Everything you need to know about LRIT (Long Range Identification and Tracking) and Iridium phone

This article focuses on condensing all the information that is required to be known for anyone appearing exams, when it comes to LRIT.

Introduction

The Long-Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system provides for the global identification and tracking of ships to enhance security of shipping and for the purposes of safety and marine environment protection.

Solas Requirements

The obligations of ships to transmit LRIT information and the rights and obligations of SOLAS Contracting Governments and of Search and rescue services to receive LRIT information are established in regulation V/19-1 of the 1974 SOLAS Convention

It came into existence on the 19^th May 2006 and was incorporated formally starting from January 2008. Those ships which were built on or following 31^st December 2008 were required to have this system of vessel identification.

Which ships are required to carry LRIT Equipment?

The LRIT regulation will apply to the following ships engaged on international voyages:
all passenger ships including high speed craft;

cargo ships, including high speed craft, of 300 gross tonnage and above; and

mobile offshore drilling units

mobile offshore drilling units

all vessels above 300GT plying on the coast of India shall comply with the SOLAS Chapter – V Regulation 19-1 (LRIT). (NT BRANCH CIRCULAR NO. NT/02/10)

Ships operating exclusively in Sea Area A11 and fitted with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) will be exempt, while ships operating in
Sea Area A2 not fitted with Inmarsat C GMDSS equipment will be required to fit a dedicated LRIT terminal. Ships operating into Sea Area A4 will require a dedicated LRIT terminal that operates in conjunction with an approved low-
earth orbit communication service provider.

MSC.1/Circ.1295 provides further guidance in relation to certain types of ships.
Any ship with SOLAS certification will be required to comply with SOLAS Regulation V/19-1 unless:
• the vessel is on domestic operations; and
• an exemption has been issued.

Purpose of LRIT

LRIT is a system to allow Member States to receive position reports

From vessels operating under their flag,

Vessels seeking entry to a port within their territory,

and vessels operating in proximity to a Member State’s coastline.

The purpose of LRIT is

• enhanced security,
• environmental protection
• and safety/search-and-rescue benefits.

What data is transmitted by LRIT and at what interval?

LRIT equipment on board ships must be capable of being configured to transmit the following minimum information set in an automatically generated position report (APR):
• the identity of the ship;
• the latitude and longitude of the ship; and
• the date and time of the position.

In addition, ship LRIT equipment must be able to respond to poll requests for an on-demand position report and be able immediately to respond to instructions to modify the APR interval to a frequency of a maximum of one every 15 minutes. APRs will be transmitted as a minimum 4 times per day (every 6 hours) to a National Data Centre or to a Cooperative or Regional Data Centre nominated by the Maritime Administration / Flag Register (the
“Flag”

Who receives data transmitted by LRIT?

LRIT information is provided to Contracting Governments and Search and Rescue services entitled to receive the information, upon request, through a system of National, Regional, Cooperative and Intern ational LRIT Data Centres, using where necessary, the International LRIT Data Exchange.

Who can access LRIT information?

Under the terms of SOLAS Regulation V/19-1.8, governments are entitled to receive LRIT information, if they wish to do so, for security and other purposes, in four basic situations: 

• as a Flag State, an Administration is entitled to receive LRIT information about ships entitled to fly its flag irrespective of where such ships may be located;
• as a Port State, a Contracting Government is entitled to receive LRIT information about ships which have indicated their intention to enter a port facility or a place under the jurisdiction of that Contracting Government, subject to certain restrictions;
• as a Coastal State, a Contracting Government is entitled to receive LRIT information about ships entitled to fly the flag of other Contracting Governments, not intending to enter a port facility or a place under the jurisdiction of that Contracting Government, navigating within a distance not exceeding 1,000 nautical miles of its coast, subject to certain restrictions; and
• the Search and Rescue Service of a Contracting Government may receive, free of any charges, LRIT information in relation to the search and rescue of persons in distress at sea.

In addition, the MSC has subsequently decided that Contracting Governments may request, receive and use LRIT information for safety and marine environment protection purposes.

Contracting Governments will generally have to pay a small charge, reflecting largely the costs of data collection and storage, for the LRIT information they use. The MSC has decided that ships themselves shall not be charged for the transmission or other costs of participation in the LRIT system.

Similarly, the LRIT system has been designed so that the capabilities of many existing satellite communication terminals (eg Inmarsat C), mandatorily fitted in most SOLAS ships, will be sufficient for LRIT purposes.

As a result, it should not be necessary for the majority of ships to incur any significant cost in implementing the new LRIT reporting requirements. 

Vessel position reports are to be made available to other Member States for purchase, whenever a vessel is within 1000 nautical miles of the purchasing member’s coast, or when a vessel seeking entry to a member state’s port is a pre-determined distance or time from that port.

IMO has established a central Data Distribution Plan (DDP) that facilitates the exchange of the position reports and routes reports based on each member state’s desire to purchase reports.

Performance standards

• Be capable of automatically — and without human intervention — transmitting the ship’s LRIT information at six-hour intervals to an LRIT data center
• Be capable of being configured remotely to transmit LRIT information at variable intervals
• Be capable of transmitting LRIT information following receipt of polling commands interface directly to the shipborne global navigation satellite system equipment, or have internal positioning capability
• Be supplied with energy from the main and emergency source of electrical power
• Be tested for electromagnetic compatibility per IMO recommendations

Working/Functioning

The LRIT system consists of:

• the shipborne LRIT information transmitting equipment; 
• the Communication Service Provider(s) (CPS); 
• the Application Service Provider(s) (ASP); 
• the LRIT Data Centre(s) (DC), including any related Vessel Monitoring System(s) (VMS); 
• the LRIT Data Distribution Plan (DDP); and 
• the International LRIT Data Exchange (IDE). 

