Phil Beecher, President and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance outlines how IoT can support smart infrastructure management
In my previous columns, I’ve talked about the importance of network interoperability for various use cases that utilise IoT technologies, from smart farming to floodwater and stormwater management. Much of this is still in its developmental phase, while large smart metering/advanced metering infrastructure projects are more advanced.
I believe many of the biggest areas for growth in new applications will be in smart cities where there’s an opportunity for some exciting innovation. We can expect to see a wave of smart city applications coming in the next few years. We’re already seeing major smart streetlighting rollouts – notably in the City of London, Paris, Miami and others.
But this could expand to other kinds of smart infrastructure where IoT sensors and connected devices can support applications for managing critical infrastructure, including remote monitoring, structural integrity diagnostics, and disaster management and emergency response planning. Driven by safety and security needs, as well as cost considerations, smart infrastructure solutions can enhance monitoring and surveillance, together with predictive maintenance on structures like bridges, tunnels, buildings and more.
Smart infrastructure investment
While investment in smart infrastructure management is evident globally – with the market projected to grow from $923 billion in 2024 to $2,109 billion by 2029 – Japan is leading the way.
Driven by several government-backed initiatives, including a policy aimed at extending the life of the country’s aged civil infrastructure, cutting-edge IoT technology is being deployed in everything from bridges and tunnels to steel towers and artificial slopes, helping to make the maintenance and management more sophisticated and efficient.
In 2015, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism announced its i-Construction initiative to improve productivity in all construction production processes from survey to design, construction, inspection, maintenance and renewal.
As part of this, it is also adopting technology to improve productivity within the civil engineering and construction space resulting from a skills shortages – with the number of workers on construction sites expected to decline by 1.3m. Infrastructure monitoring is seen as a crucial measure within this policy.
Some of our member companies have been supporting the deployment of IoT devices in markets like Japan, helping to bolster the maintenance and management of critical infrastructure in several ways. These include.
- Monitoring of pier inclination: To check usability and safety in the event of a disaster, such as a large flood
- Cable tension monitoring of cable-stayed bridges: To monitor and assess cable condition, both throughout the product lifetime and because of stress, such as heavy traffic
- Slope and embankment monitoring: To monitor and assess the potential deterioration resulting from heavy rain or earthquakes
- Monitoring of highway lighting columns: Used to identify loose fixings that may arise from vibrations, age or traffic accidents
These use cases only scratch the surface of the overall potential of IoT in powering smart infrastructure. If we take the previous example of streetlights, functional lighting can become integral to smart city operations through IoT, supporting functions well beyond their usual remit, such as being used to deploy additional sensors and devices. Sensors can then be used to monitor traffic flow, road temperatures, air quality and pollution levels – or in the case of the City of London, to identify missing lifebelts on the River Thames.
Network infrastructure
The one common theme of using IoT in critical infrastructure scenarios is sensors. But for them to work reliably and effectively, they need a secure, robust and reliable network infrastructure that ensure they stay connected and deliver optimal results.
Mesh networking like Wi-SUN FAN provides a communications infrastructure for large-scale outdoor networks, allowing devices like streetlights to interconnect onto one common network – and becoming the foundation from which smart city infrastructure can be built up from.
When it comes to critical infrastructure, safety and security is paramount. Adopting a security-by-design approach, device authentication and encryption are the central pillars of IoT security, ensuring each device is uniquely identifiable with digital certificates, and authenticated when joining a network.
Ease of use and scalability also removes the opportunity for complexity to hinder infrastructure deployments, while adopting a standardised communications technology means multiple vendors and devices can leverage a single network deployment. Interoperability between third party products allows the network to be used for multiple applications, providing an opportunity to roll out additional smart city use cases and devices in the future.
Large-scale IoT networks will be critical to the success of smart infrastructure management use cases, as they continue to evolve over the next few years, allowing them to operate safely, securely and reliably.
Author: Phil Beecher, President and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance
