Atostek helps to strengthen winter navigation safety through the IBNet information and planning system

4.11.2025

The IBNet information and planning system, a joint initiative between Finland and Sweden, ensures that winter navigation in the Baltic Sea remains smooth and safe, even under challenging conditions. For a decade, Atostek has served as a technical advisor for the system’s architecture, specification, and acceptance testing.

Winter navigation in Finland and Sweden is vital to both countries’ foreign trade, with icebreaking operations keeping maritime traffic running through the winter months. However, safe and efficient operations require a real-time and accurate situational picture that combines information from multiple authorities, icebreakers, and weather services.

The IBNet system has been developed jointly by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and the Swedish Maritime Administration. Atostek joined the project in 2015 as a technical consultant, contributing to the system’s architecture and specification. The information and planning system compiles data on weather and ice conditions, satellite imagery, official notices, portcall information, pilotage information, multiple vessel databases and icebreaker activities. It provides both countries’ authorities and icebreaker crews with a shared, up-to-date view of winter navigation operations.

Atostek as a technical partner and architecture expert

Atostek has contributed to the development of the IBNet system since late 2015 as a technical partner and expert for the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and the Swedish Maritime Administration. Atostek has provided technical oversight and assistance in areas such as system architecture, integration design, development task specification and acceptance testing, ensuring the long-term sustainability of technical solutions.

– We’ve helped to ensure that the system’s architecture stands the test of time and facilitates cross-border collaboration, says Antti Koskimaa, system architect, Atostek.

The IBNet system continues to evolve to meet changing conditions, new regulations, and the needs of maritime operations. Atostek’s experts are involved in the specification and acceptance testing of the system, focusing particularly on architecture and integration design as the project advances.

– Atostek has been involved with the development of IBNet for a long time and has brought a good amount of technical input in the software development for the winter navigation authorities use, when designing new features or improving functionality of the IBNet. Antti’s operation as our “internal consultant” has been a very valuable part of the software development. On top of that, the acceptance testing has been conducted well and thoroughly, comment IBNet product owners Isabella Grönfeldt (SMA) and Tuomas Taivi (FTIA).

Continuous development ensures that IBNet will continue to serve both Finnish and Swedish maritime operations in the years to come – building safer and more efficient winter navigation together.

Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA)
Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA)