Smart City Street Lights Sensors

Smart city street lighting is transforming the way that municipalities manage outdoor illumination. Using the same smart cities IoT technology employed in transportation and public safety initiatives, smart city street lights and sensors can help urban areas to significantly reduce the cost of energy and the consumption of electricity.

Smart city street lights use sensors and LED fixtures to build a network of lights fixtures that can easily respond to real-time conditions and daylight levels, turning on only when illumination is clearly needed. Smart city street lights and sensors can also be monitored and managed remotely, allowing cities to adjust illumination for specific events such as road accidents or disasters, or at times when greater illumination can improve public safety, such as when children are going to or getting out of school.

Cost reduction is one of the greatest benefits of smart city street lights and sensors. Lighting is a significant expense for most cities, and lighting often consumes as much as half of a municipality’s annual energy budget. By using LED fixtures instead of traditional lamps, cities can often save 50% on energy costs, while another 20% to 30% can be saved by dimming lights when illumination is not needed. And by reducing the amount of energy required to light public areas, smart city street lights and sensors can also help to significantly reduce a city’s carbon footprint.

Technology used in smart city street lights and sensors

Smart city street lights and sensors require specific technology and infrastructure that is common to most smart city technology.

• Dimmable LED lighting fixtures provide flexible illumination and can be monitored and controlled remotely.
• Sensors that monitor daylight levels enable lighting fixtures to be dimmed or brightened when needed, while sensors that monitor the health of LED lamps can alert city crews when streetlights need attention. Additional sensors may monitor weather and climate conditions, trigger video surveillance to assist law enforcement, or monitor the availability of parking spaces for smart parking initiatives.
• Network infrastructure connects all smart city street lights and sensors and transmits the mountains of data they produce to data management and analytics platforms.
• Smart technology software platforms control and manage data from smart city street lights and sensors, providing city officials with the intelligence need to manage lighting equipment, reduce costs and improve lighting services.
• Security protocols help protect smart city lighting solutions from attack by cyber criminals who may seek to interfere with public infrastructure.

Spectrum Enterprise: connectivity for smart city street lights and sensors

Because connectivity is critical to the operation of smart city street lights and sensors, Spectrum Enterprise has laid the groundwork for smart city connectivity with more than 840,000 miles of fiber connections nationwide. With plans to invest an additional $25 billion in infrastructure by 2021, Spectrum is ready to provide additional capacity to cities nationwide to support any new smart city project.

To connect smart city street lights and sensors, Spectrum Enterprise provides smart city networks that include:

• A two-way, fully interactive digital network that delivers connection speeds up to 100 Gbps for city governments and large enterprises.
• Internet connectivity with gigabit speeds for homes and businesses throughout the Spectrum service area.
• One of the nation’s largest LTE cellular networks in Spectrum Mobile.
• More than 350,000 Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide that will soon include 5G and 802.11ax technology to deliver connection speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.