Berg Insight today released new findings about the smart parking market. Excluding China, the global installed base of wirelessly connected in-ground and surface-mounted parking sensors reached an estimated 1.3 million devices worldwide at the end of 2023.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8 percent, the number of installed sensors is expected to reach 3.2 million in 2028. Europe and North America together accounted for more than half of the installed base, while the rest of the world markets (excluding China) accounted for about 31 percent. Prominent smart parking sensor markets outside of Europe and North America include Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. While cities and municipalities are increasingly adopting smart parking technology, the private segment today accounts for the majority of the installed devices.

Following the recent exits of several leading vendors such as Streetline, SmartGrains, Nedap and Onesitu from the market, New Zealand-based Frogparking has emerged as the world’s leading smart parking sensor provider. The company had a global market share (excluding China) of 12.2 percent in Q4-2023. The top three also included US-based CivicSmart and Spanish Urbiotica, which both have a significant international presence. Other major vendors include Australia-based Smart Parking, the European companies Fleximodo (GOSPACE LABS), Smart City System, IoT Solutions Malta and ParkHelp Technologies, as well as the North American vendors PNI and Nwave Technologies. The top ten vendors together accounted for around 46 percent of the global installed base of smart parking sensors outside of China at the end of 2023. Only a handful of companies have yet managed to establish an international presence spanning two or more regions of the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused disruption to the industry but as city and local government budgets are gradually stabilising, the interest in smart city solutions such as smart parking sensors has returned. The pandemic moreover brought a change in the parking landscape as remote work has become more commonplace.

“For the private and company parking segments in particular, this has paved the way for new opportunities in the utilisation of parking sensors as they allow parking owners to efficiently manage demand and supply to provide just enough parking when and where needed”, said Felix Linderum, IoT analyst, Berg Insight.

In North America, the smart parking sensor market has historically struggled to overcome scepticism caused by a number of technology failures in the early days of the industry. So far, growth in the region has mainly been driven by the private segment but cities are now becoming increasingly interested in the technology.

“Cities require more consistent and accurate data to improve their parking management operations and most sensors today offer high performance”, continued Mr. Linderum.

As more and more cities embark on larger-scale rollouts after having completed lengthy pilot projects, the share of on-street deployments will also increase as cities are the primary owners of such parking assets. While off-street parking deployments, which are characterized by high parking space densities, have been favourable to the use of RF networks, on-street deployments place higher demands on network coverage and long-range communications capabilities. While RF networks will continue to see growth in the off-street parking segment, LPWA technologies are expected to dominate on-street deployments.

Mr. Linderum, concluded:

“The share of parking sensors communicating through LPWA technologies such as LoRaWAN and NB-IoT has grown significantly in recent years and it is expected that their market share in the off-street segment will eventually increase as well.”

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Parkki, a French tech company is leveraging LiDAR technology to make parking your car at the shops an easier, quicker and ultimately smarter experience.

Speculation about the impact of technology on our lives tends to focus on the dramatic, exciting stuff. Flying cars. Space travel. Humanoid robots. Laser guns.

What it often glosses over is the impact on the more benign things. Artificial intelligence powering our Google searches. Sensors that monitor our fresh produce in transit. Tap-and-go payment systems. Or smart parking management, for that matter.

Although science fiction predicted that we’d all be zipping around in flying cars and the odd eccentric billionaire said that cars would be driving us by now, we’re still on the road and behind the wheel (besides which, even flying cars need somewhere to park). Like taxes, difficult in-laws and lost socks, navigating parking lots searching for a place to park is a universal problem. That’s what makes the seemingly unexciting technological innovation behind Parkki so legitimately exciting.

Park smarter

Simply put, the French tech company’s goal is to make parking smarter, easier and more transparent. To do so, they use LiDAR sensors to monitor the availability of parking spaces, making that information available to customers via digital signage and custom mall mobile parking applications. The idea is that by removing the stress of searching for a parking spot, malls and retail spaces can better serve customers’ needs and increase the likelihood of them returning – in effect boosting customer loyalty through a better parking experience.

It’s not just customers who benefit from this information, however. It turns out the humble car park is a rich source of information about consumer behaviour and use of public spaces. By analysing vehicle flows, time in a parking lot, which bays are occupied the most, and other similar data, mall management can better manage their infrastructure, logistics and tenants, and plan for future development.

