# Design of Multi-Modal Ship Mobile Ad Hoc Network under the Guidance of an Autonomous Ship
## 1 Introduction
It can realize rapid networking without relying on any communication infrastructure, and rely on dynamic routing and mobility management technology between wireless terminals to achieve network establishment, maintenance, and information transmission that meets a certain quality of service [6]. In this type of network, every node is mobile. All nodes are equal in network control, routing selection, and traffic management. They can not only act as ordinary nodes, but also act as routers, which can dynamically maintain contact with other nodes in any way, and realize the discovery and maintenance of routes to other nodes. There are generally multiple paths between the source node and the destination node, which can better achieve load balancing and select the optimal route [7]. The speed of ship nodes is uncertain, the communication density varies from time to time, and the topology of the ship-borne network changes frequently. In a complex environment, an ad hoc network can make up for many deficiencies of existing systems, better realize voice communication, distress alarm, and ship positioning, and use its self-organizing characteristics to expand the communication range. According to the different navigation tasks and the changes in the navigation situation and scene, the ship's communication network networking mode needs to change accordingly. A single communication networking mode is easy to cause problems such as communication interruption and unsmooth information transmission, which cannot fully meet the communication requirements. The characteristics of MANET are consistent with the communication characteristics of the marine ship network and have the characteristics of self-organization, multi-hop connection, mobility, etc., so MANET is one of the key technologies for future maritime intelligent ship communication. If the construction of an ad hoc network can be completed when necessary, we can expect that the MANET can improve the navigation efficiency of ships entering and leaving the port; have timely feedback on the accident information and impact to surrounding ships after an accident; provide multi-ship collision avoidance coordinate information; use multi-hop technology to improve communication distance between ships, etc. In this paper, a MANET for multi-modal ships at sea under the guidance of an autonomous ship is proposed; system architecture, constituent elements, various networking modes, switching methods, and network management methods are studied and multiple aspects of network connectivity models are organized and analyzed. The structure of the article is arranged as follows: Section 2 analyzes the related research on MANET, ship communication network, and ship-to-ship interaction; Section 3 analyzes the composition of ship MANET, the design and switching of network mode, and network management in detail; in Section 4 we establish the ship network as a connectivity model and carry out multi-attribute analysis; in Section 5 we carry out the experimental verification of the node transmission capability of the MANET; and Section 6 concludes the paper.