS

(IMO, 2007b) allow for a differentiated application

of the requirements depending on integrated task and

functionality.

With regard to the integration of information re-

ceived via communication systems on the naviga-

tional displays the INS performance standards allow

for the provision of tidal and current data, weather

data, ice data, and additional data of the tasks ‘navi-

gation control’ and ‘route monitoring’ on the status

and data display. For ‘route planning’ the INS pro-

vides means for drafting and refining the route plan

against meteorological information if available in

the INS, while for navigational purposes, the display

of other route-related information (e.g., monitoring

of SAR manoeuvres, NAVTEX, weather data, etc.)

on the chart display for ‘route monitoring’ is permit-

ted.

With the modular bridge concept (Fig. 1), opera-

tional/functional and sensor/source modules are

specified. This allows clear separation between op-

erational requirements for the task orientated use and

presentation of information on equipment and sys-

tems, and between the sensor specific technical re-

quirements. The interfacing module specifies the

connection and data exchange with other systems.

Based on the modular bridge concept the design of

future systems becomes flexible, task and situation

orientated.

Figure 1. Modular Bridge Concept

3 CONCEPT FOR INTEGRATION OF

INFORMATION RECEIVED VIA

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

For developing a concept for communication man-

agement for the ships bridge the current communica-

tion infrastructure and procedures on board were an-

alyzed. A literature review was conducted with

regard to GMDSS required systems and additional

technology. To identify further aspects for the de-

termination of user requirements regarding commu-

nication management and conditions regarding the

transfer of information from the communication sys-

tems into the navigational systems interviews with

potential users were carried out.

Based on this information a concept for commu-

nication management was developed with the fol-

lowing objectives:

− Presentation of information received via com-

munication systems on the navigational dis-

plays (INS) of the ships bridge

− User-selectable automatic filtering and pro-

cessing of information to prevent information

overload

− Provision of source and channel management

(selection of best connection according to crite-

ria, e.g., content, integrity, costs)

− Increased availability and reliability due to effi-

cient use of different communication channels

Figure 2 provides a content-related visualisation

of the communication management concept.

Basically an INS task for “Communication Man-

agement” is introduced to cluster information from

different communication systems according to in-

formation type. Information is then routed to the

navigational and other bridge systems or may be

provided on request. Information clusters reflect the

information types identified in the analysis of the

communication infrastructure:

− Emergency messaging

− Navigational information

− Meteorological information

− Hydrographical information

− Reporting

− Communication with office

− Crew and passenger communication

− Special purpose applications

While data acquisition and data communication

remain with the established communication systems,

the communication management system provides

source and channel management. This means that

the connection for data communication may be se-

lected based on certain criteria, e.g., integrity, con-

tent and costs. Criteria are adjusted at the human

machine interface of the communication manage-

ment.

Within the communication management system

data is evaluated and clustered according to infor-

mation type. Further processing and filtering allows

for updating of previously received information,

avoidance of information doubling, and selection of

information relevant to the vessels’ type and route.

Data is stored in a database to be provided to oth-

er, e.g., navigational, systems on request, but also

for presentation on the user interface of the commu-

nication management system. This presentation

gives an overview of the data according to infor-

mation type, data source, and time of reception. The

user interface also serves as input device for the set-

ting of parameters for filtering as well as source and

channel management.

This concept for communication management

provides the functionality for the presentation of in-

formation received via communication systems on

the navigational displays of the ships bridge. The ba-

sis of this integration, however, lies in the modular,

task-oriented bridge design.

The introduced communication management

functionality can be integrated in the task-orientated

concept described within the INS performance

standards (IMO, 2007b) and the modular bridge

concept (Motz et al., 2009b). It can be specified as a

new INS task or as part of the INS task “status and

data display” to allow for the management and rout-

ing of the information received via communication

systems into the bridge systems for presentation and

use.