Eye in the sky

Parkki employs various technologies to monitor parking lots, one of which is the LightWare SF30/C LiDAR sensor. The company has positioned more than 100 of these small power- and cost-effective sensors on top of streetlights in car parks around the city of Lille in France, with each capable of scanning a wide area covering up to 40 parking bays.

LiDAR, which stands for “light detection and ranging”, functions by pulsing lasers of varying wavelengths exceptionally rapidly at the world around it, measuring the time the light takes to return to the sensor to build a map of its surroundings. Because the unit generates its own light, it is unaffected by ambient light or changes in weather.

In the past, LiDAR units were cumbersome and expensive, but advances in miniaturisation and a sharp decline in prices – as demonstrated in the LightWare SF30/C, for example – have opened a vast range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications for this technology. For instance, LiDAR scanners can profile the size of moving vehicles on toll roads to charge them accordingly. They can monitor pedestrian and vehicular movement at intersections to improve traffic management. They can activate streetlights or increase their intensity when there is actually traffic there, saving power. More complex applications include building 3D maps of cities that show pollution and sunlight movement, enabling better city planning.

Parkki’s solution has, until now, focused primarily on the retail sector, but they have plans to expand it to airports and other large public spaces, taking us one more step closer to the city of the future.

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Berg Insight, the world’s leading IoT market research provider, today released the latest edition of its comprehensive smart city technology report comprising in-depth studies of five key technology areas – smart street lighting, smart parking, smart waste collection, urban air quality monitoring and smart city surveillance.

In 2020, the global installed base of individually controlled smart street lights amounted to 13.0 million units (excluding China). The corresponding figures for the smart parking and smart waste sensor technology markets were at the same time 957,000 and 657,000 units respectively.

Smart parking sensors refers to in-ground or surface-mounted parking occupancy detection sensors while smart waste sensor technology consists of fill-level sensor devices that may either be pre-integrated into bins and containers, for example as a smart bin offering, or retrofitted on existing collection points.

The smart street lighting market has now gained significant traction and its installed base will grow at a robust CAGR of 23.4 percent to reach 37.4 million units in 2025.

The number of installed smart parking sensors is expected to see a slightly slower growth of 21.6 percent (CAGR) while the smart waste sensor technology market will be the fastest growing of the three with a CAGR of 29.8 percent.

A more nascent smart city technology area is the field of non-regulatory urban air quality monitoring, which comprises increasingly small and low-cost air quality monitoring devices that can serve as valuable complements to traditional regulatory monitoring stations. In 2020, the number of such non-regulatory air quality monitoring devices installed in outdoor urban environments amounted to 73,000 units globally and will surpass 300,000 units in 2025.

The largest of the five covered smart city application areas was meanwhile the smart city surveillance market, which reached a global market value of € 9.9 billion in 2020. The market, which includes both fixed and mobile video and audio surveillance solutions, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.7 percent throughout the forecast period.

Levi Ostling, smart city analyst, Berg Insight, said:

“Looking just at the sheer volume of various types of smart city device shipments, China has in the past few years outrun most other countries in the world and now plays in a league of its own.”

Outside China, Europe has emerged as the leading smart city technology adopter and North America constitutes the second largest market. An exception is however the North American market for smart city surveillance, which was about 27 percent larger than the European in 2020.

“While publicly funded deployments of smart city technologies in many cases were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were more importantly not cancelled thanks to their growing status as key infrastructure projects,” continued Mr. Ostling when asked about the Covid-19 impact on the overall market.

The pandemic has in many ways highlighted the benefits of remotely managed infrastructure and the need for smart city technologies, which should help the smart city market to recuperate strongly after a short period of slightly reduced growth.

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Anyone who spends a lot of time driving knows that parking can be a time consuming and frustrating business. With increasing congestion, parking restrictions and fewer stopping routes, drivers are finding it increasingly more difficult to find available spots. Adding to this difficulty is the challenge of paying the parking fee after a spot is finally secured. In some areas, meters are not easy to find, require coins or sometimes are even broken, all leaving the parker with even more frustration. It was all these challenges that the City of Huntington Park set forth to tackle in developing a new easy to use parking application for its citizens.

To make it all happen the city joined forces with Nobel Systems a cloud solution provider specializing in IoT Devices for utilities and municipalities. “The city wanted to get rid of manually paying spots and the city enforcement also needs a better way to track and let customers easily pay,” said Tanmay Thakur, Internet of Things/AI Engineer at Nobel. “We were excited to leverage our expertise in cloud technologies to help them find the best solution.”

