The Freeport of Riga Is Using 5G to Connect Ships
More than 2,500 ships pass through the Freeport of Riga every year. The port is rolling out a private 5G network to power
At the start of the 5G rollout, LMT and Freeport of Riga built a private 5G network within the Baltic Container Terminal on the mainland. They replaced 22 WiFi access points with just one central control system and two outdoor antennas. Under the new 5G system, Vilciņš said data transmission speeds became more than 10 times faster.
Freeport of Riga began rolling out its 5G network in 2020 and is now expanding it from the port to the sea. Courtesy of the Freeport of Riga The real challenge was connecting the ships in transit. They used a "multi-hop" method, where ships serve as floating telecom base stations.
Looking ahead, Zeltins wants to harness the faster connection to bring new technology to the Freeport of Riga. For instance, the port is testing a Remote Operations Center platform for autonomous maritime systems.
"5G provides an option for real-time controls," Zeltins said. "It's much safer and more responsive." Ships using the multi-hop technique can connect up to 18 miles apart. Up to five ships can be linked up in this way, extending the total network range at sea to more than 100 miles.
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