Multirouter DF @ Hellenic Tankers fleet
Multirouter DF @ Hellenic Tankers fleet

The advantage of having a network solution that allows us to separate our vessels network from the airtime providers is only one of the benefits that Marpoint’s solution has offered to our company. That said, not only we can now get high return on the our satellite communication packages through the use of VoIP Crew calling and crew internet, but we also have a solution that can be completely installed and controlled remotely, without the usual necessity of sending engineers onboard the vessels to perform the equipment and network installations. Dimitris Papatheodorou “Hellenic Tankers – ICT Coordinator”


Hellenic Tankers offers first class seaborn transportation services to the energy sector. We strive to be an industry leader exceeding all our customers’ expectations and regulatory requirements.

http://hellenictankers.com/

PROBLEM/NEED:
The executive decision to upgrade satellite equipment and communications on board Hellenic Tankers fleet was taken, thus the need for the proper equipment to handle ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship communications arose. The new Inmarsat packages offered larger data planned that allowed for not only upgrading the vessel communications but also to be able offer to offer internet services to the crew “Crew internet”. Having that in mind, the ICT department was looking for a network solution that would be able to offer this kind of services regardless of the satellite provider the management would choose to cooperate with.

SOLUTION:

Further to our presentation to the ICT department we proposed and agreed in the installation of our MultiRouter DF routers to the entire Hellenic Tankers fleet. In cooperation with ICT we crafted a network scenario for the vessels fleet and agreed in providing the vessels with the below business and crew services:

  • 1. Remote installation of Wi-Fi and VoIP vessel network
  • 2. Preconfigured plug & play hotspots routers and VoIP SIP phones
  • 3. Crew Internet through the use of User based crew internet cards. Each user has his own unique crew internet card that he can top-up or check balance at any time
  • 4. Crew Calling: Crew members can now communicate with their families using VoIP communication with much lower costs than Inmarsat Crew Calling Cards
  • 5. Free VoIP Sip-to-shore and shore-to-ship communication
  • 6. Network firewall protection
  • 7. Vessel online/offline status and Remote Access to sea vessel via VPN, SSH, Web
  • 8. Remote Installation & Support
  • 9. Bandwidth shaping and management ( i.e. blocking P2P when on FBB)
  • 10. QoS: Quality of Service for management of small available bandwidth to be distributed between VoIP, Business and crew / entertainment network (allowing multiple Crew Internet cards to connect and surf at the same time).
  • 11. Crew Web filtering for blocking specific webpage sites and categories

RESULT:

In less than 6 months since the first installation took place and without any traveling or engineer costs, the entire Hellenic tankers fleet can now offer crew internet and VoIP services to the crew.

At the same time ICT can utilize the upgraded airtime packages for business use as well as to get significant return on the expensive satellite communication packages
Finally, vessels ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship communications has now been upgraded and now ICT, officers and management can exchange safely and with confidence large emails and data files, can access necessary business websites and modernize the vessels business communications.