On 8 February 2019, the Maritime Connectivity Platform Consortium (MCC) was founded during the conference „e-navigation underway international 2019“. In a ceremonial act Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Hahn, member of the board of OFFIS – Institut für Informatik, signed the joint declaration of the nine consortium partners. The goal of this consortium is the international and cross-project coordination and development of the Maritime Connectivity Platform (MCP).
The MCP is an open and manufacturer-neutral technology and combines current Internet standards with existing and future navigation and transport systems in civil maritime shipping. The MCP offers an infrastructure for an efficient, secure, reliable and seamless electronic exchange of information between operators at sea by using established communication systems. It offers special services for identity management and service management, such as the IMO concept of Maritime Services. The MCP supports actors to use digital services for the exchange of public and private information.
In Europe, OFFIS has been involved in two major projects since 2015, EfficienSea 2 and Sea Traffic Management that contributed significantly to the creation of the MCP. There are also further developments in the major South Korean SMART Navigation project. At present almost 100 organizations are using test instances of the MCP in various projects. The Maritime Connectivity Platform Consortium acts as a coordinator for the provision of guidelines and standards. The MCP takes over the open structure of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Interested organisations are welcome to join the consortium and contribute with their visions and competences. The consortium was supported by the non-commercial organisation OFFIS – Institute for Information Technology, Germany; KRISO, Republic of Korea; RISE, Sweden; University of Copenhagen, Denmark and General Lighthouse Authorities of UK and Ireland, the Danish Swedish Shipping Authorities (DMA and SMA ) and the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea (MOF). Prof. Axel Hahn explains together with SMA and MOF that „the MCP can become an important framework for the digitisation of the maritime sectors, for example in the fields of E-Navigation, SMART Shipping & Maritime Logistics, Sea Traffic Management (STM) and Autonomous Shipping“.
