India
its LTE-based narrowband IoT
(NB-IoT) platform across India this
year, with expectations of
connecting one billion IoT devices
within two years. Other operators,
including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone
Idea, are also aiming to launch NBIoT
networks.
The Indian Department of
Telecommunications deputy directorgeneral
and Internet of Things head,
Sushil Kumar, predicts there will be
eight billion connected devices in
India by 2026 and has cited the
many different LPWANs available
in the country to implement smart
city projects.
He says 2MHz of spectrum is
already available (865-867MHz) and
another 6MHz has been approved
(920-925MHz). He says that no one
standard, whether it is LoRaWAN,
NB-IoT or 5G, represents a
standalone solution for the smart
cities vision.
Meanwhile, water wastage is
a major problem in India. In
Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi
it is estimated at 18%, 20% and
26% respectively. In Kolkata, a
staggering 50% of the water supplied
is wasted, and statistics suggest that
every Indian wastes roughly 45 litres
of water daily. The main drivers
behind this trend are increased water
consumption and wastage in urban
areas, industrial growth, water cycle
disturbances and inadequate use
of technology.
However, 2020 is the year that
India’s IoT adventure shifts from
proof-of-concepts and trials to
large-scale commercial deployment.
McWane India has turned to SenRa,
one of the two public LoRaWAN
network operators in India (the other
being Tata Communications), to
help with its plans of deploying
200,000 smart water meters in the
next three years.
Work on installing the first 25,000
devices has been under way in
Indore, Madhya Pradesh since last
November. The SenRa solutions
extend beyond metering to smart
control valves and other remote
monitoring features.
Kerlink’s IoT equipment is used for
4G backhaul and a femtocell gateway
for deep indoor applications. SenRa
is also working with Bosch and PNI
Sensor on a smart parking system,
converting an existing solution to its
865-867MHz band.
Eight months of testing saw a
punishing monsoon season, but the
flooded sensors continued to send
data. Later came analytics and an
app called uPark to create a fully
integrated service, first used in
Amritsar to ease traffic congestion
and by the police to tackle illegal
parking with the help of alerts.
They quickly saw a 30% return
on investment.
Despite these promising case
studies, India’s dalliance with
LoRaWAN faces some limitations
– mostly due to the present device
ecosystem. While this is constantly
evolving and expanding, SenRa’s
Ali Hosseini warns that progress is
not taking place as fast as he would
like; many products available on
the market today are struggling
to satisfactorily meet LoRaWAN
standards and specifications. There
are often antenna problems or radio
transmission power issues. Lab testing
typically requires six to eight months
of careful work to iron out flaws
before going to market.
In an attempt to address this
sluggishness, the LoRa Alliance has
authorised testing specialist TÜV
Rheinland to launch a certification
testing site in India; DEKRA was also
offering local certification testing by
the close of last year.
The idea is to reduce the length of
the overall go-to-market strategy and
improve device quality. Most devices
are imported into the country, which
has the effect of raising hardware costs
by around 30% to 40%. India is a
highly price-sensitive market, so local
manufacturers should benefit from
the move.
Indian Railways
has used
drone-mounted
cameras to
monitor rescue
operations and
carry out track
inspection and
infrastructure
projects
January 2020 @CritCommsToday 13
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