The IIIT-H Smart City Living Lab and Silicon Labs, a Nasdaq-listed firm that offers secure, intelligent wireless technologies,  have launched a campus-wide Wi-SUN backbone Mesh network at IIITH Living Lab.

The network supports Field Area Network (FAN) 1.1 specification, as a continuation to the rollout of FAN 1.0 network in September 2022.

The Mesh helps in establish a reliable, reachable communication network to make research and development of solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities easier.

The Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network) network uses the unlicensed band with no additional network infra adds to the existing modes of sensor communications, which allows sensors to connect easily to the cloud.

Wi-SUN allows devices to communicate with each other in a mesh network. Instead of relying on a central hub to route data between devices, each device can act as a relay and pass data on to other devices in the network. This helps to create a more resilient and reliable network as there is no single point of failure.

This technology can be deployed by service providers, utilities, municipalities/local governments for large-scale outdoor IoT wireless communication networks.

It enables entities to deploy long-range, low-power wireless mesh networks connecting thousands of IoT nodes. 

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Phase-ii

In the second phase, the institute deployed 30 more Wi-SUN router nodes, which contained Silicon Labs’ radio - EFR32FG25 modules.

“With the present deployment, more than 100 streetlights on campus are being controlled and a dense and steady Wi-SUN network is built covering more than 80 per cent of the campus,” a IIIT-H executive said.

“The FAN 1.1 extension to the Wi-SUN network at IIITH helps in building and validating a number of smart city solutions, including water management, air quality monitoring, smart lighting, traffic management, and energy management,” he said.

“The launch of Phase 2 of the network is a significant step in enabling innovators to address the key issues in sustainable urbanisation,” he said.

V L Praveen Kumar, Director of HMWSSB ((Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board), said that the water utility would like to try the feasibility of the deployment of Wi-SUN network for water utilities in Hyderabad.

“This innovative street-lighting application, with thirty built-in FAN 1.1 network nodes connecting the campus street lamps for remote monitoring and control, along with an equal number of FAN1.0 nodes deployed earlier, establishes a Wi-SUN backbone mesh network for future smart city applications,” Daniel Cooley, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Senior Vice-President, Technology and Product Development at Silicon Labs, said.

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