Nobel’s vision was a system that utilized sensors that would send sensor data to users via a user-friendly application. The city at the onset suggested utilizing LoRaWAN®, a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet, and services that support it. They also had specific wireless and gateway provider recommendations. Early in the process, it was determined that the Helium Network, the largest, public LoRaWAN network in the world, would be their choice for the wireless network and MultiTech as its ideal gateway provider. “We knew early on that utilizing LoRaWAN was our best course of action. Helium is one hundred percent compatible with MultiTech’s gateways, so it really was a perfect fit,” continued Thakur at Nobel.

“LoRaWAN technology has created new opportunities across a wide range of industries and use cases,” said Stefan Lindvall, CEO of MultiTech. “Cities worldwide will learn from the City of Huntington’s implementation and there is no better proof point to its effectiveness than seeing it in action. The expanding accessibility of LoRa devices has allowed businesses to increase efficiencies, and in turn, reduce operating costs. We are proud to offer products that are part of these life changing solutions.”

Nobel also did their own homework on the gateways in the field, considering solutions from competitors. “We needed the solution to be reliable in outdoor conditions, waterproof and airtight,” continued Thakur. “The MultiTech gateway fit the bill. It also had a high LoRaWAN range.”

In a site survey of the gateway range, MultiTech’s gateways had a much higher range for communication that would lessen the number of gateways required, reducing the expense for the City. “If they had opted for another vendor, they would have needed more gateways. In the end, we decided, like the City of Huntington that the MultiTech conduit IP 67 was also our first choice.” With a corporate mission to build the largest LoRaWAN network in the world, there was no doubt either that Helium was the prime choice for the wireless networking protocol.

PlacePod sensors from PNI, IoT-enabled smart parking sensors for on-street and off-street public and private parking management, were selected as the best sensors available for the solution.

With all partners in place, Nobel set forth to make it all happen. Utilizing LoRaWAN would enable them to connect a large number of IoT sensors to the cloud cost-effectively, so the first line of order was to create a model for the parking sensors to communicate information that end users could ultimately utilize.

To start, Nobel developed an application called GeoViewer which used Helium’s dedicated APIs to monitor new data received by gateways from installed IoT parking sensors. The sensors, embedded in the payment, would monitor for vacant or occupied parking spots. Information from the sensors would then be sent, using a dedicated LoraWAN radio frequency (RF) band, to MultiTech gateways, located above ground on nearby traffic light poles. The gateways, utilizing a cellular SIM card or WiFi, would transfer data packets via the sensors to the cloud. When a new data point is received for any parking spot, the API immediately updates it on the GeoViewer Parking app, allowing end users to get immediate insight on space availability.

Today, the City of Huntington Park, has sensors placed at all the required 1,460 parking spots. MultiTech’s gateways are installed and running, receiving the real-time data from all the in-ground sensors. The citizens of the city are relieved to have a solution that makes their life easier and city officials are also pleased to have a solution in place for more efficient payments for its parking fees.

“Because it is running on Helium, we can easily increase the scale to additional sensors if necessary. Similar parking solutions require more infrastructure, such as dedicated RF network antennas and wiring to deploy such large applications,” said Thakur. “With the right technologies and the right partners in place we were able to create a solution that worked for everyone. In the end, it’s the citizens and city officials reap the benefit and that was our original goal.”

Looking forward to the future, Nobel intends to develop additional solutions that utilize the MultiTech Conduit IP67 Base Station with Helium in new markets such as water utilities and health and sewer monitoring, to name a few. “It has really given us the ability to easily setup a LoRaWAN network with minimal configuration and the possibilities for innovation utilizing this combined solution are endless.”

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Berg Insight today released new findings about the smart parking market.

The installed base of wirelessly connected in-ground and surface-mounted parking sensors reached 1.3 million worldwide in 2019. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.9 percent, this number will more than double by 2023.

Europe and North America together accounted for about half of the installed base, while the Chinese market accounted for the majority of the remainder. Prominent smart parking markets also include Australia and New Zealand as well as the Middle East to some extent. Overall, the private parking segment has been quicker than cities and municipalities to adopt smart parking technology and today accounts for the majority of the installed devices.

The world’s leading smart parking sensor provider is the Netherlands-based security and identification solutions group Nedap, which had a global market share of 16.3 percent in Q3-2019. The top three also included Chinese Fangle Technology and French SmartGrains, which both have the majority of their installed bases in their respective domestic markets. Other significant vendors include the Australasian vendors Smart Parking and Frogparking, the European companies Onesitu, Urbiotica, Worldsensing, CommuniThings and Intercomp, as well as the North American vendors CivicSmart, PNI, Fybr, Nwave Technologies and Streetline. The top 10 vendors accounted for around 50 percent of the global installed base of smart parking sensors in Q3-2019. Only a handful of companies have yet managed to establish an international presence spanning two or more regions of the world.

“The smart parking market is still struggling to overcome a skepticism caused by a number of technology failures in the early days of the industry, particularly in North America”, said Levi Ostling, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight.

Although the technological issues have now been worked out and most sensors today offer high performance, growth has so far primarily been driven by the private parking segment. As more and more cities embark on larger-scale rollouts after having completed lengthy pilot projects, the share of on-street deployments will also increase as cities are the primary owners of such parking assets.

While off-street parking deployments, which are characterized by high parking space densities, have been favourable to the use of RF networks, on-street deployments place higher demands on network coverage and long-range communications capabilities.

Mr. Ostling, continued:

“Although RF networks will continue to see robust growth in the off-street parking segment, LPWA technologies are expected to dominate on-street deployments.”

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Aiming to meet the growing demand for greater precision in smart parking devices, Libelium has integrated radar technology in detecting the availability of parking spaces.

The new Smart Parking node improves detection and stability performance thanks to a radar sensor which allows precise detection (99%) of vehicles parked over the device that sends the data to the cloud through the LoRaWAN network.

IoT technology applied to the detection of parking places can reduce traffic, save fuel, decrease CO2 emissions and improve the driving experience and habitability of cities. In addition, smart parking devices are being highly demanded by municipalities to check rotation levels in restricted parking areas (taxis, loading and unloading, recharging electric vehicles and disabled areas).

First real deployment is already taking place in the city of Huesca (Northern Spain) where 190 nodes are being installed to detect the occupation of parking spaces for disabled people.

Radar technology offers improved performance compared to magnetic or infrared detection. Moreover, radar parking devices are not vulnerable to electromagnetic interference nor do they give false positives for vehicles parked near or in double rows. Their performance is more consistent in any luminosity condition, more stable in long stay parking cases and they are not affected by the proximity of traffic movements such as passing bus or heavy trucks. Additionally, the maintenance of radar parking sensors is much easier as they are not affected by dirt, dust, rain or oil spills.

David Gascón, co-founder and CTO of Libelium, says:

“Radar technology avoids the miscalibration problems that can be experienced with other types of technology as the system is able to “see” objects on top when lots are occupied.”

The nodes provisioning has been enormously improved, now delivered with default time settings and also unique LoRaWAN identifiers and keys, allowing the registration in the LoRaWAN network server at any one time. The new smart parking platform also provides over-the-air setup to remotely configure parameters, reducing installation times.

Smart parking devices are registered in the Libelium Services Cloud Manager before leaving the factory. They can also be used in combination with the Libelium Cloud Bridge to send data directly to any of the compatible platforms, making it easier and faster to create any parking management application.

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Brussels South Charleroi Airport plc (“BSCA”) and Telenet Group Ltd (“Telenet”) are announcing the signature of a strategic partnership today with regard to the Internet of Things (IoT).

This five-year collaboration aims to make Brussels-Charleroi airport a true ‘digital dome‘.

Its main objective is to optimise the running of the airport and to improve the passengers’ experience from home right up to the boarding gate, thanks to digital solutions such as smart parking, optimisation of the Wi-Fi network available to the public, and the analysis of visitor location data.

BSCA, the second largest airport in Belgium, has experienced a rapid growth of its activities in the past few years, with a continuing record number of visitors. Every day, some 25,000 passengers visit the airport. In order to improve the experience of travellers and visitors passing through its installations, the group intends to go a step further in its development by becoming a true smart airport, providing its customers with additional services and an innovative experience.

As for Telenet, a key player in telecommunications and new technologies in Belgium (operating under the BASE and Telenet brands), it would like to play a more active role in the development of digital projects in Wallonia.

Today, the two companies have decided to form a five-year strategic partnership aimed at setting up a new ecosystem to enable the development of solutions based on IoT, which will enrich the ‘CRL Airport’ application, for instance, that was launched by BSCA last June. This application is poised to become the heart of the passenger experience, and a source of extremely important data for the airport.

The partnership will initially focus on two concrete solutions.

Passenger flow analysis

BSCA and Telenet will develop a passenger and visitor flow mapping and analysis solution, which should allow BSCA management to better understand, manage, market and improve the general public’s movements in the airport.

