Case Study

Microchip’s collaboration with a dis- tribution partner and a leading street innovator results in a con- nected streetlight solution that also powers a new generation of connected nodes for smart city applications.

Smart Features dashboard control and monitoring at the municipal level (and beyond), enabling a runway for future smart city applications.

Connected Streetlights Get Smart Real-time cloud connectivity with leading-edge Microchip LoRa® and A Spotlight on Innovative New Nodes Bluetooth® solutions. for IoT-Enabled Smart Cities

From the earliest attempts to harness volcanic gas or burning oil, humans have Secure been lured by the prospects of squeezing more useful hours from each day by Microchip CryptoAuthentication™ lighting up the night. Municipal streetlights have been illuminating the paths of solution set featuring advanced travelers for hundreds of years now, with many urban cores operating 24/7 as confidentiality, data integrity and cities that never, or rarely, sleep. authentication to systems with MCU or MPUs running encryption/decryption Centuries ago, city governors would mandate the use of oil-based lamps on algorithms. the street-facing walls of city homes to make nighttime a less menacing part of the daily cycle. As public street lamps were deployed, designs evolved from weak, overhead flames burning from wicks soaked in fish oil to increasingly more advanced designs. Innovative, silver-plated copper reflectors which could mechanically focus and steer a flame’s light became popular in during the 1760s. Decades later, gas-powered lamps reached the mainstream in and introduced a brighter network of ‘artificial suns’ along with a new job title: lamplighter.

microchip.com Russian engineer Pavel Yablochkov introduced an electric street lighting approach in Paris which used carbon arc lamps Streetlights evolved featuring . By 1879, ’s company had demonstrated a 12-unit electric streetlighting system in Cleveland, Ohio which defined a new kind of public from gas lamps to utility with streetlighting at the core. In the 1880s, Barcelona commissioned the production of candelabra lampposts from high-pressure sodium the acclaimed Spanish artist Antoni Gaudí. Many of these still stand today and commonly draw tourists in for Instagram selfies. As cities around the world installed their own gas (HID) lighting over the lighting grids at the turn of the century, designs for lampposts ranged from the practical to the ornate. British manufacturer William Sugg & Co. produced a catalog with dozens of models course of a century. including The Metropole, The Lambeth and The Westminster, each with matching lamp and pedestal options for posts up The rush to migrate to to 20 feet tall. Londoners will recognize the famous twisted fish pedestals of this era as they walk beside the River Thames today. modular LED systems

In less than a century, urban planners migrated from gas-powered lamps that were often maintained by police and embrace IoT for departments to fully-electrified lighting systems leveraging matrices featuring thousands of lampposts stationed alongside city streets. In modern times, we are witnessing smart city applications another transition: from High-Pressure Sodium (HID) lamps, which are still the most common type of streetlight, to more is happening at a efficient LED solutions. And in a world of more than 500 million streetlights, experts estimate that 300 million of them are pole-mounted. much faster pace. Pole Position: A Strategic Advantage for IoT As public utility organizations work with their trusted vendors to address the migration to LED-based lighting, all manner of related technology advancements have been introduced into the mix. The height, location and elevation of a municipality’s streetlights (or more importantly, their poles) offer a promising locale for smart traffic sensors, security cameras, public Wi-Fi® hotspots, environmental sensors, small cell wireless antennas, solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, and IoT nodes for applications that have yet to be developed, and birds, birds like to sit on them too.

At the heart of the matter is the notion of the public easement. Many countries without state-owned utilities have them, and they have been around for centuries. These agreements between local governments and land owners allow for the limited use of real property by certain entities without their owning it. In the U.S., utility companies have secured these easements in order to run wires, cables and pipes and install related infrastructure assets. Electric, gas, telecom, water, sewer and cable television companies rely on these easements to connect services to citizens. The Challenge

Designing the Next Generation of IoT-Enabled Streetlights A leading European lighting systems vendor approached Microchip to discuss their vision for interconnected streetlights as a prerequisite for future Smart City initiatives. They described the landscape of LED streetlights as lacking widescale connectivity and an operating environment without universal standards. Urban leaders often faced expensive operational costs and maintenance burdens, along with less-than-stellar energy efficiency outcomes. Their experts felt that a strong response to increasing municipal demands for Smart City Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and the opportunity to introduce smarter streetlight solutions would give them a competitive edge in their regional markets and enhance their position globally. A Catalyst for the Smart City Smart City schemes promise cost-effective solutions for managing public assets and interconnection among neighboring communities. In both state-run utility agencies and in highly-regulated public/private agencies, the concept of streetlights as catalysts for Smart City projects has a great deal of momentum. IoT-enabled streetlights of the future are projected to decrease the cost of municipal lighting, and offer advanced capabilities that were unthinkable a generation ago. City managers will be able to manipulate the illumination levels throughout the day, increasing them gradually as sunset approaches. Spikes in vehicle traffic, dynamic changes in weather conditions, antisocial behaviors and public gatherings at major events could all be supplemented with increased lighting from Smart City Platforms (SCPs). Secondary services including air quality measurement and noise pollution monitoring could be supported by the smart lighting networks.

Rethink Technology Research has forecasted that 63 million connected streetlights could be in operation by 2025, but the integration of lighting units into smart city platforms will grow at a slower rate. And since the ecosystem for connected Streetlights (CSLs) is still being established, the customer was in a position to define best practices for an evolutionary solution. They estimated that enabling connectivity among LED streetlights from distances of 7 miles or more would be a requirement.

