The document describes the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) Toscana offshore LNG terminal located 12 miles off the coast of Livorno, Italy. It discusses the technical details of converting an LNG carrier into an FSRU with a regasification capacity of 3.75 bcm/a. It also outlines the challenges of establishing a reliable radio link between the moving FSRU and the onshore base in Livorno to enable communication and data transmission. This involved installing antennas on a new radar mast on the FSRU, using a rotary joint and intermediate repeater to overcome obstacles. Authorization was required from authorities to use the necessary frequencies without interference.

1. The OLT Offshore LNG Toscana
FSRU – Floating Storage Regasification Unit
RADIO LINK PROJECT OFF / ON SHORE
Andrea Vallavanti – ICT Manager

2. Technical Commercial Aspects
2
• Conversion of an existing LNG carrier of 137.500 cm of LNG into a floating regassification unit;
• Moored 12 miles offshore Livorno in 110 meters water depth with a single point mooring;
• Regassification unit on board for send-out with nominal capacity of 3.75 bcm/a
• Allowed to receive LNG carriers size in the range between 65,000 cm and 155,000 cm
• LNG loading occurs by direct transfer from LNG carriers moored side-by-side to the terminal via traditional (Jetty)
loading arms
• Wobbe Index Corrector installed to produce Nitrogen can allow to receive most of the LNGs types
• High flexibility in send out flow rate (maximum capacity of 15 MSm3/d with a very low minimum send out) allows high
trading value to the users
• Regassification capacity available for Third Party Access - Commercial and operational contracts and documents have
been published on OLT web site www.oltoffshore.it

3. Main Features
Thruster Wobbe Index Corrector
Turbo generator
Blister
Unloading arms
Regasification plant
Single point mooring

4. Positioning of the Terminal

5. Operational Management
Operational Management is carried out as follows:
 Management and responsibility for all operations has been subcontracted to ECOS Srl – a joint venture company
founded in 2010 by Fratelli Cosulich SpA 40% and EXMAR 60%. ECOS has sole responsibility as ‘Armatore’ for the
Terminal
 Fratelli Neri SpA provides all the naval support service:
 “LNG Guardian” vessel for the surveillance of the Terminal
 Support for the berthing to the LNG Terminal with 2/3 deep-sea tugs
 Shuttle service from the Port of Livorno to the Terminal with the vessel "LNG Express"

6. FSRU Start up Link Connection

7. FSRU Start upLink Connection
 EPCIC CONTRACT FSRU TOSCANA - LINKS AVAILABILITY -
 VSAT LINK: 512 Kbps
 Fleet 77 : 128 Kbps
 Mini M : Remote control connection for maintenance
 FSRU TOSCANA EMPLOYEE ON BOARD
 90 Technician during PAC (Provisional Acceptance Certification )
 35 Technician during normal operation
 FSRU TOSCANA DATA FLOW OFF/ON SHORE BANDWIDTH NEED
 SNAM RETE GAS (Italia Grid owner ) 250 Kbps
 DCS System data flow Off/ On shore (Read mode) 1 Mbps
 Meteo System 500 Kbps
 LAN system on board (10 PCs ) 1,5 Mbps
 Data connection for private device for crew (35 Technician) 1 Mbps
 Voip Telephone 250 Kbps
 TOTAL BANDWIDTH NEEDED 4,5 Mbps(minimum)

8. Budget comparison links OFF/ON shore
Prices 2010 based
VSAT BANDWIDTH INCREASE
OPEX 10 K€/ month
CAPEX 10-15 K€
UMTS /LTE CONNECTION
OPEX 500 € /month
CAPEX 10 K€
FIBER OPTIC CONNECTION
OPEX 5 K€/ month
CAPEX Millions of €uro
RADIO LINK CONNECTION
OPEX 3 K€ / month
CAPEX 250 K€

9. Option available on the market
A. Increase VSAT bandwidth with the available HW installed on the FSRU and in On Shore Base
PRO
HW available on the vessel and in on-shore base
Limited project implementation
CON
High Opex monthly cost for a minimum bandwidth of 5Mbps
Round Trip delay >400 ms
Back up system to be increased (avalable Fleet 77) but with the same technology
UMTS /LTE connection
PRO
Easy installation
Limited cost
CON
Network shared and not dedicated
Strictly related to coverage at 12 miles far from the coast
Bandwidth not aligned with the need

