2019 5th International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

Pune, India. Mar 29-31, 2019

Design of Smart Pole Systems

Using Internet of Things
Kaushik Vakadkar
Diya Purkayastha
rd B. Tech 3rd year, Computer Engineering
B. Tech 3 year, Computer Engineering
Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and
Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and
Engineering, NMIMS University
Engineering, NMIMS University
Mumbai, India
Mumbai, India
[email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract— Everyday a large amount of energy is consumed The main contribution of this work is the proposal of a
in powering street lights, which could have otherwise been Smart Pole System, which involves adding various “smart”
utilised in a better manner for other necessary purposes. This modules like environmental monitoring sensors, a smart
paper aims to address this issue by means of a Smart Pole display, LoRaWAN, using a renewable source of energy
System. In addition to the auto-dimming and auto turn on and
off feature of the street lights, various other modules like
like solar power and a battery reserve, to existing street
LoRaWAN, GPRS, a Smart Display to monitor the lighting systems to make an all-in-one “Smart Pole”, which
concentration of air pollutants, temperature and humidity, can be used for a variety of different purposes. A unique
have also been implemented atop smart street lighting systems selection and combination of these particular modules into
to make a “Smart Pole System”. The paper is structured as one system would not only be cost effective and energy
follows: Section I encompasses a brief introduction of the efficient, but would also provide all the important
chosen domain and topic, the existing systems along with our functionalities as per the necessary requirements.
proposed model - A Smart Pole System. Section II gives the The figure given below portrays the evolution of Street
literature review of our proposed system, with the help of the Lighting Systems and highlights the features of the Existing
system flow, the components required for its implementation,
and the working of the whole system along with block
System, New System and our Proposed System.
diagrams and flowcharts. Section III highlights the various
advantages and disadvantages of the Smart Pole System.
Section IV provides the necessary results, observation and
inferences drawn from the system. Finally, Section V presents
the conclusion drawn from this project and the future scope of
our proposed system.

Keywords— Smart Lighting, Energy Efficient, Internet of

Things, LED, Sensors, PIR, LDR, LoRaWAN, Solar, Smart
Display, Air Quality Monitoring

I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Evolution of Street Lighting Systems

The Internet of Things provides a platform to remotely II. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
monitor, manage and control a large variety of devices, put
forth new visions, and extract information from a vast A. System Modular Flow
amount of real-time data [10]. It involves installing sensors The figure given below shows a systematic flow of all
in everyday objects and connecting them to the internet via the main modules along with their respective components.
appropriate protocols, in order to ensure effective
communication and information exchange, thus achieving
intelligent systems for the same.
More than 300 million street lights worldwide, emit 100
million tons of carbon-dioxide every year [1].
Approximately 30% of the total electric power generated in
any country is used up in lighting the roads and streets [2].
Most of the time, these lights remain on even when not in
productive use, thus wasting even more energy, which can
be saved if a smart light dimming system is used.
Most of the existing lighting systems utilize halogen
bulbs for artificial lighting, which convert electrical energy
to visible electromagnetic radiation [4]. Halogen bulbs
consume a large amount of energy as compared to LED
lamps. Nearly 80 percent of the total energy consumption
can be reduced by switching from halogen bulbs to LED
Fig. 2 A detailed component flow of the Smart Pole System
lamps.

