The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has published a new standard relating to the secure communication between ship and shore (SECOM) of maritime data in S-100 formats.
The S-100 universal hydrographic data model was developed by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to introduce standards for the exchange of digital hydrographic data and provide a platform for new e-navigation products and applications to be created, such as new generation S-101 Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC).
The new IEC 63173-2 SECOM publication will support all S-100 formats and define a standardised interface for transfer of S-100 products. The standard was developed in conjunction with the Sweden-based Sea Traffic Management (STM) project, building on its experiences exchanging data within its Voyage Information Service.
“Route exchange in the STM Validation project was the starting point. However, in the standardisation work the scope was expanded from voyage plans and navigational warnings to include exchange of all S-100 based products,” said Björn Andreasson, STM Testbed Manager.
Work on the IEC SECOM standard began in 2019, with the final IEC 63173-2 version published at the end of May this year. Although it has been designed specifically to be compatible with S-100 products, IEC notes that the standard is technically payload agnostic and also applicable to other types of data as required.
“SECOM is an exchange layer that guarantees that different services and software exchange data the same way. For manufacturers of maritime systems this eliminates the need to support several different service interfaces for different services and products,” said Hannu Peiponen, Chair of the Maritime Navigation and Radiocommunication Equipment and Systems Committee at IEC.
“If a service or product works with one actor using it, it will work with all. This will make it easier to provide valuable end-user services to the maritime community to increase safety and efficiency while at the same time opening a possibility to reduce the environmental footprint.”
