Design and Implementation of a Software Defined Radio Reception Chain for Automatic Identification System (AIS)

Abstract

In maritime communication ships can provide their identity and navigational data and share them through VHF radio channels, this is due to The Automatic Identification System (AIS). Conventional AIS receivers, which depend on specific hardware, tend to be expensive and less flexibility. at the same time, many software use different tools for each stage of the processing is what we call, radio (SDR) approaches, which lead to a complicated setups and reduced efficiency. This research bring up an integrated SDR-based AIS receiver that unite the entire signal chain assembling RF sampling, GMSK demodulation, HDLC decoding, and data extraction into one GNU Radio flowgraph. The system utilizes affordable RTL-SDR hardware and a custom PyAIS module who directly transforms decoded messages into lisible format. Tests managed with an AIS simulator and USRP transmitter confirm reliable real-time decoding of both Class A and Class B signals. This proposal open-source framework gives a practical and adaptable foundation for maritime monitoring, with AI-assisted data analysis and satellite reception can offer a potential extensions.