Certain aspects of the performance of the LRIT system are reviewed or audited by the LRIT Coordinator acting on behalf of all SOLAS Contracting Governments.

Communication Service Provider

The Communication Service Provider (CSP) provides the communications services which transfer LRIT data securely from ship to the ASP on shore. The means of communication will often be via satellite, but the LRIT system itself is independent of the means of communication, and any method can be used, as long as the correct packet of data arrives on shore at the right periodicity or when demanded. The IMO Performance Standard requires that:

“The shipboard equipment should transmit the LRIT information using a communication system which provides coverage in all areas where the ship operates.”

In India Tata Communications act as a communication service provider.

Application Service Provider

 The Application Service Provider (ASP) receives the LRIT reports transmitted by the ship via the CSP, adds certain additional information to each report, and forwards the reports to the Data Centre nominated by the ship’s Flag State. The information to be added to each LRIT report by the ASP includes:

IMO ship identification number and MMSI for the ship;

• name of the ship;
• unique identification code for the LRIT Data Centre; and
• a number of time stamps used for tracking and audit purposes.

In addition, the ASP is responsible for testing and configuring the ship’s communications terminal, both when the terminal is new and during continued LRIT reporting, including executing “on demand” transmissions of LRIT data.

Experience has shown that ship’s communication terminals do not always continue reporting automatically without further intervention, and the ASP is responsible for identifying when a terminal has ceased automatic reporting for any reason and resetting its reporting function when required.

Lastly, the ASP must ensure that LRIT information is collected, stored and routed in a reliable and secure manner.

The ASP is will often be a commercial entity, and is chosen and recognized by a Contracting Government to provide LRIT Data to their Data Centre.

LRIT Data Centres

The primary purposes of an LRIT Data Centre (DC) are to collect, store and make available to authorised entities the LRIT information transmitted by ships instructed by their administrations to utilise the services of that DC. In carrying out these core functions, the DC is required to ensure that LRIT data users are only provided with the LRIT information they are entitled to receive under the terms of SOLAS Regulation V/19.1. 

In addition, the LRIT DC acts as a “clearing house” by receiving requests for LRIT information lodged in other DCs from its associated Administration(s) and obtaining the data requested. Generally LRIT reports so requested will be exchanged through the International Data Exchange.

LRIT Data Centres are required to archive their data so that the reports can be recovered, if required, at a later date and the activities of the DC can be audited by the LRIT Coordinator. 

LRIT DCs may make a charge for LRIT data they provide to other DCs. 

DCs may be either National (established to provide service to only one Contracting Government); Cooperative (established to provide services to a number of Contracting Governments) or Regional (established to provide services to a number of Contracting Governments acting through a regional entity of some kind).

International LRIT Data Exchange 

The International LRIT Data Exchange (IDE) exists to route LRIT information between LRIT DCs using the information provided in the LRIT Data Distribution Plan. It is therefore connected via the internet to all LRIT DCs and the LRIT Data Distribution Plan server. 

The IDE cannot access and does not archive the LRIT data itself, but it does maintain a journal of message header information – which can be understood as the “envelope” containing the LRIT information. This journal is used for invoicing functions and for audit purposes. 

The performance of the IDE is audited by the LRIT Coordinator.

Can LRIT be switched off?

A ship engaged on an international voyage may switch off its LRIT equipment only when it is permitted by its Flag Administration, in circumstances detailed in SOLAS V/19:

1. Where international agreements, rules or standards provide for the protection of navigational information (WARSHIPS for example)
2. In exceptional circumstances and for the shortest duration possible where the operation is considered by the master to compromise the safety or security of the ship.
3. When a ship is undergoing repairs in dry-dock or in port or is laid up for a long period, the master may temporarily stop the transmission.

For India, Ship owners are to take approval from NDC prior to deactivating the LRIT Terminal while selling/scrapping the vessels. The NDC will than remove the and Member Number.

What are the two aspects of LRIT?

There are two aspects to LRIT:

1. The ‘reporting’ aspect where vessels to which LRIT applies report their identity and position, with a date/time stamp, every six hours (four times per day).
2. The ‘receiving’ aspect where coastal States can purchase reports when vessels are within 1,000 nautical miles, or where port States can purchase reports when vessels seek entry to a port at a pre-determined distance or time from that port (up to 96 hours pre-entry).

Is LRIT part of Gmdss?

LRIT is not part of the GMDSS communication requirements either but its equipment – particularly Inmarsat C and Mini C terminals – can also be used to support the system.

Difference between AIS and LRIT

Difference between LRIT and AIS

Iridium

Iridium Satellite LLC (Iridium), with its global satellite coverage over all of the Earth’s seaways, low-latency, two-way short-burst data (SBD) links and robust network quality, provides an ideal communication medium for LRIT reporting.

Importantly, Iridium is the only maritime satellite system that provides coverage over the entire globe, including IMO Sea Area A4, comprising those areas not covered by Inmarsat or national coastal systems.

This includes Polar Regions above 70 degrees north or south latitude. In other words, ships operating in Sea Area A4 can only meet the carriage requirement with an Iridium LRIT device.

The following requirements must be completed for all LRIT devices intended to operate on the Iridium satellite network:

• The LRIT device must be tested and certified by Iridium for interoperability via the Iridium satellite network
• It must be type-approved by the ship’s flag administration
• It must be tested by an ASP authorized by the ship’s flag administration to conduct LRIT conformance testing

Conlusion

Tried covering all questions related to LRIT, might be a little too much of information condensed in one place.

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