978-1-5386-8075-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 1

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B. Components offers a maximum data rate of 115 kbps with average
1. Solar Panel speeds of up to 40 kbps. This enables mobile handsets to
A solar photovoltaic module is used to convert solar conveniently access online services from any location
radiation into electricity, using an array of solar cells. where there’s a network signal and make use of various
Solar panels can be either monocrystalline or services such as emails, location-based services like
polycrystalline. Efficiency of monocrystalline solar PV Google Maps and much more, all on the go.
panel is approximately 20% which is higher than that of a
8. Battery
polycrystalline solar PV panel. Thus, a monocrystalline
The generated electricity is stored in a rechargeable
solar PV panel is used for this system.
lithium-ion battery. Lithium-ion batteries have a high
2. LED (Light Emitting Diode) energy density, low maintenance and a longer lifespan.
LEDs are semiconductor light sources consisting of a p-n The stored energy can be utilized later in the night to
junction diode, which emits light on activation. Energy power the Smart Pole when there is no sunlight.
release in the form of photons occurs when the electrons
9. Charge controller
recombine with the electron holes. With a lifespan
Charge controller protects the battery from overcharging
ranging from 50,000- 1,00,000 hours and an efficiency of
by limiting the rate at which electric current is added or
100-120 lm/w, LEDs are universally accepted as the most
drawn
energy efficient source of lighting [11].
from the battery. Sometimes, the output voltage produced
3. LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) by the panel can exceed the maximum voltage rating of
An LDR is a component which has a variable resistance. the battery and can hence damage them. Using a charge
Its resistance changes in accordance with the intensity of controller avoids the possibility of such a scenario.
the light incident on it and is hence used for auto-
10. Arduino UNO
dimming purposes. The resistance is inversely
The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board which is
proportional to the intensity of light. The resistance of the
based on the ATmega328P and has 14 digital input/output
LDR becomes high whenever the intensity of light
pins, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB port, a power
becomes low. This reduces the current flow which in turn
jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button [8]. Its board
results in dimming of the light.
comprises of analog input pins (A0-A5) and digital output
4. PIR (Passive Infrared Sensor) pins (D0-D13). Operating voltage is 5V, input voltage is
A Passive Infrared Sensor is an electronic device that 7V to 12V, DC current of 40mA, flash memory of 32KB,
measures infrared light radiating from objects in its field SRAM of 2KB, EEPROM of 1KB and clock speed of 16
of view. When an object passes by, there is a change in MHz [1].
the temperature at that point in the sensor’s field of view
which causes a rise from room temperature to body 11. LCD Display
temperature, and then back again. This change in amount An LCD Display will be used to show the concentration
of infrared radiations is captured by the sensor and of air pollutants like carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon
converted into an equivalent change in output voltage to monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate
trigger the detection. matter (PM) in the surrounding area. It will also show the
temperature, humidity, and optionally, important news
5. Air Pollution Sensors headlines and commercial advertisements.
Air pollution sensors are responsible for the detection and
monitoring of air pollution in the surrounding area. The C. Block Diagram
various sensors used in this system are CO, CO2, NO2,
Particulate Matter, Temperature and Humidity sensors
which are responsible for monitoring and reporting the
real time values of these factors.

6. LoRaWAN
LoRa is the physical layer or the wireless modulation
utilized to create the long-range communication link [7].
Many legacy wireless systems use frequency shifting
keying (FSK) modulation as the physical layer because it
is a very efficient modulation for achieving low power
[3]. LoRaWAN defines the communication protocol and
system architecture for the network while the LoRa
physical layer enables the long-range communication link
[3].

7. GPRS
GPRS or General Packet Radio Service module is used to Fig. 5. Block diagram of proposed Smart Pole System
allow data transfer through cellular networks. As opposed
to the maximum data rate of 27kbps in LoRaWAN, GPRS

