Street light communication

[Vindhyachal.takniki]

1. I am planing a project explaining how street light can be made more intelligent with smart batteries & other features.
2. I am thinking on what communication should I use.
3. Wired communication is not possible. As it include huge wiring
4. GSM is costly as per SMS cost is high.
5. How can I connect them wirelessly. Can I put them in network?

[Simon]

I think people need more information. If your using batteries presumably this is solar powered ? why do they need to communicate and where to, each other or a control centre ?

[Vindhyachal.takniki]

Yes they have send their health info to control centre.
Both batteries & solar power if available)

[AndyC_772]

They're tall and have good clear, uninterrupted line of sight to each other. How about Zigbee?

[Simon]

You could create a repeater system between lights, how close is the control centre ? maybe information can transmit from light to light back to the control centre or one light in the street has the master transciver with the control centre and the others relay to it.

[Psi]

If the street lights are close enough to get some light from the others maybe you could modulate data comms in the light itself. There has been quite a bit of work done on visible light based communication in the last 5 years or so. Mostly its for home networking but there isnt any reason why it wouldnt work for streetlamps at night.

[Simon]

If the street lights are close enough to get some light from the others maybe you could modulate data comms in the light itself. There has been quite a bit of work done on visible light based communication in the last 5 years or so. Mostly its for home networking but there isnt any reason why it wouldnt work for streetlamps at night.

Modern street lights and particularly your fancy ones with solar panels will be LED which will be very directional and pointing at the ground. Is there enough "signal to noise ratio" ? what with cars going by. If light based line of sight communication is considered surely just use IR transceivers and operate them at night to minimize problems with sunlight

[SL4P]

Take a look at the technology used in 'Smart' power metering...
Basically a large mesh network, that allows diversity, redundancy and provides two-way addressable comms at the lowest price appropriate for  utility type application.

[ccayser]

I know that in Estonia are done some similar projects. They are mainly controlled by ZigBee or PLC.
Here is an introducing PDF where you can get the idea what they have done: http://www.eliko.ee/public/ELIKO_SmartELI_leaflet_ENG.pdf

[Vindhyachal.takniki]

I had searched for some cheap solution.
Solution I have got till now, get SIM module, use GPRS and send the data on network. Lowest cost
No SMS

[SL4P]

I think almost any solution other than low-power mesh networking (like the http://www.eliko.ee/public/ELIKO_SmartELI_leaflet_ENG.pdf product) will cost more in development, approval and deployment.

When you purchase 1000+ of these modules - the price will drop significantly. Maybe $30 a unit?

[lapm]

For solar powered street lights i would dump mobile data. Go with some sort of mesh network. Long run much more cheaper then some GPRS solution.  Also allows you to add more functionality like, road use detection, air temperature logging, monitoring street light working condition, etc...

[amyk]

3. Wired communication is not possible. As it include huge wiring

The wires are already there... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-line_communication

[cosmicray]

A couple of questions ...

1. What is the typical distance between light poles ?

2. Do the individual lights have step-down transformers, or are they running at a higher branch feeder voltage ?

[SL4P]

3. Wired communication is not possible. As it include huge wiring

The wires are already there... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-line_communication

The wires antennas are already there.. (RFI)