10. Option available on the market
C. Fiber optic connection using the laying of pipeline
PRO
Laying in parallalel to the pipeline
High bandwidth balanced availability
Physical connection on earth system
CON
High cost of installation
D. Radio Link OFF On shore
PRO
Dedicated and Balanced badwidth > 5Mbps
Cost of implementation < 300 k€
CON
Dedicated project to be developed
Developing time > 1 year and half ( without authorization)

11. FSRU Key Challanges

12. Key Challange
 The link between the shore and the FSRU had to ensure constant communication (with relatively high bandwidth) in
both directions, despite the long distance over-water.
The path profile between the two end points, show number of complex technical challenges:
 Limited antenna height:
 The On-Shore Base (located in Leghorn) is settled at the sea level, where the only possibility is to build a small tower
to host the antennas. Due to the long distance (and the curvature of the earth's surface) the sea itself constituted an
obstacle to radio wave propagation.
 Furthermore, given the limited antenna height on the on-shore site, the ships passing through the harbor may have
constituted an additional unpredictable obstacle for the radio link.

13. Key Challange
 Propagation over sea surface.
 Multipath fading is one of the main issues that affect radio propagation over the sea surface. Radio waves are
reflected, and the signal joins the antenna with two different paths. The delay introduced by the different path length
may cause the two signals to join the antenna with different phases. The received signal is thus obtained by the phase
difference between the two signals. Whether the two signals are equal in strength, a phase shift of 180° will cause the
zeroing of the received signal.
 The longer is the path over the sea surface, the biggest is the impact of multipath fading.
 The radio link had to cope with the following movements of the FSRU:
Rotation of the vessel 360°
 Roll: ± 17.84° Surge ± 4,56m
 Pitch: ± 5.25° Heave: ± 7.46m
 Yaw: ± 2.03° Sway: ± 6.19m

14. On Shore site evaluation /comparison
Radio Pilot Control Room
PRO
Good position in front of open sea
CON
Limited height
Limited space on the roof for all the antennas
ENEL Power Plant
PRO
Structure for dishes installation available
Reasonably Good position in front of the sea
CON
Probable dismission of the power plant
Cost of the housing fee

15. On shore site evaluation /comparison
Grain Silos
PRO
Excellent Height
CON
High housing cost 35 k€ /year
Dusty Environment
Palazzo Orlando Headquarter OLT
PRO
OLT’s Property (last floor)
Easy access Server Room from the SAT’s dishes and Radio Link
CON
Limitation due to historical building . No modification of the roof

16. Dishes installation ON shore base
Radio link 7Ghz VSAT Fleet 77 Mini M
Rendering of the iron
structure
Antennas final location
ashore
Final installation

17. Key Challanges first step

18. Key Challange first step
 Operates in 1400 MHz band using a 7 MHz channel size and hitless space diversity (HSD) to
minimise multipath fading
 Provides a capacity of 11.8 Mb/s using QPSK modulation
 Fade margin
 23 dB with shore antennas at 15 m
 29 dB with shore antennas at 75 m
 High link reliability due to HSD with 2 receivers and 1 operating transmitter and one back up transmitter per
transceiver
Upper (Tx/Rx) antenna
Lower (Rx only) antenna

19. Key Challange second and final step
 The technical solution:
 The Antenna’s height limit was solved introducing an intermediate repeater at 900 mt a.s.l. In the FSRU, in order to
find a correct LOS (Line of Sight) free from obstacle, the position for the Radio Link Antenna was chosen modifying
the Radar Mast, on the FSRU. The tower infrastructure in the location ashore was also modified in order to host
the needed antennas.
 Antenna’s location in Livorno was find out with a correct balance between the technical need and housing costs.
Construction inside the Port was aligned in this way, but additional structural activities were studied ad developed
for the correct allocation of the Radio Link antenna’s and its Satellite Back Up . The structure released and installed
, start from scratch, over the building chosen for the installation of the four antennas.
 Ministry of Economic Development didn’t agree on the use of two OMNI directional antennas on the FSRU due to
interference with Military need , Sardinia and Corsica Island (France) . As aftermath, a pointing system with a
directional antenna was put in place with formal agree from the competence Authority in Rome.

