Maritime Connectivity Platform Launched

The Maritime Connectivity Platform Consortium has been established and a Platform launched on Friday during the conference e-Navigation Underway 2019.

The Maritime Connectivity Platform (MCP) is an open source, vendor-neutral digital maritime domain to bring common internet standards to maritime navigation and transportation systems. The MCP enables infrastructures for efficient, secure, reliable and seamless electronic information exchange among maritime stakeholders using available communication systems. 

The platform has been evolving for a number of years. Around 2015, development escalated significantly, when three large projects collaborated on the common use and further development of the technology. These were the E.U. projects EfficienSea2, the STM Validation project and the SMART Navigation project funded by the Korean government. During these projects an MCP test bed was established, which now has been running for several years, and now nearly 100 organizations have signed up to the platform.

The MCP supports actors using use digital services to exchange public as well as private information. 

The Consortium will act as the coordinating body for the provision of guidelines and standards. Members include: OFFIS, Germany, KRISO, Republic of Korea, RISE, Sweden, University of Copenhagen, and the General Lighthouse Authorities of UK and Ireland. The Danish Maritime Authority, Swedish Maritime Administration and the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea are joining as governmental observers.