Wireless Router onboard a modern Ship

Nov 22, 2005 4 Replies

Dear all,



We have a ship with a communication computer in the Bridge (Wheel House) and need to connect the Captain's office directly to that computer as it is not part of the LAN network.



There is of course a possibility to use wires but that is not what we are thinking of now as the Master office is two deck levels below the Bridge.



The question is: how wireless signal would behave inside a ship (steel structure) accomedation and will there be some interference with other communcations equipments such as Walki-Talkis, SatCom, VHF etc. ?



Thanks


-aljuhani


Forget wireless, doesn't work inside a steel box... The usual is to run a network over power lines (they are already run)...

Oh-oh.

The steel vessel will act as a solid barrier to 2.4Ghz. RF will not penetrate in any way. If you find that there is a path by bouncing around the stair wells, it will not be reliable and stable. Even if you arrange a direct shot, the reflections from the bulkheads will cause multipath problems. I would strongly suggest you run the appropriate cables.

As for interefernce, it will not come from the 2.4Ghz signal. It will be the usual clock oscillators radiating to the HF or to the VHF on harmonics. They're low power and no worse than clocks, calculators, or fax machines that radiate RF. The only way to determine if there will be a problem is to try it. The good news is that you probably won't have any interference from other 2.4GHz systems while at sea, but will probably find it useless in port as everyone seems to be using 2.4Ghz wireless to get internet access from the dock to the shore.

Thank you to all and to Jeff, I knew I will be getting a detailed answer from Jeff as always thanks.

Well the idea just came up in trying to find a quick solution but now I guess will have to go for wired connection.

regards

-aljuhani

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