20. Key Challange
 FSRU Movements was the biggest challenge to solve:
 FSRU rotation’s issue was solved using a Moog QPT-50 computer-controlled rotary joint. A Tracking Control
Unit running Ponti Radio PR ATS software was installed, controlling the rotary joint by calculating second by
second the antenna PAN from the current FSRU heading. ATS software provides also OLT with an early
notification in case of fault.
 A Yagi Antenna was mounted on top of the rotary joint, providing a relative high gain and avoiding the spread of
RF signal in not-needed directions (this constraint was introduced by the Regulatory Authority in order to
avoid interference with foreign frequencies)
 The Intermediate repeater has two high gain grid antennas with a diameter of 2.4 mt and vertical space diversity
of 8 mt were used, in order to have, at the right location of the FSRU, a footprint wide enough to solve issues
related to other antenna movements.
 Dedicated structure over the new Radar Mast (FSRU Toscana) was been engineered and installed in order to
support the rotary joint + Yagi antenna and access for maintenance.

21. Key Challange
47 Km
25 Km

22. Third party company & system
integrator

23. Third party company & system
integrator
The Radio Link was thus realized in two steps:
 A first link was made between Port of Leghorn and a location ashore .
 This link (25 Km) was set using a Aviat Eclipse in the 7 GHz band.
 A second link was made between the same location and the FSRU. This link (47 Km)
was realized with 4RF Aprisa XE in the 1.5 Ghz band In order to minimize the impact
of multipath fading the Hitless Space Diversity configuration was used. This solution
provides both radio link protection from fading and redundancy.
Additional HW aimed to the Radio Link realization :
 Pointing System over the Radar mast , provided with a QPT 50 computer controlled
 Rotary Joint
 Third party system integrator (Italy)

24. Rotary Joint and Yagi antenna
Installation Offshore – FSRU TOSCANA
New Radar
Mast structure
Pointing System

25. Moog QPT-RF Units
Performance Specifications:
• The QPT-RF series of Pan and Tilt Positioners employ RF rotary joint technology
for management of radio frequency signals. These rugged antenna positioners
support a wide range of antenna sizes, frequency bands and up to 3 isolated
channels of RF pass-through signals.
• All RF, video, power and control data cables are pass through to eliminate cables
in motion with the Pan and Tilt making cable management simple, neat, and safe.
• Supports antennas from man-portable up to 3-meters.
• Mulitiple RF channel pass–through from DC up to 18 GHZ.
• Network ready

26. Further Challanges
 Developing the correct infrastructure on the FSRU Toscana with a new iron structure over the Radar Mast;
 Develop and agree with EPCIC contractor the integration of the Radio link with the other system just available on
board;
 Correct location on the vessel for the two cabinets dedicated to radio Link HW ;
 Integration on the vessel with the former IT infrastructure ( VSAT connection) , with a new one where the Radio
Link is the Primary Link connection and VSAT, the Back up . Dedicated dynamic routing protocol (EIGRP , OSPF
etc) was been implemented on the Primary Router radio link and transfer a rounting information to VSAT routers

27. Further Challanges
 Develop and build a proper structure for installation of all the antennas on shore .
 Dedicated iron structure over a building in the Port of Leghorn was built and put in place .
 Electromagnetic compatibility requested by ARPAT Toscana in order to be aligned with the power emission of the
antenna in On shore base (Port of Leghorn) .
 Start from scratch on the WAN in onshore base with dedicated F.O. connection and back up wired connection in
order to collect all the data flows from/to the vessel .

28. Radio Link Project – PM point of view
ICT MANAGER
OLT
PROJECT
DEVELOP
TENDER ICT
RADIO LINK
EPCIC
CONTRACT
VARIATION
PROPOSAL
AUTHORIZATION
OLT MSE
FREQUENCIES
DDW WORLD
YARD
FSRU TOSCANA
RECONVERSION
MODIFICATION
STRUCTURE ON
THE FSRU
NEW RADAR
MAST
CORRECT
LOCATION ON
SHORE & LOCAL
AUTHORIZATION
(LEGHORN)
WAN
INPROVEMENT
AUTHORIZATION
WAN
INPROVEMENT
FINAL
INSTALLATION
AND SAT
CLOSE OF THE
PROJECT

29. Thank you for your attention
www.oltoffshore.it
•Andrea Vallavanti – ICT Manager
•Mail to : andrea.vallavanti@oltoffshore.it
•Linkedin: it.linkedin.com/in/vallavantiandrea