Smart Street Lighting: New Opportunities with DECT NR+

Intelligent street lighting is considered a crucial advancement in the evolution of smart cities today. According to The Global Smart Street Lighting Market Report, the number of individually controlled intelligent streetlights will reach 63.8 million units in 2027.

Recognizing that the fundamental concept of city lighting has remained unchanged for decades, there is a significant shift in the approach to electricity usage and lamp network management.

A smart streetlight is a public lamp that gathers data from various sensors, enables real-time monitoring capabilities, and exchanges data and commands with the gateway (server or other endpoints). This communication is vital for the grid, leading to various protocols available for the industry: cellular (2G, 3G, LTE, 5G, and NB-IoT), RF mesh, LoRa, Wi-Fi, and other medium and long-range solutions. All of these protocols have pros and cons, and deciding what solution to build a lamp network depends on cost, coverage area, bandwidth requirements, power consumption, security, scalability, reliability, interoperability (compatibility with other devices and systems), etc.

Analyzing the latest inventions, you can encounter DECT NR+, the world's first non-cellular 5G technology standard. NR+ technology benefits street lighting applications and presents new opportunities to provide both a low-cost alternative to existing solutions and unrealized applications in street lighting. The inventor emphasizes the main benefits:

• Low cost of ownership: DECT NR+ allows you to own your own private 5G network, meaning no base stations, SIM cards, or subscriptions.

• Scalability: Scale from 100 to 1 million nodes in a single square kilometer. It offers high reliability with technology built on proven cellular technology standards.

• License-exempt frequency: Access the dedicated, license-exempt 1,9 GHz DECT band, which offers less interference and is (almost) globally allocated.

• Coverage: The maximum distance between the nodes depends on the radio environment, ranging from a few hundred meters to even up to 6 km in an ideal line of sight.

• Decentralized: Operate without a central point of authority; decisions are made at the device level, enhancing network resilience.

• Self-Healing: Enable devices to be mobile and adapt to network changes, ensuring continuous operation and connectivity.

• Ultra-Low Latency: Experience minimal delays, making DECT NR+ ideal for real-time applications and critical communications.

Based on the technology, it is possible to establish a wide 5G mesh network of endpoints without needing a mobile operator. This advancement eliminates the requirement to purchase base stations and gateways and pay for their services, simplifying the system architecture by removing unnecessary hardware and network links. The NR+ 5G mesh is a promising innovative technology that enables efficient data collection and sending commands for groups of lamp controllers.

Currently, Nordic Semiconductor is the only semiconductor company offering silicon with DECT NR+ support in a package nRF91 Series. It includes the nRF9161, nRF9151, and nRF9131 mini. These devices share similar characteristics: support for 700-2200 MHz LTE bands, 1.9 GHz NR+ band, 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33, and 1 MB flash + 256 KB RAM. Their differences lie in their sizes, power classes, and intended use cases. Therefore, the final selection should be based on the future scale and specific system requirements.

Some companies have already started to integrate the technology. For example, Nordic Automation Systems has enabled its zhaga streetlight controller with DECT NR+.

If you are considering developing a new product based on DECT NR+ and Nrf91 Series, contact iomico for a consultation. 

Iomico is an IoT engineering company and a Nordic Semiconductor Design Partner with R&D hubs in Poland and Argentina. With our extensive experience with Nordic products and understanding of DECT NR+, we can help your company design and develop a new generation of streetlight controllers.