The concept, nevertheless, is provisional and

needs to be further investigated. In the following an

approach for designing a communication manage-

ment system is introduced, which examines the hu-

man cognitive processes for decision making. In or-

der to develop requirements for the graphical user

interface of the communication management system

on board an Applied Cognitive Work Analysis

(ACWA) is conducted.

Figure 2. Concept for the integration and management of information received via communication systems

Navigational

Information

Meteorological

Information

Emergency

Messaging

Communication

with Office

Reporting Crew +

Passenger

Communicati

Special

Purpose

Applications

Communication

Management

Communication Systems

VHF MF HF NAVTEXEPIRB Cellular

Radio

Mobile Satellite

Systems

Weather

fax

AIS

SART

Inmarsat

INS Tasks

Route

Monitoring

Route

Planning

Collision

Avoidance

Navigation

Control

Data

Status and

Data

Display

Alert

Managem

ent

Other Onboard

Applications

Other Bridge

Functions

Safety + Security Other Infotainment Other

data processing, filtering,

provision for polling,

source and channel

management

Other

Systems

Hydrographical

Information

Communication

Management

4 METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF

REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMUNICATION

MANAGEMENT

4.1 Problem description

Ship’s bridge systems are often designed by aggre-

gation of different computer-based systems, which

are developed independent from each other by dif-

ferent suppliers. In this manner new technologies are

developed and integrated separately and the displays

are designed according to the equipment, which is

behind it, and not according to the cognitive de-

mands of the task. The system development based

on new technology is a bottom-up approach, where

smaller subsystems are defined before linking them

together to a large top-level system. To develop in-

terfaces, which support efficient decision making of

nautical officers, a top-down approach is required

with design methods, which examine human cogni-

tive processes and determine human cognitive needs.

Supporting the decision-making process of nauti-

cal officers demands understanding how decisions

are made in real-world situations. The design of the

navigation systems should take into account the

cognitive demands of nautical officers to support

them in their work.

A communication management system must not

only manage the transfer of information, but also the

integration of information, which are received via

the communication systems, as this information

must be processed and forwarded to a relevant task

station in real-time to guarantee quick response.

4.2 Applied Cognitive Work Analysis (ACWA)

Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) is a design

framework, which focuses on analysis of cognitive

demands in order to identify cognitive processes of

operators. For understanding cognitive demands of

the people it is necessary to understand the environ-

ment in which people are acting. The environment

can be the physical properties of a workplace, the

demands of the tasks, the structural characteristics of

the work domain or the organizational structure of

the company. CSE is primarily focused on the work

domain, its constraints, and goals to be reached in

the domain. Methods of CSE help to understand,

how experts make decisions and why they make cer-

tain decisions, what cues they need, what knowledge

and strategies they use. Applied Cognitive Work

Analysis (ACWA) is a method of CSE for the analy-

sis, design and evaluation of complex systems and

interfaces. ACWA applies the Rasmussen’s abstrac-

tion hierarchy (Rasmussen, 1985) which describes

the human information processing. With the ascend-

ing in the hierarchy the understanding for goals to

achieve rises. Moving to deeper levels yields better

understanding for the system’s functions with a view

to achievement of these goals.

ACWA comprises the following process steps

(Elm at al., 2003):

− Development of the Functional Abstraction

Network (FAN) – a model to represent the

functional relationships between the work do-

main elements. Each node in the network repre-

sents a goal, links represent support.

− Identification of cognitive demands which arise

in the domain and need support – Cognitive

Work Requirements (CWR) or decision re-

quirements. At this step decisions, which are to

be made to achieve the goals defined in the

FAN, should be identified.

− Identification of the Information / Relationship

Requirements (IRR) for effective decision-

making. At this step the information required

for each decision should be defined, which is of

particular importance, given that the decision

making is based upon the interpretation of in-

formation. Incorrect or incomplete information

leads to wrong decisions.

− Definition of a relationship between the deci-

sion requirements and visualization concepts –

Representation Design Requirements (RDR).

