Hot Industry News from the Marine Electronics Journal

Hot Industry News

NMEA 2000®: The New Backbone of Onboard Data Networking

If you appreciate the development of more options, power and reliability in today’s marine electronics, then you will love what NMEA 2000®—the new standard for onboard data networking—can do for your boat and your boating experience. And you will want to buy NMEA 2000®-certified products already on the market (and many more will be introduced soon).

What is NMEA 2000®?

NMEA 2000® is the industry’s new electronic communication and control protocol that allows any certified product to link to a bus (one main line) and communicate with one another. It offers "plug it in and play it" reliability for certified products.

With its open architecture NMEA 2000® offers networking that simply has not been possible. With NMEA 2000®, engines, navigation, communication, sensors, alarms, monitors and much can be networked and controlled on a single system.

Unlike proprietary standards that restrict the buyer to a single brand, NMEA 2000® allows certified products from many different manufacturers to "speak the same language."

With its single bus, NMEA 2000® reduces the amount of cabling required, thereby reducing costs and simplifying installations. It makes later system service, additions and modifications far easier.

What does mean for your boating experience?

Imagine having on your boat the ability to access virtually all critical data from virtually any station. Imagine having the ability to access information on engines, navigation, communications and from sensors at a single monitor with the touch of your finger. The flexibility that NMEA 2000® makes possible--on boats of almost any size,--is awesome,

How does NMEA 2000® work?

NMEA 2000® is a form of a CAN (controller area network) based largely on a two-way digital protocol developed in the automobile industry. One of the key elements of the NMEA 2000® design is the assignment of a unique address and priority to each marine electronics device on the network. Even though NMEA 2000® resembles Ethernet, it is far more efficient, robust and offers great advantages for marine applications.

The development of NMEA 2000® has been a collaborative effort within the marine electronics industry. The work done since 1999 has included 12 companies, Furuno, Kvaser, Litton, Navionics, Northstar, Raymarine, Simrad, Teleflex, Metal Marine, Trimble, Vector CANtech, Airmar and Japan Radio Corporation. By early 2004, Airmar, Raymarine, Kvaser, Simard and Teleflex have certified products using NMEA 2000®.

NMEA 2000® is recognized by the SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineers) as the standard for marine oriented messaging.

Look for the "NMEA 2000® Certified" logo when purchasing your electronics!

TIP 1: For more information on the NMEA 2000® Standard, point your browser to www.NMEA.org and click on the link for "Publications/Standards".

Author: MEJ