Smart streetlight overview
Using IoT, big data, and a cloud platform, the solution manages urban road lighting lamp by lamp. Single-lamp control, lighting on demand, automatic fault inspection, and multi-function poles cut energy use and make maintenance faster, while the pole can also carry environmental sensing, charging, and Wi-Fi for the city.
Urban lighting is 15%–20% of municipal electricity. Conventional lamps switch as a group on a clock or a photocell, so they cannot follow demand. The result is waste from over-lighting and risk from under-lighting. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission are pushing smart lamp poles that can be controlled one by one, with faults that can be found and energy that can be measured. Power-line carrier (PLC) or NB-IoT/4G puts each lamp on the network, so it can be switched, dimmed, and scheduled on its own. Brightness follows traffic, footfall, time of day, and weather. Lamp and cable faults are detected and located without a walking patrol. A multi-function pole combines lighting, environmental monitoring, EV charging, Wi-Fi, cameras, and an information screen, so fewer poles line the street. The system connects to the city lighting platform and the smart urban-management platform, and meets local rules for smart lamp poles.
Policy and standards
The Provisions on the Administration of Urban Lighting require tighter energy management for city lighting. Group standards such as Smart City — Smart Lamp Poles — General Requirements for the System set functions, interfaces, and data formats. Smart-city and new-infrastructure programs treat smart lamp poles as a priority, and controllable lamps, findable faults, and measurable energy are the baseline. Lighting on demand can save more than 30% of energy. Fault location can cut inspection labor by more than 50%. Payback is typically 3–5 years.
Choosing the communications path
PLC, power-line carrier: It uses the cable already in the ground, so no extra communications line is needed. It suits a retrofit where lamps are dense and the cable is sound. Cable quality and load affect it, so stability should be tested on site.
NB-IoT or 4G: Each lamp connects straight to the cloud. It suits new roads, scattered lamps, and multi-function poles. Coverage and data cost need a look. Offline control on a weak link, and a later upload, are supported.
A mixed network: A concentrator with a PLC subnet, or a concentrator with LoRa or NB-IoT, balances cost and coverage and the mix can follow each stretch of road.
