Despite the global push toward smart shipping, maritime digitalisation remains held back by the physical and operational constraints of legacy systems. The following article from Unlocking Safety and Operational Insights Through Wireless Intelligence explores how cables and outdated infrastructure are slowing innovation, inflating costs, and leaving ships vulnerable to inefficiency and safety risks.
Shipping’s digital transition continues to stall in the same place. Every new sensor or safety function competes with cable runs, dry-dock windows, and drawings that don’t match reality. The same is true in the offshore wind sector across Service Operation Vessels (SOVs), Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) and wind turbines. The result is predictable. Projects slip, costs climb, and critical data never reaches the people who need it.
The transformation to digitalisation is held back by legacy technologies. Many vessels still rely on hard-wired networks and proprietary systems that create vendor lock-in. Shipowners must often commit to a single provider’s hardware and software ecosystem, limiting flexibility. Safety regulations and digital standards are evolving, but wireless solutions remain underutilised in shipping due to outdated perceptions about reliability and feasibility. There’s also a misunderstanding that applications and infrastructure must be provided by the same vendor.
For decades, cables have been the default, running 24/7 to tie systems and equipment together. But a typical vessel is a complex ecosystem of diverse technologies, multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and generations of machinery. Unlike an aircraft or a truck fleet, no two ships are exactly alike. This lack of uniformity makes system integration and data acquisition a challenge, especially when retrofitting older vessels.
Planning for cable installation, including creating, updating, and authorising cable diagrams, not to mention the physical aspect of adding a single new sensor, often means opening up bulkheads, decks, and watertight compartments. This is costly and time-consuming. Even shipyards stand to benefit from reducing signal cabling as it leads to fewer penetrations to cut, fewer diagrams to update, and faster commissioning.
Moreover, the constant vibration, moisture, and salt air that reach cables can corrode connections and necessitate intervention, another difficult and lengthy process. Wired systems block below-deck sensors from reaching the bridge as running new cables is costly and disruptive. Ships are already fragmented. Subsystems use different protocols and rarely talk to each other. This fragmentation makes data aggregation difficult and fleet-wide upgrades slow and inefficient.
In 2025, that bottleneck is solvable. Maritime-grade, low-frequency mesh networks now move data through steel using short-hop links and self-healing routes. Crews can be located instantly in an emergency, musters finish in minutes, and below-deck sensors report without a single bulkhead penetration.
To find out more about how wireless technology is transforming maritime safety, efficiency, and data management, explore the full Thought Leadership report, Unlocking Safety and Operational Insights Through Wireless Intelligence, created in partnership with ScanReach.
