Chinese LED display and lighting company Unilumin Group is working with telco Huawei on a joint smart pole solution designed for smart city projects worldwide.
The joint project is based on Huawei’s existing smart pole portfolio, which enables multiple services to share the same station and the network.
Smart poles are predicted to become a key deployment framework for urban infrastructure with a forecast of an installed base exceeding 10.8 million globally by 2030.
The poles combine traffic light, streetlight, closed circuit television and security light applications, and are equipped with information and telecommunications technologies (ICT) such as public wi-fi, IoT sensors, and capabilities for drone deployment.
According to global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, which describes smart poles as “multi-functional aggregation points” for smart urban infrastructure, this will translate into system revenues amounting to US$60 billion.
“The relevance of smart poles for smart cities is huge,” said Dominique Bonte, VP end markets and verticals at ABI Research.
“They offer an efficient, scalable, and modular framework for deploying the whole spectrum of smart urban infrastructure, ranging from 5G small cells and wifi hotspots to surveillance and traffic cameras, signage and information displays, air quality and flood monitoring solutions, and charging points for two- and four-wheel vehicles, drones, and handsets including renewable energy generation,”
Bonte said smart poles required investment from the telco sector “in the form of 56 and future 6G small cells and the use of mmWave radio spectrum.”
Smart poles have been installed in many cities around the world. In South Korea, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has constructed 190 smart poles in four districts of the capital.
The Huawei solution is based on optical and IP network slicing technology, and one fibre is used for multiple networks, providing integrated access.
Two-way authentication is performed between the optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network unit (ONU) to prevent device forgery and ensure transmission reliability.
Wireless microwave enables high bandwidth, low latency, and trenchless cabling, which reduces single-site construction costs by 60%.