Telenet will initially improve and increase the density of the airport’s Wi-Fi network and then provide BSCA with the location data of its visitors. BSCA’s management will then be able to study their movements in order to optimise airport organisation, offer them personalised services and guide them throughout their journey. Telenet hopes to finalise the improvement of the Wi-Fi network and provide the airport with the first set of data in the course of 2019.

Connected smart parking system

Following a satisfaction survey carried out by BSCA, parking is currently the main stress factor for passengers and visitors to the airport. Telenet and BSCA are therefore also going to develop a parking system together, aimed at considerably improving the user experience. It will therefore be possible to reserve and pay for a parking space online using the application. Smart cameras will then automatically recognise the registration plate at the car park entrance, while sensors connected by Telenet’s NB-IoT network will indicate free spaces. A first set of 500 spaces should be made available through this new system as of the summer of 2019.

Making BSCA a hub in terms of innovation

The partnership’s ambitions won’t be limited to these two solutions, however: the objective is to pursue the development of IoT solutions at the BSCA site as well as enabling the enrichment of the CRL Airport application.

But the two partners are aiming higher, and hope to make the airport a real hub for IoT solutions on a regional scale. Last June, Telenet opted for Microsoft’s platform in order to develop its IoT solutions, a particularly user-friendly platform which should allow Telenet and BSCA to attract other companies, start-ups and universities who would like to experiment and develop new services and applications within the airport.

Jean-Jacques Cloquet, Managing Director of Brussels South Charleroi Airport plc, says:
“We’re delighted to have concluded this partnership with Telenet. We’re at the dawn of a new era in terms of technology, thanks to this partnership, with the aim of improving passenger services. It’s important to us to facilitate the journey of people passing through our installations and now, thanks to Telenet, we can help them from their home to the plane.”

“Becoming a connected airport was one of our priorities, and now we have the first stone that will allow us to build the BSCA digital dome, for a most pleasant passenger experience.”

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CommuniThings announced today the commercial launch of the first smart-parking solution over NB-IoT technology, in partnership with Orange.

The “Shop & Drive” solution presented in Liège today assists commuters to find available parking space via a mobile application while stimulating shopping activities through increased vehicle rotations at each spot. The Smart Parking solution running on Orange Belgium’s Mobile IoT network introduces low-power wireless sensors and open-data applications serving residents, retailers and municipalities.

CommuniThings is one of the 3 start-ups selected by Orange Fab BeLux, Orange accelerator program for start-ups, focusing on supporting them to scale up thanks to business partnerships with Orange in Belgium and Luxembourg as well as internationally.

Improved shop & drive experience in Liège

Etay Oren, CEO of CommuniThings, explains:
“With the Smart Parking solution we developed for the city of Liège, users can view real-time parking occupancy on their smartphone and even navigation to the available space. Once parked, they are allowed 30 minutes of free parking in order to carry out necessity shopping. Parking controllers are informed in real-time of the parking duration. Parking managers receive statistics on usage patterns per parking and comparative analysis between periods (hours, days etc.). Previous deployments showed a threefold increase in number of vehicle rotations per spot. We are also very proud to launch this Smart Parking solution over the NB-IoT technology and we look forward to deepen our cooperation with Orange’s technical experts to introduce additional dedicated low-power solutions for different segments across cities and enterprises.”

Smart Parking solution on Orange IoT network

The Smart Parking solution is built on Orange Belgium’s nationwide Narrowband-IoT network, launched in 2017. This technology has unique advantages: it allows very long battery life of the connected equipment and reduces the cost of the electronic components inside the connected objects. It also enables full bidirectional communication between the object and the network allowing firmware updates over the air. Its signal penetration inside buildings is very strong and in the future the connectivity abroad (roaming) on other operators’ mobile IoT networks is guaranteed. By making use of Orange’s NB-IoT network, CommuniThings has the most reliable solution for IoT connectivity as it operates in a licensed radio spectrum. And thanks to the SIM card it guarantees secure connectivity through stringent authentication and encrypting the data in transit.

Orange Fab helps CommuniThings grow

Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Belgium, elaborates:
“We are very proud of supporting CommuniThings and its mobile IoT solution launched on our NB-IoT network. CommuniThings was one of the winning start-ups of the first season of Orange Fab BeLux, the accelerator program of the Orange Group that helps scale-ups who develop new products and innovative services in sectors such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, grow.We look forward to helping CommuniThings grow their business further, in Belgium as well as internationally, thanks to a win-win business oriented partnership. Thanks to Orange Fab, CommuniThings also got the opportunity to present their products and services on Orange booth at VivaTech, the world rendezvous for start-ups and leaders in Paris. Last but not least, we are preparing the next season of Orange Fab BeLux so I invite all start-ups and scale-ups to visit orangefab.be and enter an application form to benefit from this kind of opportunity.”

