SDR based single channel S-AIS receiver for satellites using system generator

The Terrestrial AIS networks have been in operation over the last two decades and helped with the smooth sailing of numerous ships. During this time, the need for information of ships, over a larger footprint seemed necessary, and hence Satellite based AIS systems have been developed. The Satellite-Automatic Identification System (S-AIS) is a critical maritime monitoring system that ensures safety and security of ships by sharing vital information regarding other ships as well as watercrafts in the vicinity. This paper covers the Software Defined Radio (SDR) based receiver designs at the satellite receivers, in order to reliably receive the transmitted AIS message from the ships. A comparison is also drawn between the two receiver algorithms by measuring their Bit Error Rate (BER) performances. The coherent detection based demodulation algorithm proved to be a viable option in terms of both performance and simplicity for the SDR based receiver system. Also this receiver system was tested on a space grade FPGA and the performance was found to be satisfactory.