B Maintenance of ECDIS Software
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Circulars - Maritime Safety Committee - MSC.1/Circular.1503/Rev.1 - ECDIS - Guidance for Good Practice - (16 June 2017) - Annex - ECDIS - Guidance for Good Practice - B Maintenance of ECDIS Software

B Maintenance of ECDIS Software

12 ECDIS in operation comprises hardware, software and data. It is important for the safety of navigation that the application software within the ECDIS works fully in accordance with the Performance Standards and is capable of displaying all the relevant digital information contained within the ENC.

13 ECDIS that is not updated to the latest version of the IHO Standards may not meet the chart carriage requirements as set out in SOLAS regulation V/19.2.1.4.

14 For example, in January 2007, Supplement No.1 to the IHO ENC Product Specification was introduced in order to include, within the ENC, the then recently introduced IMO requirements for Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSA), Archipelagic Sea Lanes (ASL) and to cater for any future safety of navigation requirements.

15 Any ECDIS which is not upgraded to be compatible with the latest version of the IHO ENC Product Specification or the Presentation Library may be unable to correctly display the latest charted features. Additionally, the appropriate alarms and indications may not be activated even though the features have been included in the ENC. Similarly, any ECDIS which is not updated to be fully compliant with the latest version of the IHO Data Protection Standard may fail to decrypt or to properly authenticate some ENCs, leading to failure to load or install. An up-to-date list of all the relevant IHO standards relating to ECDIS equipment can be accessed from the IHO website (www.iho.int).

16 The need for safe navigation requires that manufacturers should provide a mechanism to ensure software maintenance arrangements are adequate. This may be achieved through the provision of software version information using a website. Such information should include the IHO Standards which have been implemented.

17 Administrations should inform shipowners and operators that proper ECDIS software maintenance is an important issue and that adequate measures need to be implemented by masters, shipowners and operators in accordance with the International Safety Management (ISM) Code.

Parent topic: Annex - ECDIS - Guidance for Good Practice
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