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Companies unite to help parking management agencies replace the “boot” with the “Barnacle”.

Aeris, said today it is working with Barnacle Parking Enforcement, a pioneer in parking enforcement technology solutions that makes parking enforcement in communities and on campuses safer, greener, more efficient, and more convenient for everyone.

Aeris is providing an IoT connectivity solution for the Barnacles around the world that streamlines the way parking is enforced.

Barnacle Parking Enforcement unveiled the Barnacle in 2016. The bright yellow, 16-pound device sticks to a vehicle’s windshield using suction cups with more than 1,000 pounds of force. Instead of using a boot to keep a wheel from moving, officers and parking enforcement officials can immobilize a vehicle by placing a Barnacle across its windshield and arming it with a keypad. Vehicle owners can disarm the Barnacle with their phone, paying their fine online or by dialing a toll-free number.

A Barnacle web app is available for parking enforcement officials to manage the IoT-enable devices. The app allows officials to track deployed Barnacles through Aeris’ IoT asset tracking functionality and receive updates about their status, process payments, and run reports on fines collected. The app also includes a worldwide map to track all deployed devices.

The Aeris® IoT Connectivity platform is being used by Barnacle Parking Enforcement to allow parking enforcement officials to streamline the way they monitor the Barnacle and deploy their personnel. The Barnacle also makes being a traffic enforcer safer, freeing officials from lugging around the parking boots, which typically weight 40 to 45 pounds, and putting themselves in a dangerous position to install them.

The Barnacle offers efficiencies across the entire scope of parking enforcement from deployment to retrieval. This results in:

• Less carbon emissions from tow trucks and deployment vehicles;
• Small, electric deployment vehicles;
• Less maintenance needed; and
• Less storage space necessary, freeing up critical space in cities.

The Aeris IoT Connectivity platform offers many innovative features that let Barnacle Parking Enforcement improve its service delivery and expand its service radius in other markets outside of the U.S.A.

Kevin Dougherty, Co-Founder and CEO, Barnacle Parking Enforcement
“Together with Aeris we are working to make the necessary process of parking enforcement more efficient and convenient for everyone involved, including the motorist. The Aeris IoT Connectivity platform provides us cost-effective global IoT connectivity for all deployed Barnacles around the world.”

Erica Glavnik, Campus Safety Supervisor, Corban University

“We absolutely love this technology. The efficiency and convenience the Barnacle provides our enforcement program has been beneficial for both our students and Safety team members. The real-time tracking and alerts allow us to deploy the device while not worrying if a student is circumnavigating the vehicle lockdown.”

Christina Richards, Vice President of Global Marketing, Aeris
“Aeris is an Internet of Things industry leader. Through our work with Barnacle Parking Enforcement, we can present them the opportunity to easily track and deploy Barnacle devices enabled by Aeris. The Aeris IoT Connectivity platform is built for IoT and has been globally tested at scale. For more than a decade, we have unlocked IoT value for businesses and look forward to helping Barnacle be the preeminent provider of parking enforcement.”

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Sigfox U.S.A., the North America network operator for the global Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) connectivity provider Sigfox, has partnered with PNI Sensor to launch an IoT enabled parking solution in the US, the Sigfox enabled PlacePod.

Solving the most mission-critical aspects of parking management including accurate, real-time vehicle detection and location of available parking spaces, the PlacePod is an industrialized low power wide area IoT enabled smart parking sensor for on-street, off-street, municipal, and private parking management. Unlike other magnetic sensor-based parking sensors, PlacePod accurately detects parking events in dense urban environments and filters out magnetic interference from underground trains, passing traffic, and overhead power lines which can trigger false parking events.

With the power of Sigfox unique device-to-cloud technology, the Sigfox enabled PlacePod has an extremely long battery life, allowing for smart cities, universities, parking companies, and facilities to harness the benefits of PlacePod and make data-driven decisions over long periods of time. As a result, parking managers and city planners can use the Sigfox enabled PlacePod solution to help reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions, improve urban mobility, and increase parking revenue by making parking enforcement more efficient.

