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According to Cambridge News, a LoRaWAN network has recently been set up in Cambridge for the 'Intelligent City Plaform'—essentially, a smart city platform for IoT devices to sense and influence the environment:

A new LoRa (low power long range) network has also been set up with the University to transfer data flowing from the sensors to the data hub, so that is can be analysed and visualised to plan smart solutions, including making transport systems more reliable and easier to use.

The platform is among the first to collate data, which will allow citizens, third party developers and commercial partners to ‘test bed’ innovative applications including the new Cambridge mobile travel app, which will be available to download this summer.

I found this page from IoTUK Boost suggesting that the network is only open to people participating in the competition, but the article suggests that any developer might be able to connect.

Could a normal citizen connect to and use the smart city network, or is access restricted to those with prior permission?

Community
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Aurora0001
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2 Answers2

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There doesn't appear to be a route for private individuals to get on the scheme, however, I have a company and live in Cambridge.

I can submit an application to http://www.connectingcambridgeshire.co.uk/smartcamb/ and should get on the LoRa network.

I am back working in the automotive sector again but spent a few months last year working on IoT solutions and would like to get back into it but have limited time. If you are interested in teaming up, get in touch - sean.mcmahon@flysuas.ie

SeanJ
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The LoRaWAN network seems to be more an enabling part than the main project aim. They're enabling various university groups (and others) with sensor deployment (and have the capability for city-wide coverage now, albeit at a fairly low bit rate).

The back-end of the network is probably more interesting, with the ability to publish/subscribe data in real time. Some of the public data is presented here http://smartcambridge.org/ (and you can see they're presenting this as a platform, rather than a transport layer).

The project seems immediately to be mostly provided by the university (as a research vehicle), and used by the council to guide policy - but that doesn't rule out other applications. Since this is a fairly new innovation, access policies are probably a bit ad-hoc (although security and privacy shouldn't be new to the people involved).

Sean Houlihane
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