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D. Working
The Solar Panel is responsible for the charging of the Smart
Pole System. The first module of the system is Smart
Lighting which remains in operation throughout the whole
span of the day, from dusk to dawn. Electrical power
generated by the solar cells is used to power the LEDs and
other components of the Smart Pole. Given below is the
working of the two main sensors used in the system- LDR
and PIR.
LDR:
i. The luminosity of the LEDs is controlled
depending on the intensity of sunlight on the LDR.
ii. If the intensity of sunlight on the light dependent
resistor is low, its resistance will be high and vice-
versa.
iii. This value increases and becomes high when it is
dark.
iv. The resistance value decides when the street lights
are required to be switched ON.
v. If the intensity is moderately high, the street light
intensity is adjusted and the street light undergoes
the process of adaptive dimming. Fig. 6. Flow chart showing the working of sensors with LED [1]
vi. The resistance of light dependent resistor in dark is
in the range of ohms and when exposed to light, its Another module of the system is the Smart Display. The
resistance is in the range of mega ohms. values measured by the pollutant sensors, the
temperature and humidity values will be displayed on
PIR: this screen in real-time. All the sensors used for this
would fetch the data and send it to the Arduino for
i. PIR sensor detects the motion of objects when it
processing. Apart from this, the Smart Display can also
passes by in the sensor’s field of view
be used for displaying news headlines. This can be done
ii. The PIR sensor contains an IR detector. Different
via the GPRS module which can fetch information from
wavelengths of infrared rays are emitted by
the internet.
different objects. These rays are invisible to the
human eye but sensors like PIRs can easily detect LoRaWAN module is used for long range
them. communication and interaction between other Smart
iii. Initially, the PIR sensor is high. It becomes low Poles in the area. With the help of its bidirectional
automatically after it detects the motion of any communication feature, sensors can send a message to
object. the network as well as receive messages from the
iv. For the Smart Pole System, the operating level of network back to the device.
intensity is kept at 30%. In case of a trigger, which
can either be due to movement or due to the III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
weather conditions, the intensity goes up to 100%. A. Advantages
Once the trigger is removed, the intensity goes 1. LEDs are universally preferred because of their low
back to 30%. This can either be due to no power consumption, low heat generation and
movement detected, or due to a preset delay. instantaneous on/off control.
The LDR and PIR sensors work hand in hand with each 2. Solar power is an environment friendly and free
other. PIR is responsible for switching the system ON source of energy.
and OFF upon detection of motion, whereas LDR is 3. The Smart Air Quality Monitoring Module operates
responsible for controlling the intensity of the system by at regular intervals, thus providing real time values of
adaptive dimming technique. all the factors which are evaluated for their
performance.
The system normally operates with the help of the direct 4. The Smart Display Module provides a large variety
current generated by the cells of the solar panel. At of information in a simple and quick manner directly
night, or in a dim environment, the components are from the internet, thus removing the need for street
powered by the battery reserve which has already been advertisements.
charged during daytime via the solar cells. Hence the 5. Allows the effective use of CCTV systems at night in
battery reserve acts as an uninterruptible power supply. cities which are prone to thefts, by providing better
The figure given below shows the flowchart for the lighting conditions.
working of LDR (Dark sensor), PIR (Motion sensor) and
LED.

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B. Disadvantages
1. The initial cost of investment of the Smart Pole
System is high.
2. Dust particles combined with the air moisture can
accumulate on the solar panels if not cleaned on a
regular basis.
3. As the system comprises a lot of sophisticated
modules, regular monitoring is required which adds
to the yearly maintenance cost.
4. Low bandwidth and data rate of LoRaWAN restrict
the amount of data transfer between devices.

IV. INFERENCES AND RESULTS

The main difference between LEDs and CFLs is their power Fig. 7 An energy comparison amongst Halogen Lighting, LED Lighting
and Smart Adaptive Lighting [12]
consumption and average life span. LEDs are almost 70%
more efficient than CFLs and have a much higher life span
Hence they have been used in the Smart Pole System. As shown below, the proposed Smart Pole System will offer
cost savings of up to 70%. This is simply because of the
TABLE I. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LED AND CFL [4] switch from halogen bulbs to LEDs and the use of adaptive
dimming technique.

Fig. 8. Cost Structure of the proposed system

The figure below shows the level of energy efficiency of an

ordinary street lighting system and the maximum energy
efficiency that can be achieved by the proposed Smart Pole
The table below compares LoRaWAN with other wireless
System when it is fully operational. In addition to that, the
communication networks like Zigbee, Bluetooth, WiFi and
figure shows that the average power consumption of the
RFID. The main advantage of using LoRa is that it has a
Smart Pole System reaches the maximum efficiency during
wide coverage range, low power consumption and has a low
the off-peak traffic hours.
cost.
TABLE II. A COMPARISON BETWEEN LORAWAN AND
OTHER WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS [9]

The bar graph given below draws a comparison between

different lighting systems and shows their energy
consumption in the specified time interval.

Fig. 9 Average daily power consumption per hour (working day) [6]

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