Signal through steel

Steel is what makes ships safe – and difficult to connect. The structural properties that allow a vessel to endure the open ocean create one of the most hostile radio environments in engineering. For decades this was treated as a fixed constraint. Connectivity meant cabling: pulled through bulkheads, threaded through decks, growing more complex with every sensor added.

That assumption deserves revisiting. A DNV type-approved wireless mesh platform, ConnectPOB, has now been operating commercially in steel maritime environments for over half a decade. The wireless location management system tracks personnel onboard maritime vessels, barges and offshore wind farms. It operates via a low-frequency wireless mesh network that penetrates steel environments without the need for