New Receiver Algorithms for Satellite AIS

Recently, satellite-aided automatic identification system (AIS) has opened new possibilities to the maritime world. Techniques able to capture the AIS traffic behavior at the satellite are of upmost importance for guiding the design of future maritime communication system integrating AIS and new services that can enhance the safety and awareness during navigation. In this context, our contribution focuses on the medium access (MAC) and system levels performance investigation of a common satellite AIS receiver, compared to an advanced one. We present a generic method, capable of evaluating any AIS receiver, making the use of a simplified yet tight model of the MAC layer and the multi-packet reception (MPR) matrix for physical layer (PHY) representation. Performance in terms of both throughput and first pass ship detection probability, show the benefits of such advanced receiver, especially when it is bundled with advanced signal processing capabilities as successive interference cancellation (SIC)