A communication monitoring system to support maritime security

Illegal immigration and piracy are today two main threats to maritime security. An essential capability to address these threats is the awareness of the maritime domain. A number of technologies have been proposed to locate and identify vessels used by criminal activities in the open sea. This paper proposes the detection of criminal vessels in the open sea by monitoring emission of mobile satellite communication, which is used by criminals to coordinate their attacks or to communicate with their partners on land. The paper describes the design of the monitoring system and the related trade-offs and challenges.