The partnership is part of Sigfox U.S.A.’s expanding ecosystem to better serve the needs of the US market, and complements Sigfox existing network coverage in the top 24 US metros, including cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City.

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Enables Rapid Deployment of IoT-Enabled Smart Parking.

PNI Sensor Corporation and Senet, today announced integration between PNI Sensor Corporation’s PlacePod smart parking solution and the Senet Low-Power Wide-Area network (LPWAN).

PNI’s PlacePod is an IoT-enabled high-accuracy smart parking sensor that provides accurate vehicle detection in parking spaces, up to 10 years of battery life and is stable over temperature fluctuations, even in harsh environments. PlacePod solves the most mission-critical aspects of parking management: accurate, real-time vehicle detection and location of available parking spaces.

Integration of the PlacePod smart parking sensor and the Senet LPWAN gives businesses, cities, university campuses and transportation hubs the capability to implement an end-to-end smart parking solution and adopt dynamic pricing models to increase parking revenues, efficiently manage parking enforcement and reduce traffic congestion by guiding drivers to available parking spaces.

“We are excited to partner with Senet and expand the IoT ecosystem for our smart parking customers,” said Becky Oh, President and CEO of PNI Sensor Corporation.

“Now customers have the flexibility to customize their smart parking solution for their specific requirements and manage their parking resources using the Senet LPWAN within PNI’s parking cloud or utilize the Senet network for a private, on-premises deployment.”

Senet’s public, standards-based and highly scalable LPWAN currently provides coverage in a total of 225 cities and 23 states (see live coverage map), and has the ability to support millions of devices across hundreds of industries. LPWANs are differentiated by bi-directional communication, security, support for fixed, nomadic and mobile devices and localization capabilities which address the most critical aspects of IoT value creation.

“A leading promise of IoT is the technology’s ability to augment and improve existing infrastructure and services that citizens rely on every day, while delivering economic and environmental improvements,” said Dave Kjendal, CTO and Executive Vice President of Engineering at Senet. “We are pleased to be partnering with PNI to deliver on this promise with municipal and private parking management solutions aimed at improving public services and reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions.”

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Technavio analysts forecast the global smart parking market to grow at a CAGR of over 18% during the forecast period, according to their latest report.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global smart parking market for 2017-2021. To determine the market size, the study considers revenue generated from parking site/facility providers, parking management firms, and online payment technology providers.

The market size of smart parking industry is expected to reach USD 26.2 billion by 2021, with maximum incremental growth originating from EMEA. The increasing
connected car shipments and increasing incorporation of the Internet of things are expected to drive the healthy growth in EMEA.

Online payment technology providers will register the highest growth during the forecast period, showcasing a CAGR of over 36%. Mobile payment methods like Apple Pay and CellOPark Australia are increasingly used to make on-street parking payments. This integration of payment apps and parking license apps with smart parking meters will enhance the customer’s parking experience, and drive the market growth.

Technavio analysts highlight the following four factors that are contributing to the growth of the global smart parking market:

• Increased adoption of smart parking sensors
• Growing adoption of intelligent transportation systems
• Advanced analytics on telematics to reduce traffic congestion
• Growth of automotive industry

Increased adoption of smart parking sensors

“Smart parking systems use sensors that are deployed in the center of a parking area to aid in the reduction of traffic congestions in highly populated areas. The data gathered from these sensors is analyzed to make highly efficient use of available parking space,” says Abhishek Sharma, one of the lead analysts at Technavio for M2M and connected devices research.

Smart parking uses real-time monitoring and control of the available parking space. A two-way M2M communication takes place between smart parking sensors and connected cars that reduce parking-related issues. The data regarding parking space availability is updated in real-time to a central software application, providing seamless data flow to the consumers.

Growing adoption of intelligent transportation systems

There is an increasing need for safe, efficient, and accessible public transport solutions in urban areas where congestions lead to an extension of travel times. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) provide application-enabling network services to enable the operators to securely gather, analyze, and distribute networked resources in real time. Since smart parking has features such as traffic management, vehicle diagnostics, and video surveillance, it aids in smart management of transportation systems, thus pushing for market growth.

Advanced analytics on telematics to reduce traffic congestion

“To attain transparency in data and gain customer trust, companies have started applying advanced analytics to telematics data. This helps automotive companies not only understand customers better but also deliver personalized solutions in a completely connected environment,” says Abhishek.

Telematics provides control and understanding of recall issues that have the potential to save billions of dollars for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The partnerships between OEMs and telecom service providers, and adoption of cloud-based services are expected to generate huge profits for the smart parking market.

