Transportation Application Example— BC Ferry Corporation

Data-Linc Radio Modems Create "Floating Offices" for British Columbia Ferry Corporation

In 1960, the provincial government of British Columbia established a scheduled ferry service between the lower mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island with two vessels and 225 employees. In 1977, British Columbia Ferry Corporation, a crown corporation of the government of British Columbia, assumed operation of the ferry service. Today, BC Ferry has 39 vessels, 26 routes and more than 3000 employees. On a yearly basis, it carries approximately 22 million passengers and 8 million vehicles. Until just 2 years ago, on-ship personnel had to keep manual maintenance logs, purchase orders and other records, which were later entered into BC Ferry’s computer network after the vessel reached shore.

For increased efficiency, BC Ferry then began working with systems integrator Alliance Business Solutions Inc. of Nanaimo, BC, on a pilot project involving ship-to-shore data communications using radio modems. The project started using a commercial wireless Ethernet system, which provides an Ethernet interface and a radio frequency (RF) data rate of 2 Mbps. This enabled on-ship personnel to use email, maintenance software and other applications they could previously only access in the office – but only when the ship was at or near dock. This was better but not good enough. BC Ferry wanted continuous data communications – even when the vessels were 20 to 30 miles out to sea. But the commercial units weren’t designed for such a range.

To achieve longer range, parabolic directional antennas are usually necessary with high speed wireless systems. But because the ships move and turn, directional antennas are totally impractical. Enter the Data-Linc SRM6200E Ethernet Radio Modem, chosen because it offered a highly sensitive RF receiver combined with a reasonable data rate, according to Rick Fielden, president of Alliance Business Solutions. The SRM6200E supported long range communication using a simple omni directional antenna.

Today each ferry contains a Cisco® router with one LAN port, one high-speed (2 Mbps) wide area network (WAN) port connected to the commercial modem, and one lower speed (100 kbps) WAN port connected to the Data-Linc SRM6200E. These communicate with identical units connected to Cisco routers in the BC Ferry terminal offices.

The routers use the higher speed WAN port connected to the commercial modem when the vessel is at or near dock. Once the ferry heads out to sea, however, and the RF link between the commercial units fails, the routers automatically switch to "back-up mode," using the lower speed WAN port connected to the SRM6200E. No user intervention is required to make the switch between radio modems.

"We’ve been very pleased with the reliability of the Data-Linc radio modems," said Fielden. "They maintain their connection even on the longest route, between Tsawwassen on the Canadian/U.S. border and Duke Point on Vancouver Island, which is in excess of 35 land miles in distance."

The Data-Linc SRM6200E Ethernet Radio Modem uses Smart Spectrum™ technology, an advanced frequency hopping transmission method. While its specifications indicate a range of 15 miles, BC Ferry has found this specification to be quite conservative with reliable communications at distances of 35 miles.

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