...and the opportunity to introduce smarter streetlight solutions would give them a competitive edge in their regional markets and enhance their position globally. The Solution

A Scalable Architecture for the IoT- process so the solution could be launched in a short time frame. Interoperability for future expansion and wide Enabled City of Tomorrow scale deployment were also critical to the success of the The initial meeting led to more detailed discussions project. between the Microchip sales team and the vendor’s design and executive teams. With a long history of Low-Power, Wide-Area Networking success in the development of microcontrollers, embedded wireless connectivity solutions and security With Security Baked In applications, Microchip proposed an innovative Microchip’s new 433/868 MHz LoRaWAN module turned LoRaWAN™-based approach for the company’s next- out to be ideal. It addresses increasing demands on gen connected streetlights in collaboration with a end-devices for long range connectivity, low-power for trusted distribution partner. battery operation, and low infrastructure cost for volume deployment. With a form factor of 17.8 × 26.7 x 3.0 mm Coincidently, Microchip had recently introduced with 14 GPIOs, it provides the flexibility to connect and its newest LoRa wireless module, which was the control many sensors and actuators while taking up very world’s first product to pass the LoRa Alliance’s little space. Perfect for connected street lamps. LoRaWAN Certification Program. The LoRa module was independently tested to meet the functional The Microchip module comes with the LoRaWAN requirements of the latest LoRaWAN protocol protocol stack, so it can easily connect with established specification, for operation in the 868 MHz license- and rapidly expanding LoRa Alliance infrastructure— free band. The LoRaWAN standard enables low-data- including both privately managed Local Area Networks rate IoT and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) wireless (LANs) and telecom-operated public networks—to communication with a range of up to 10 miles, a create Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) battery life of 10 years, and the ability to connect with nationwide coverage. This stack integration millions of wireless sensor nodes to LoRaWAN also enables the module to be used with any gateways. This proved to be the centerpiece as it microcontroller that has a UART interface, including allows designers quickly and easily integrate end hundreds of Microchip’s PIC® MCUs. Additionally, the devices into any LoRaWAN network. module features Microchip’s simple ASCII command interface for easy configuration and control. This project mandated an approach that could produce a low total cost of ownership and simplify the design Enhanced security features were paramount for a first-of-its-kind solution leveraging an open long- IoT-Enabled LED Luminaire range wireless network. Microchip was able to serve this mandate as well, with its ATECC608B Protective Enclosure CryptoAuthentication device. The ATECC608B is part of Microchip’s family of high-security cryptographic devices Communications which combine world-class hardware-based key storage with hardware cryptographic accelerators to implement various authentication and encryption protocols. Connector The ATECC608B has a flexible command set that allows use in many applications, including network/IoT node endpoint security, secure boot, small message encryption, key generation for software download, LED Driver ecosystem control and anti-counterfeiting. Microchip’s Trust Platform was also a key contributor. It is a cost- effective and flexible solution for onboarding secure LEDs elements into a design while accelerating a product’s time to market. The Trust Platform is composed of pre-provisioned, pre-configured or fully customizable secure elements.

Sensor Node Hybrid Wireless Connectivity For short-range wireless connectivity, the connected streetlight solution would rely on a trusted module from Microchip’s Bluetooth portfolio. These modules are interfaced via a two- or four-wire UART interface with Microchip’s simple ASCII command set for easy integration into most applications. All products in the RN series can be dynamically configured by the host microcontroller with a few simple ASCII commands. The RN487x series also supports on-board scripting to automate basic operations without a host microcontroller.

High performance and reliability characteristics made the Microchip SST26VF016B Serial Quad I/O™ (SQI™) Flash device a perfect choice. Utilizing a 4-bit multiplexed I/O serial interface to boost performance while maintaining the compact form factor of standard serial flash devices, the SST26VF016B also supports full command-set compatibility to traditional Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol. “Pre-provisioned security solutions are within reach with Microchip’s Trust&GO LoRa® secure authentication solution.”

The Result

Microchip and our partner distributor were able to offer a With the evolution of the Internet of Things, Microchip has the collaborative approach to the customer, supporting the design right LoRa technology wireless solutions to address increasing from start to finish and enabling each of the three companies demands on end-devices for long range connectivity, low-power to bring their best design elements to the project. As a result, for battery operation, and low infrastructure cost for volume the customer was able to launch a groundbreaking, adaptable deployment. connectivity node in 2018 that can be used with any brand of streetlight. The migration to connected streetlights and smart cities may one day be seen as significant as the breakthroughs from Microchip’s LoRa module resolves a dilemma that wireless Yablochkov and Edison, and the evolution from gas lamps developers often face: choosing between longer-range to electric lights to LEDs. Microchip is proud to support the capabilities and lower-power consumption. By employing efforts of the leading thinkers and doers throughout the Microchip’s LoRa technology and leveraging our design lighting infrastructure ecosystem. expertise and development tools, the customer was able to maximize both. Our module provides them (and their municipal customers) with the ability to secure their network communication using AES-128 encryption. Featured Product Building Blocks • Microchip Low-Power Long Range LoRa • Microchip Bluetooth Low Energy Module Technology Transceiver Module • Microchip Serial Quad I/O (SQI) Flash Device • Microchip CryptoAuthentication Device

Connected Lighting for Smart Cities

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The Microchip name and logo, the Microchip logo and PIC are a registered trademarks and CryptoAuthentication, Serial Quad I/O and SQI are is a trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries. The LoRa name and associated logo are trademarks of Semtech Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective companies. © 2020, Microchip Technology Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. 12/20 DS00003656B