Task 6b. Establish a real-time Caribbean Sea traffic situation plot. 

A computer generated graphical representation of the Caribbean Sea with an overlay of the vessel traffic situation plot,  and with  several concurrent overlapping displays,  flexible in the number of displays presented at one time, and with the capability of selecting  any desired sections of  the Caribbean Sea  displayed.  To properly control the  vessel traffic of the Caribbean Sea, real-time vessel traffic monitoring, computer traffic analysis, and  vessel scheduling, the center must have computer displays locating vessels with a location system,  supported by automatic sensors, to locate all participating vessels, to a horizontal position accuracy of approximately 5 meters, with velocity accuracy of better than 0.5 knots.

The vessel traffic control  computer should have the capability to manually input vessel position and velocity reports for those individual vessels unable to automatically report positions. The computer system should also estimate each vessel's adherence to  assigned schedules.

Information displays should meet or exceed the color VGA screen standard resolution of 640 x 480 pixels with at least 19" diagonal screen size. Display architecture should be capable of supporting  three or more monitor consoles with the additional capability of projecting a selected images unto to a large video wall display approximately 48" or larger. Additional computer displays should be provided for text information, on-line report generation, database query , and vessel scheduling.

It is expected that with schedule conformance and load-factor monitoring vessel congestion, incidents of collision, ramming, and grounding will be reduced. With the necessary software, and embedded algorithms, the traffic control computer system, located at the Main Traffic Management Center at Jamaica, should be capable of monitoring, controlling, and scheduling all vessel operations in the Caribbean Sea. Scheduling should accommodate published vessel itineraries. The system should support automated scheduling for all vessels on a daily basis with hourly updates and confirm these schedules to all participating vessel traffic. In addition, operators should be able to manually input selected elements for individual vessels, "over-riding" automated scheduling, if desired.

Updates to schedule should be available for printing on demand at a line print(s) located at the shore monitor station as well as storage of hourly updates as database entries. Scheduling functions must address and measure system performance.