# Best-Suited Communication Technology for Maritime Signaling Facilities: A Literature Review
## 4 Conclusions and Directions for Future Work  
Considering the importance of establishing wireless communication with maritime signaling facilities, a systematic review paper was developed to provide an overview of the research area's current state. The paper was developed following the PRISMA 202 guidelines and analyzed 29 relevant papers published between 2003 and 2023. It has to be emphasized that this research conducted an extensive analysis of ten communication technologies, including AIS, LoRa WAN, GPRS, NB-IoT, GSM, LTE, 3G, VHF, MaxStream, and ZigBee, with a specific focus on the technical characteristics of communication technologies, which relate to the signal range, electricity consumption, and use cost. The proven analysis suggests that AIS, LoRa WAN, and NB-IoT are the most effective communication technologies for transmitting data from maritime signaling facilities over long distances. Among these, LoRa WAN is the most energy-efficient technology, consuming 2.14 times less than AIS and NB-IoT. Also, the analysis results of this review paper showed that LoRa WAN has a 2.25 times lower cost of use than those communication technologies with the lowest cost. Overall, LoRa WAN is the superior technology in both metrics. While LoRa WAN demonstrates technical superiority in energy efficiency and cost, its limited compliance with IMO, IALA, and RTCM regulatory standards highlights the need for further research and adjustments to enable broader application in maritime signaling. However, despite technical limitations such as power consumption, signal range, or operational costs, which make them difficult to apply to maritime signaling facilities, AIS, VDES, VHF, and Iridium are the only technologies that fully comply with all established regulatory requirements. After analyzing the relevant papers, it was observed that there were potential deficiencies in the test performed and the approach utilized in the papers that were considered. A unified network deployment and signal transmission approach is necessary to improve measurement reliability. The precise measurement of power consumption and costs for each communication technology is also needed. Furthermore, the paper's research is based on a hypothesis that assumed limited availability in the remote monitoring of maritime signaling facilities. After conducting an analysis, the hypothesis has been confirmed. This validation is supported by a methodological approach, where 29 relevant research papers were rigorously filtered and analyzed. Given the limited number of papers found in the WOS, SCOPUS, and GOOGLE SCHOLAR databases, it was necessary to include additional databases where 13 relevant papers were found, constituting almost 45% of the overall number of papers finally analyzed. This review paper analysis required an extensive search beyond conventional databases to ensure comprehensiveness and relevance, while a systematic study on the timeline of communication technology integration is needed to better understand the evolution of these systems and identify key drivers of change. A comprehensive review of the available literature found that Industry 4.0 has not been mentioned in the context of maritime signaling facilities. Considering this, the authors believe that future research should explore this area. Additionally, attention should be given to improving the compliance of LoRa WAN and similar technologies with regulatory standards, particularly IALA recommendations for maritime signaling facilities. Furthermore, integrating technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE into existing regulatory frameworks could significantly enhance the efficiency and reliability of marine systems. The authors also suggest that, besides reviewing existing communication technologies and their applications in the maritime sector, future research should focus on developing new analytical methods for evaluating and optimizing these technologies.