IMO has a number of options to fund the development, testing, deployment and maintenance of the common infrastructure that e-Navigation will require. One of these options is to ask a vendor to fund the project in return for user fees that the vendor would be allowed to collect for the use of the infrastructure by users of e-Navigation Information.

Considerable effort will still be required from IMO members to specify what the infrastructure requirements are in terms of:

1. Security (firewalls, encryption, etc.)

2. Registration of publishers and subscibers of e-Navigation information

3. S-100 protocol for information exchange between publishers and subscribers

4. Translation of S-100 to and from the current bridge sensor network (IEC 61162/NMEA 0183/2000)

5. The criteria to be used to select the digital communications channel for an information exchange

6. Maximum transmission latency standards for each type of information

7. Information publication properties and standards

8. Information subscription properties and standards

9. Performance standards and carriage requirements for e-Nav compatible communications equipment

   • GMDSS (i.e. NAVTEX, SafetyNet, MF, VHF, etc.)

   • Other (i.e. Satellite, WiMax, Cellular, WiFi)

10. Etc.

Once all of these requirements have been negotiated, IMO could invite vendors to bid on infrastructure development. Key issues are going to be estimating the volume of traffic on the infrastructure, managing the bidding process, selecting a vendor, managing the vendor during development, acceptance testing, managing registration of publishers and subscribers of information and managing infrastucture maintenance.