Data Driven IoT Insights for sustainable communities

The Internet of Things connects BILLIONS of physical devices across the world. These devices could be smart lights, parking sensors, temperature monitors, water meters, pet trackers, security cameras, cars, glasses, plants, animals, kitchen appliances, park benches, fences, anything you can thing of! Those devices generate an incredible amount of data. That data may be useful to the owner of the device, AND if combined with other data points it could drive big data insights to our connected communities and spaces. Imagine if your security camera could tell your house that there are no cars in the garage, so the house can save energy by automatically turning off all the lights. Or if a water monitor in your pot plant could tell when it needed to be watered. This would make our lives easier, but also save power and water.

There are many ways for these devices to connect to the internet. You could connect them with internet cables, or connect over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Sigfox, and several other local networks. But arguably the easiest and fastest way to connect to the internet is by putting a SIM in those devices, so it can connect straight to the 3G/4G/5G network without you having to set up cables or configure passwords. This is ‘cellular’ IoT.

At Telstra, we have 2 incredible cellular IoT technologies that are “Low Power Wide Area Networks” (LPWAN): NB-IoT and Cat-M1. With lower power required to connect, LPWAN IoT devices have a longer battery life. For rural deployments, this means less time spent going out to remote areas for battery changes, and in urban dense areas it means less disruption digging up underground sensors. Cellular IoT also allows rapid deployment, with minimal change to existing infrastructure; no dodgy wi-fi connections or cables, just set and forget!

If you measure what matters, you can see the way people interact and use community spaces. That could be seeing when bins are full or empty, how much water is used or wasted, or how crowded a space is.

TelstraDev invites you to think about how LPWAN cellular Internet of Things networks can take this data, match it with open data sources, and provide insights to our communities on ways we can be more efficient with our use of resources like energy, space and water. Remember, LPWAN and Cellular IoT is especially useful compared to other technologies for devices that are hard to reach, critical, or moving. Look at almost any part of our economy – healthcare, transport, logistics, agriculture, education or engineering – and you’ll see that we measure, monitor, video and track more things than ever before.

Additional Information:

Video: Presentation of the Challenge

Technologies to highlight: Telstra’s Low Power Wide Area Network Internet of Things technology, IoT connected devices with cellular IoT SIMs

Other useful links:
• Capabilities of the Telstra IoT Network: https://www.telstra.com.au/business-enterprise/products/internet-of-things/capabilities/iot-network
• Purchase IoT Devices and Connectivity on TelstraDev: https://dev.telstra.com/iot-marketplace
• Examples of devices on the cellular LPWAN IoT network for environmental monitoring: https://www.telstra.com.au/business-enterprise/products/internet-of-things/solutions/environment-monitoring
• The future of IoT and 5G: https://exchange.telstra.com.au/our-iot-networks-are-joining-the-5g-family-future-proofing-for-years-to-come/