IIITH Smart City Living Lab, an initiative of the Union ministry of electronics and IT, National Cities Mission and the Telangana government, has partnered with wireless technology firm Silicon Labs to launch a campus-wide Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Utility Network). This will aim to enable research and solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities.
Wi-SUN is leading IPv6 sub-GHz mesh technology for smart city and smart utility applications according to Silicon Labs. It 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.
Additionally, the Wi- SUN network will add to the existing modes of sensor communications including Wi-Fi. There is no need for any pricey communications infrastructure and allows sensors to easily connect to the cloud said IIITH.
The project aims to convert all 100 streetlights over campus to Wi-SUN smart streetlights, to build a network which allows other sensors to utilise these lights as router nodes to send sensor data.
Applications will be able to connect on a technology architecture designed to scale across a wide range of IoT applications such as: smart meters, streetlights, parking, weather monitoring, and waste management to coverage onto one IoT network, according to the company.
The new Wi-SUN alliance is said to be ‘responsible for the development of the standard and is a global ecosystem of member companies seeking to accelerate the implementation of Field Area Networks and IoT.’
