Abstract

A project is underway at our center to develop a seamless communication network for fishermen at sea. A network operations center (NOC) for the communication network is required to monitor, manage and troubleshoot the problems in the deployed network. With the deployment of a proper NOC at shore, one can discover and authenticate boats entering and leaving the network, provide a topology map, constantly monitor the deployed infrastructure, faults in the network, failure of any node, etc., and take proper corrective actions. In addition, the NOC will send alerts about an imminent storm, intrusion of foreign vessels, maritime border crossing etc., to the fishermen. The NOC will also collect distress signals and other alerts from the boats and relay them to the appropriate stakeholders on land. It will also be used for software upgrades, making configuration changes and other maintenance tasks on the network nodes. This work outlines the design of an effective and functional management subsystem and a NOC for the network of fishing vessels at sea.