# Best-Suited Communication Technology for Maritime Signaling Facilities: A Literature Review
## 3 Results and Discussion
### State of Communication Technologies

Table 3: _Cont._transfer, improving Internet speed, voice, and video services in mobile networks), 3G (third generation of mobile networks that offers faster data transfer rates than 2G, enabling better internet access, video calls, and data transfer on the go), VHF (radio frequency range (30-300 MHz) used for medium and long-range communication, commonly employed in maritime and aviation communications), MaxStream (wireless technology based on XBee modules that enables short-range data transmission and low power consumption), and ZigBee (wireless communication technology designed for IoT applications, with low-power consumption and the ability to connect a large number of devices in a network with low data transmission speeds). Listed technologies were employed in a total of 36 practical examples that were examined in the analyzed papers. A discrepancy was observed during the analysis between the total number of analyzed papers and the number of uses for each mentioned communication technology. This discrepancy occurred because, for example, [PERSON] et al. [1], [PERSON] et al. [63], and [PERSON] and [PERSON] [41] utilized multiple different communication technologies for data transmission in the same example, increasing the total number of uses for certain communication technologies. Consequently, this led to the increased frequency of the individual usage of certain communication technologies. The prevalence of each communication technology in the relevant scientific papers is presented in Figure 4.  
The figure shows that LoRa WAN is the predominant communication technology (30.30%) for transmitting data from remote maritime signaling facilities, as determined by analyzing selected papers. AIS and GPRS were found to be represented in a total of five papers each. The least represented technologies are 3G, VHF, MaxStream, and ZigBee, each analyzed in one paper. One of the key challenges in implementing the remote monitoring of maritime signaling facilities (AtoN) is the limited availability of reliable and energy-efficient communication technologies. Although satellite systems, such as the Iridium system, offer global coverage, their application is often limited by high costs and significant energy demands. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [20] highlight that Iridium satellite telemetry enables real-time data transmission but comes with high operational costs and substantial energy consumption. These limitations make satellite technologies less suitable for autonomous maritime signaling systems, especially in remote areas where energy resources are limited [64]. [PERSON] et al. [19] also emphasize that, while satellite-based solutions are technically feasible for maritime IoT applications, their high costs and energy requirements remain a significant barrier to widespread adoption, particularly for autonomous and energy-constrained systems. Figure 4: Prevalence of communication technologies among the analyzed papers. In addition to satellite systems, other technologies such as VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) and 5G-NR are also relevant but face similar limitations in the maritime context. VDES, although promising, is still under development, and widespread implementation has not yet been achieved [65; 66; 67]. One of the key challenges of VDES is its limited bandwidth, which restricts the amount of data that can be transmitted efficiently over long distances, making it less effective for high-throughput applications such as real-time video streaming or large-scale data exchange [65]. Additionally, VDES operates in the VHF spectrum, which is susceptible to interference and signal degradation, particularly under adverse weather conditions or in congested maritime regions where multiple communication systems coexist [68]. Similarly, while 5G-NR technology offers high data transmission speeds and low latency, it requires dense network infrastructure, making it challenging to deploy in remote maritime regions with sparse base station coverage.