IoT Based Smart Street Lighting Solutions For Smart Cities

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Bridge with street light in sunset
  • Smart street lighting pole integrates wireless connectivity for the urban environment.
  • Includes other numerous features for security and environmental benefits.
Image courtesy Google

Street lights are essential for proper navigation of traffic in the dark. They also make paths secure for humans to travel to during bad weather condition such as a heavily cloudy day.

And at the same time, connectivity with the help of digital devices such as a smartphone, tablet or a laptop is equally important in such situations.

However, due to space constraints of setting up a new telecommunication tower, one has to move to different places just to get a good connection, even if it requires straying away to a dimly lit area. So why not integrate both of them into one to prevent this?

Smart Lighting Poles

Presenting a new smart lighting pole created by Signify (formerly known as Philips Lighting) that integrates a variety of IoT applications in it and features an uninterruptible 4G LTE wireless connectivity for the urban environment.

By replacing the standard street lights with these new poles (also known as BrightSites smart poles), several wireless connectivity hubs can be created that provide telecommunication and advertising services for municipalities. While the smart pole can currently provide services for 4G and Wi-Fi, future versions could also include 5G services.

Other features

Sensors integrated into the smart pole can provide environment monitoring such as air quality, noise and incident detection as well as collect data for overall livability in urban areas. Integrated cameras can observe road conditions in order to improve traffic flows while integrated screens can display emergency messaging as well as targeted advertising.

Provision for microphones that can record sounds such as breaking glass, car alarms, shouting or even gunshots has also been made.