Application of Markov Chains to analyse the AIS availability

Despite the initial objections, crew members and vessel traffic service staff use automatic identification system in their activities. In the phase of system implementation, inability to receive signals at scheduled time was raised, and evidenced. The research on AIS availability was conducted by the authors in 2006 and the results were presented in [Felski A., Jaskólski K, 2011]. This paper analyses the problem of AIS availability. Availability has been studied from the standpoint of the quality of data transmission channel. An attempt was made to assess the availability of the AIS service transmission channel. For this purpose, the theory of Markov processes defined on a discrete state space was applied. The Criterion of state system availability was adopted, stochastic matrix of probabilities of transitions between the states of the availability and accessibility of states limit the probability of AIS. In this paper, author proposed a model for the assessment of AIS Service availability. To meet the objective of the research, recorded data derived from the AIS Base Station HEL were used.