By James Blackman

LoRaWAN software and services provider Senet is working with IoT platform provider Dhyan Networks and Technologies to offer a ‘turnkey’ streetlight package for customers, to make it easy to add smart streetlights as an application on top of LoRaWAN networks. The pair are targeting customers already running LoRaWAN networks for municipal and enterprise applications, notably advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

California-based Dhyan is well-established as a cloud management system (CMS) for IoT estates, and has a developing business with smart streetlighting, providing cities and enterprises control over and insight into their lighting networks. Among other wins, it has recently taken smart-city business from Echelon, acquired by IoT semiconductor firm Adesto Technologies in 2018, in the cities of Portland and Scarborough in Maine.

Dhyan’s CMS platform – StreetMan for streetlights; LightMan for ‘area lights’, such as in campuses, parking lots, and warehouses; CitiMan for smart city IoT assets – supports standard protocols such as TALQ, OSCP, MQTT, HTTP and communication technologies including Zigbee, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and powerline communications (PLC). Senet, which runs a significant (“the largest”) public LoRaWAN network in the US, has also established a good trade in LoRaWAN for commercial IoT in the US, notably with high-capacity networks for municipal water utility districts.

Senet said LoRaWAN is better for street lighting than certain other IoT protocols on the grounds it offers bi-directional communications, plus higher security, mobility, and localisation capabilities. It said LoRaWAN offers greater range than Zigbee or Wi-SUN without the expense of cellular.

Following interoperability testing, the joint solution makes the Dyan CMS available to Senet’s customers, to support their networking and control of smart streetlights. The pair said the pre-packed offer is for “cities and utilities”. A statement said the companies are currently collaborating on “commercial deployments and… pilot installations with several municipalities”.

Chief executive at Senet, Bruce Chatterley said: “The technical attributes of LoRaWAN make it ideal for public lighting systems which can be a valuable anchor application for smart cities or easily added to existing municipal LoRaWAN network deployments. The testing we have completed with the Dhyan street light controller provides municipalities with a proven solution to improve the quality of public lighting while also establishing a foundation for future efficiency and operations management through the use of additional IoT sensors.”

Vice president of smart cities at Dhyan, Prakash Ramadass said: “Dhyan is pleased to be working with Senet as their experience with LoRaWAN dovetails nicely with Dhyan’s StreetMan smart streetlighting management system. This is a great solution for cities looking for a low-cost, long-range smart streetlighting solution.”