ship162

ship162 is a complete maritime tracking application that includes the rs162 Rust library for decoding AIS (Automatic Identification System) messages from binary feeds and NMEA sentences using the deku library for clean, declarative binary data parsing.

The library takes its inspiration from the Python pyais library and leverages deku to provide efficient, type-safe AIS message decoding. The major specificity compared to other implementations is the deku-based decoder, which enables clean bit-level parsing with compile-time guarantees.

The directions ambitioned by ship162 include:

• providing high-performance AIS decoding in Rust;
• offering efficient multi-receiver AIS decoding;
• serving real-time enriched maritime data to external applications;
• end-to-end demodulation and decoding from SDR hardware to structured data.

The ultimate goal is to create a complete maritime tracking solution that can receive raw radio signals and output structured AIS data, similar to what dump1090 does for aviation ADS-B messages.

Features

• Complete AIS message support: Handles all standard AIS message types (1-27)
• NMEA sentence parsing: Full support for AIVDM/AIVDO messages with multi-fragment assembly
• Type-safe decoding: Leverages Rust's type system and deku for reliable parsing
• JSON serialization: Built-in serde support for easy data export
• Real-time processing: Efficient handling of live AIS data streams
• Multi-fragment messages: Automatic assembly of multi-sentence AIS messages

Optional Features

• rtlsdr: Support for real-time demodulation from RTL-SDR USB dongles (enabled via desperado).
• mqtt: Support for connecting to MQTT brokers (e.g., Finnish Digitraffic). Disabled by default.

Similar Projects

• AIS-catcher in C++
• pyais in Python
• ais or nmea-parser in Rust

The key differentiator of ship162 is its use of deku for declarative binary parsing, providing both performance and correctness guarantees that are difficult to achieve with manual bit manipulation.

Future Roadmap

The long-term vision for ship162 is to become a complete end-to-end demodulation and decoding application that can:

• Receive raw RF signals from SDR hardware
• Demodulate AIS signals (161.975 MHz and 162.025 MHz)
• Decode NMEA sentences in real-time
• Provide Python and WebAssembly bindings
• Offer a complete maritime tracking solution

This will make ship162 the maritime equivalent of rs1090 for aviation tracking.

Installation

Run the following Cargo command in your project directory:

# Standard installation
cargo add rs162

# With MQTT support
cargo add rs162 --features mqtt

# With RTL-SDR support
cargo add rs162 --features rtlsdr

Or add the following line to your Cargo.toml:

rs162 = "0.1.0"  # check for the latest version

Usage

Basic AIS Message Decoding

use rs162::decode::ais::Message;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Single NMEA sentence
    let nmea = "!AIVDM,1,1,,B,15M67FC000G?ufbE`FepT@3n00Sa,0*5C";
    let message = Message::from_nmea(&[nmea])?;

    // Convert to JSON
    let json = serde_json::to_string(&message)?;
    println!("{}", json);

    Ok(())
}

Multi-fragment Messages

use rs162::decode::ais::Message;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Multi-sentence Type 5 static and voyage data
    let sentences = [
        "!AIVDM,2,1,1,A,55?MbV02;H;s<HtKR20EHE:0@T4@Dn2222222216L961O5Gf0NSQEp6ClRp8,0*1C",
        "!AIVDM,2,2,1,A,88888888880,2*25",
    ];

    let message = Message::from_nmea(&sentences)?;
    let json = serde_json::to_string(&message)?;
    println!("{}", json);

    Ok(())
}

Processing NMEA Files

# See examples/nmea_file.rs for a complete file processor
cargo run --example nmea_file

Real-time TCP Stream Processing

# See examples/nmea_tcp.rs for live AIS data processing
# Connects to Norwegian Coastal Administration's free AIS feed
cargo run --release --example nmea_tcp -- 153.44.253.27:5631 | \
  jq -c '.message + .mmsi_info + {timestamp: (.timestamp | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"))}'

Demodulating from I/Q Samples

# See examples/iqfile.rs for processing I/Q sample files
cargo run --release --example iqfile | \
  jq -c '.message + .mmsi_info + {timestamp: (.timestamp | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"))}'

Demodulating from rtl_tcp

# See examples/rtltcp.rs
rtl_tcp -a 127.0.0.1 -p 1234 -f 162M -s 288k -g 49.6
cargo run --release --example rtltcp | \
  jq -c '.message + .mmsi_info + {timestamp: (.timestamp | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"))}'

Demodulating from RTL-SDR Devices

Warning

Please read the following important note for Linux users: https://github.com/ccostes/rtl-sdr-rs#uload-kernel-modules

# See examples/rtlsdr.rs
cargo run --release --example rtlsdr | \
  jq -c '.message + .mmsi_info + {timestamp: (.timestamp | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"))}'

# See examples/rtlsdr_async.rs
cargo run --release --example rtlsdr_async | \
  jq -c '.message + .mmsi_info + {timestamp: (.timestamp | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"))}'

Technical Standards

The library implements:

• IEC 61162-1: Maritime navigation digital interfaces (NMEA 0183)
• ITU-R M.1371: Technical characteristics for AIS
• IEC 62320-1: AIS transponder equipment standards

Data Sources

Norwegian Coastal Administration

Real-time AIS data is freely available from the Norwegian Coastal Administration:

• Host: 153.44.253.27
• Port: 5631
• Format: IEC 61162-1 (NMEA with timestamps)
• License: Norwegian license for public data

More information: https://www.kystverket.no/en/sea-transport-and-ports/ais/access-to-ais-data/

Finnish Digitraffic MQTT Feed

Note

You must compile the library or application with --features mqtt to access this source.

Real-time AIS data is available via MQTT from Finnish Digitraffic:

• Broker: mqtt.digitraffic.fi
• Topics:
  • vessels-v2/\<mmsi\>/metadata
  • vessels-v2/\<mmsi\>/locations
  • vessels-v2/status
• Format: JSON messages containing AIS data
• License: "Kaikki Digitraffic -palvelun kautta jaettava tieto on koneluettavaa avointa dataa ja on käytettävissä Creative Commons 4.0 Nimeä -käyttöluvalla, mikä mahdollistaa uusien palveluiden ja ohjelmistojen kehittämisen." (machine translation: "All data distributed through the Digitraffic service is machine-readable open data and is available under the Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution license, which enables the development of new services and software.")

More information: https://www.digitraffic.fi/en/marine-traffic/

Agent-based coding

Most of the codebase has been generated with the assistance of Claude Sonnet 4, using specifications from:

• GPSD AIVDM documentation
• Test cases adapted from the pyais library
• ITU-R M.1371 specifications

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! The project particularly benefits from:

• Real-world test cases and data samples
• Performance optimizations
• Documentation improvements

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the license file for details.