Syswin Solutions Promotes Smart City Applications Based on LoRa Technology
- Syswin S
- Sep 1, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 11
Over the past year, Syswin Solutions has developed several applications aligned with the emerging technological trend of the Internet of Things (IoT), which involves the chain: object – sensor – wireless communication – data analysis – application. The following examples target another trending but highly relevant area for everyday comfort: Smart City.
Regarding the magnetic field sensor, three options were considered: MAG3110 (NXP), HMC5883L (Honeywell Aerospace), and LIS3MDL (ST). Since the distributor informed us that NXP would discontinue the Xtrinsic MAG3110 three-axis digital magnetometer, and the Honeywell component was listed as “obsolete” on Digikey.com, the ST solution was chosen.
During real-world testing in a Bucharest intersection, in parallel with an inductive loop, the magnetic field sensor demonstrated superior vehicle counting accuracy. When compared to manual counts conducted by a human observer over multiple intervals, the inductive loop consistently undercounted vehicles.
The magnetic sensor enables wireless data transmission from depths of up to 30 cm, is unaffected by road surface rehabilitation works, and remains insensitive to atmospheric conditions (fog, rain, snow) or ambient light.
The complete SysTraffic solution allows quick integration into traffic management systems via a LoRa gateway, operating at a sub-1 GHz transmission frequency.
SysParking
Real-world testing was carried out for one year in several areas of Alba Iulia, both for parking management and illegal parking detection.
It was also evaluated within the broader “Alba Iulia Smart City 2018” Pilot Project, the first of its kind in Romania, which also included air quality monitoring at one of the city’s busiest intersections. Since the air quality monitoring station was installed at the same intersection as the traffic volume measurement system, data correlation was possible to determine the impact of traffic volume on air quality.
The Common Denominator Intentionally, the type of communication was not mentioned in the previous examples, as it represents the common element: LoRa.
Being the main energy consumer, the LoRa communication module required an in-depth market analysis. There are numerous manufacturers in Europe (Italy, Germany, Switzerland), the United States, and, naturally, China—some of which were included in the selection table.
The selection criteria included technical performance (frequency, maximum consumption in transmission/reception/power-down modes, sensitivity, etc.), availability on the local market, purchase cost, and ease of programming. The chosen option met all these criteria and ensured a competitive selling price.
SmartGWay Gateway
The SysParking solution uses a LoRa concentrator — SmartGWay, also developed by Syswin Solutions. This hardware gateway device enables data transmission from the SysParking sensor network to the central parking management platform.
With 16 channels, the concentrator can theoretically serve up to 60,000 nodes, with the only limitation being line-of-sight conditions. The device bridges the LoRa 433 MHz network to GPRS or LAN connectivity. SmartGWay can be integrated into any traffic management system.
Its power supply can be 12V DC (when using an external power source connected to the public grid) or 24V DC (when using photovoltaic panels).
The same SmartGWay device is also used in the KappaCSmart solution to transmit data to the application server.
In Short
By adopting LoRa technology, Syswin Solutions has gained the opportunity to develop applications in an emerging domain such as Smart City: SysTraffic, SysParking, and KappaCSmart. These are based on secure, bidirectional, low-power, long-range communications, made attractive by the combination of free or low-cost network services.
The wireless signals can penetrate soil and travel long distances, delivering small data packets to and from numerous low-power node devices.
These are not the only LoRa-based applications developed by Syswin Solutions — one of them has been mentioned tangentially above. Each will be presented in future issues of the Electronica Azi magazine.
Authors: Adrian Zărnescu, Răzvan Ungurelu, Gaudenţiu Vărzaru
Article originally published in Electronica Azi:
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