Communication
The electronics devices communicate by using a protocol defined by NMEA. NMEA has two standards available
- NMEA 0183
- NMEA 2000
- Lightweight Ethernet (LWE)
NMEA 0183 is based on a serial communication network. NMEA 2000 is a Controller-area network based technology.
In recent years, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has created a new standards suite for "Digital interfaces for navigational equipment within a ship". This is known as IEC 61162 and included NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000 and LWE.
Also different suppliers of marine electronics have their own communications protocol
- Simrad has SimNet
- B&G has FastNet
- Raymarine has SeaTalk
- Furuno has NavNet
- Stowe has Dataline
- Nexus has FDX
- Sea~Data has SDML (XML markup language)
Read more about this topic: Marine Electronics