The information component of the modern model of border protection in the maritime area is implemented using the integrated information and telecommunication system of the Marine Guard "Gart-12". The use of this system allows to obtain information about the current position of ships, port of departure and port of destination, type of cargo and other additional data. When choosing a vessel in the surface lighting system, it is possible to view the previous points of its route, obtained at certain discrete moments of time. The latter is necessary to establish possible signs of violation of the rules of the border regime by violators of border legislation. In this case, the visualization of the route is carried out using a linear approximation, and a possible violation of the rules of the border regime is established by comparing the route of an individual vessel and a cluster of routes connecting the departure and destination of the vessel. However, the use of linear approximation in the formation of a continuous approximation route of the vessel is questionable and unconfirmed. The influence of the type of approximation in the construction of a continuous route of the vessel through a set of discrete points of the vessel's location at fixed moments of time on the value of the metric used to establish the similarity of the route of two different vessels is investigated. The study involved: the formalization of the studied problem; analysis of the possibility of using linear, piecewise-square approximation, approximation using Lagrange interpolation polynomial and Newton's interpolation polynomial, as well as spline interpolation for its solution; calculation of metrics to establish the degree of similarity of ship routes; testing the hypothesis about the feasibility of applying a linear approximation based on a comparison of the results using different approximation methods. Software-algorithmic implementation of the solution of the researched problem, carried out by the authors, allows to automate the process of hypothesis testing and is the basis for further study of the influence of the type of approximation on the shape of the ship route cluster.