This step defines how the information should

be represented. The decision-aiding concepts

should be developed on the basis of information

requirements taking into account human per-

ception and cognition.

− Implementation of representation requirements

into a powerful visualization of the domain

context – Presentation Design Concepts (PDC).

A prototype, which supports the cognitive tasks

through appropriate visualization, should be

developed.

The ACWA depicts an iterative process, as with

the development of a prototype to evaluate the effec-

tiveness of the new system additional cognitive and

information requirements for decision support,

which were missed in the first steps, could be identi-

fied.

5 WORK DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF MARITIME

COMMUNICATION

The first step of ACWA (building of FAN) was ap-

plied to the domain of maritime communication. Di-

verse knowledge elicitation techniques, such as re-

viewing relevant documents and interviews, were

used to gain understanding of the domain. The pur-

pose of FAN is to provide a base for definition of

design requirements for a user interface for the

communication management on board.

Figure 3. Three main functional areas of the communication management.

In Figure 3 the three main functional areas of the

communication management are presented. One of

the functions of the communication management is

the exchange of information with the outside world,

e.g., shore authorities, other ships (3). Another func-

tion is the exchange of information with own ship

systems such as INS tasks (1). The exchange of in-

formation comprises the forwarding of information

received through the communication equipment to

systems on the bridge or INS tasks and the request

of information from systems or INS tasks, which is

intended for transmission via communication sys-

tems. Another function is the information manage-

ment, which comprises retrieval and processing of

both external and internal information (2).

Figure 4 represents the FAN for the domain of

maritime communication. The goals are marked ac-

cording to corresponding functional areas of the

communication management system (see Fig. 3).

First of all the purposes and external constraints

in the work domain were identified. The high-level

goals are:

− Ensuring safety and security

− Attending administrative matters (organization-

al norms and goals)

− Attaining commercial goals (achieving the op-

timum turnover)

It is important to keep these high-level goals in mind

while specifying the goals on the lower levels be-

cause of the norms and constraints that they define.

To ensure these goals it is necessary to

− Navigate the ship safely

− Navigate the ship efficiently

− Keep the ship in an operable state

One of the most important goals, which supports all

of the goals mentioned above, is the faultless man-

agement and maintenance of communication and in-

formation processing (G1). Communication plays an

important part in gaining and forwarding infor-

mation. The ship needs to provide information to di-

verse authorities on shore. The shore authorities,

e.g., Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), shipping com-

panies or port facilities, need to communicate im-

portant information to ships. Furthermore, the ship

needs to receive (updates of) navigational, hydrolog-

ical, meteorological and other information on a regu-

lar basis.

To successfully manage the communication and

information processing (see Fig.4) the management

of transmission and reception of information and

also forwarding of the received information to

eligible ship systems are required. To successfully

manage the information transmission (G2) first of all

it is necessary to summon the relevant information,

which is requested by others or is scheduled to be

transmitted (e.g., as a report). After the information

is sent the storage of transmitted data takes place in

order to provide a proper documentation of

communication activities.

To manage the information reception (G3) it is

important to control the incoming information in

order to enable secure and faultless data transfer,

which comprises recovery, decoding, and

verification of received data. All information

received via communication systems must be

identified, evaluated and stored before it can be

forwarded to other systems or used in any other

manner.

Ship systems

Shore authorities, other ships etc.

Communication

management

system

External

information

management

External data

transfer

management

Exchange of information with own ship systems

Retrieval and

processing of

information

Internal

information

management

Equipment

management

Internal data

transfer

management

Exchange of information with outside world

To successfully manage the internal information

forwarding (G4) the observation of incoming

information must take place. The actual information,

which is necessary to fulfill navigational or other

tasks must be forwarded to eligible on-board

systems and information requests from those

systems must be processed.

Monitoring of the received information (G6)

enables detection of new information or changes, so

that notifications of the availability of new

information can be made or existing information can

be updated. It is essential to enable secure and error-

free data transfer and provide the possibility to

restore messages in case of transfer failures.

