PDVMarina S.A. is a Venezuelan oil shipping corporation. The company
operates country-wide corporate landline data network to communicate
between its subsidiaries in Venezuela, and uses and a world-wide
satellite data network service to communicate between its oil tanker
vessels and its offices. As most networks, their structure and/or use
has 'just happened' rather than having been planned in the past.
This research is an attempt to help PDVMarina in shedding light
on the status, reliability, efficiency and cost of their networks and use
of them. In addition the obtained information of the past and current
network history and usage trend is to be exploited for future planning
efforts.
A current model of PDVMarina's own land-line data and voice
was created using relevant information on the network structure, traffic
loads and costs as collected during a reconnaissance trip to Venezuela
in October 1993. The model was built to be implemented in the
communications simulator software package COMNET II and was run for
the current situation and various what-if scenarios. The simulation results
were used to reveal to the company the current situation, and help to
start an informed planning process for the future.
The satellite network service was also modeled using COMNET II
using operations data collected during the reconnaissance session. Basic
operation modes of the used Imarsat satellite system and COMSAT services
were modeled. The current usage and cost was determined. Alternative
COMSAT services were evaluated with a view towards cost reduction. In
addition, a closer integration of the company's own land-line data network
and network services with the satellite network services was developed
and suggested for economic reasons.
Participating in the project were Dr. Bernd J. Kurz (professor),
John Dedourek (professor) and Jaime Marquez-Velandia, M.Sc.CS.
This research was carried out under a funded agreement with
PDVMarina S.A., Punto Fijo, Venezuela.
Project Status: Started: October 1993
Completed: April 1995.
Jaime Marquez-Velandia, Modeling and Evaluation of a Ship-Land Communications Network, M.Sc.CS thesis, Fac. of Computer Science, Univ. of New Brunswick, April 1995.
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Last revised: 6 June 1997 by Bernd Kurz bjkurz@unb.ca