Design and Implementation of a Software-Defined Radio AIS Transceiver using GNU Radio

This paper presents initial implementations and experimental validations of an Automatic Identification System (AIS) transceiver based on Software-Defined Radio (SDR) and GNU Radio. The proposed platform enables the generation, transmission, reception, and decoding of AIS message type 1 in a controlled laboratory environment using two NI 2901 SDR devices. The implemented system includes AIS frame generation, GMSK modulation and demodulation, NRZI processing, CRC verification, and AIVDM message reconstruction. Experimental results demonstrated the successful recovery of navigation parameters such as MMSI, position, speed, and course. The developed platform provides a framework for AIS experimentation, protocol analysis, and SDR-based maritime communication research.