The International Institute of Information Technology Smart City Living Lab in Hyderabad (IIITH) is working with intelligent wireless technology specialist Silicon Labs to implement the next phase of a campus-wide Wi-Sun backbone mesh network.
It is being used to deploy more than 100 streetlights on the Indian university’s campus and establishes a backbone mesh network for future smart city and IoT applications.
Open source
Wi-SuN is an open-standard protocol enabling interoperable solutions through open-source software with multi-layer security. Wi-Sun will enable utilities, municipalities, and other enterprises to deploy long-range, low-power wireless mesh networks connecting thousands of IoT nodes. The Wi-Sun network uses the unlicenced band with no additional network infrastructure.
In phase two, 30 more Wi-Sun router nodes have been deployed in the campus with nodes containing Silicon Labs’ radio (EFR32FG25) modules. All these nodes are interconnected through a self-healing mesh network and connected to a border router for backhauling the data to the cloud.
“The phase two launch of India’s first campus-wide Wi-Sun network at the IIITH Smart City Living Lab is a crucial milestone towards enabling the development of an array of smart city solutions”
The Fan 1.1 extension to the Wi-Sun network at IIITH is designed to provide an infrastructure to build and validate a multitude of smart city solutions including water management, air quality monitoring, smart lighting, traffic management, energy management, waste management and many others.
“The phase two launch of India’s first campus-wide Wi-Sun network at the IIITH Smart City Living Lab is a crucial milestone towards enabling the development of an array of smart city solutions,” said Daniel Cooley, chief technology officer (CTO) and senior vice president, technology and product development, at Silicon Labs.
It is being seen as a significant step in enabling innovators to address the key issues in sustainable urbanisation. Hyderabad Metro Water Supply Board (HMWSSB) is among those interested in testing the feasibility of the network deployment for water utilities in the city.
Cooley added: “This innovative streetlighting application, with 30 built-in Fan 1.1 network nodes connecting the campus street lamps for remote monitoring and control along with the 30 Fan 1.0 nodes deployed earlier in the last year, establishes a Wi-Sun backbone mesh network for future smart city applications.
“This demonstrates Silicon Labs’ commitment to contributing to the technology ecosystem in India and industry-academia partnerships. These smart city solutions hold the potential to contribute to the Indian government’s smart city Mission.”
IIITH Smart City Living Lab is set up as an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), National Cities Mission, and Government of Telangana, with knowledge support from the European Business Technology Council (EBTC). Silicon Labs, Intel, and Saint Gobain are the other three founding corporate partners.