Reliability control of information (G7) is, therefore,

important to ensure security and safety of ship

operations. On the other hand the classification of

information must take place in order to identify the

belonging of information to a certain information

type.

Additionally, plausibility checks should be made

with information sources onboard and between in-

formation provided by external domains to avoid

possible errors and inconsistencies, which infor-

mation from different sources could contain.

In order to transmit or receive information it is

necessary to successfully perform data transfer (G5),

which includes providing of appropriate equipment

for transfer and monitoring of data transfer in order

to determine failures. The important step in the

performance of data transfer is the determination of

appropriate equipment (G8) for reception or

transmission of information. This includes the

determination of communication area (G9) and

assignment of equipment to area (G10), which is

important for planning the data transfer. First of all

the area, where the ship operates, must be identified.

Before choosing the appropriate equipment it is

essential to determine, which communication

equipment necessary to fulfill a certain

communication task is available and/or adequate for

the task. And that means to check, whether the

available equipment is optimal, suitable or inappro-

priate in respect to its content, required bandwidth,

costs… The equipment management (G11)

comprises checking of functions, configuration

(channel management) or troubleshooting of

equipment. To enable successful equipment

management a proper equipment inventory (G16)

must exist. Location, connections, description and

state of the communication equipment must be

provided to support the decision maker in taking

required measures, e.g., in case of failures.

Figure 4. The FAN for the domain of maritime communication.

G2: Manage information

transmission

G5: Perform

data transfer

G6: Monitor

received information

G13: Store data

G4: Manage internal

information forwarding

G10: Assign

equipment to area

G1: Manage communication

and information processing

G15: Provide electronic

signal reception

G7: Control

reliability of

information

G16: Provide

equipment inventory

G11: Manage

equipment

G18: Enable data transfer

with on-board systems

G9: Determine

required area

G12: Retrieve information

from on-board systems

G14: Provide electronic

signal transmission

G8: Determine

appropriate equipment

G3: Manage

information reception

G17: Provide audio

communication

Further, transferred data must be stored (G13)

and communication log must be generated. The in-

formation, which is received via communication sys-

tems, contains, e.g., navigational, meteorological,

hydrographical, geographical and voyage data. Ar-

rangement of data according to the type of commu-

nication equipment, the information type or the

transmitting station must be provided.

Information retrieval from on-board systems

(G12), which comprises the sending of a data re-

quest to other own ship systems and the reception of

data from them, is necessary to provide intern ship

information in order to transmit it via communica-

tion equipment, to compare incoming information

with intern ship data for verification purposes, and to

determine the communication area. The supporting

goal (G18) is to enable the data exchange with on-

board systems.

At last the supporting goals at the lower level,

such as reception and transmission of audio and

digital maritime communication information, are to

be mentioned: the provision (G14) and reception

(G15) of electronic signal transmission, as well as

the provision of audio communication (G17). The

latter is necessary to allow for the possibility to log

audio communication information.

6 CONTINUATION

The FAN provides a basis for the definition of re-

quirements for a user interface for the communica-

tion management on board. In further ACWA steps

for each goal of the FAN the decision requirements,

information requirements and decision-aiding con-

cepts will be identified.

The relationship between the goals in the domain,

the cognitive demands of nautical officers and the

information required to make decisions are factors,

which provide a basis for designing visual aids for

decision support. The further steps are the develop-

ment of a prototype for the graphical user interface

of the communication management system on board

and its evaluation.

The concept for communication management will

be evaluated in expert reviews, e.g., with members

of the national e-navigation working group. Inter-

views and observations will be conducted onboard

ships to gain further insight into the circumstances

and challenges of communication during usual oper-

ating procedure, and what kind of information is re-

quired for which INS task.

First solutions for the design of the human ma-

chine interface of the communication management

will be developed as paper prototypes and evaluated

in brief user tests.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research is part of a project funded by the Ger-

man Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Af-

fairs.

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