Growth of automotive industry

With the increase in electronic components in automotive vehicles, the integration of connectivity solutions in automotive industry has been steadily increasing. IoT connectivity in automotive vehicles through innumerable sensors and processors integrated into a car provide accurate and real-time information about the surrounding environment to the driver. Additionally, autonomous vehicles, which are a major innovation in the automotive industry, have the potential to secure social, economic, and mobility benefits, thus driving market growth.

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Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recent smart parking market in Western Europe report until 2020.

This research report also lists 32 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

Increased adoption of smart parking sensors

Smart parking aids in reducing traffic congestions in highly populated areas. Smart parking systems use sensors that are deployed in the center of a parking area. The data gathered from these sensors helps get information regarding the number of standby vehicles and the number of vehicles in the queue to acquire parking space. The data also helps analyze and process traffic flow and notify passengers with relevant alerts. Moreover, smart parking has the tools to improve workforce management and generate revenue by enabling real-time monitoring and control of the available parking space. A two-way M2M communication takes place between smart parking sensors and connected cars. This communication helps reduce parking-related issues.

Competitive vendor landscape

According to the report, the smart parking market in Western Europe is highly fragmented and comprises of various stakeholders such as smart parking solution providers, telecommunications operators, automotive OEMs, and IT and business service providers. In Western Europe, there are many mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and mobile virtual network enablers (MVNEs) that provide wireless M2M connectivity services and solutions.

Rajesh Kumar Panda, a lead M2M and connected devices research analyst from Technavio, says:

“The smart parking market is evolving and consists of few market players. The market is moderately competitive, but it is expected to witness increasing competition in the forecast period. Vendors are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to strengthen their foothold in the market; they are forming strategic partnerships to enter different geographies and extend their footprint.”

In addition, the market is witnessing the entry of many cloud-based software vendors that are competing with traditional vendors in the market. However, the smart parking industry is experiencing a growing trend toward consolidation and outsourcing of parking operations and services.

Top five smart parking market vendors in Western Europe

IPS Group

The IPS Group and is headquartered in California, US. The group is into engineering and manufacturing and focuses on wireless telecommunications, payment processing systems, Software as a Service (SaaS) management software, and parking technologies.

The group offers products to customers worldwide, especially in the US. It also receives annual certification by the PCI Security Council for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS).

The IPS Group employs 70 people and has offices in the US and Europe. It has sales offices in Canada and other locations across North America. The group delivers IoT and ITS solutions for transportation and parking operations, globally.

Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas

Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Zaragoza, Spain. The company designs and develops wireless sensor network devices for system integrators and engineering and consultancy companies to provide smart city solutions to end-users. It delivers low power consumption devices for smart city solutions and an extensive range of M2M and sensors projects worldwide.

The company offers products in the categories Waspmote, Plug & Sense!, Meshlium, and Cooking Hacks. In addition, it provides face-to-face workshops, custom training courses, custom hardware, and solutions to deploy IoT, M2M, and smart city projects.

Parkeon

Parkeon is in the urban mobility industry and supplies a unique range of parking management solutions and public transport ticketing solutions. The company has offices in France and the UK.

The company has subsidiaries in the UK, Italy, Spain, Australia, Germany, Belgium, the US, and the Netherlands. It provides services to more than 4,000 clients, globally. It has installed approximately 200,000 parking meters in more than 60 countries.

Streetline (Kapsch TrafficCom)

Streetline was established in 2005 and is headquartered in California, US. The company has smart parking deployment centers across the US, Canada, and Europe. It delivers smart data and advanced analytics to resolve parking issues for customers, globally.

Streetline provides real-time and historical parking applications for technology adopters through a portal called ParkSight. It also enables ParkEdge, a platform that allows parking providers to add off-street parking information on both Parker and ParkerMap.

TransCore

TransCore has been in the transportation business for 80 years now and is headquartered in Tennessee, US. It is a leading company in the transportation industry that provides innovative, technical solutions and engineering services used in different applications.

Some of the prominent vendors are: 3M, Aeris Communications, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, Gemalto, HCL, IBM, Jasper Technologies, MSR-Traffic, Nedap Mobility Solutions

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AirPrime® HL Series modules provide Parkeon with global reach, scalability and efficiency for urban mobility solutions worldwide.

Sierra Wireless today announced that Parkeon, a global leader in parking, transit and urban mobility solutions, has selected Sierra Wireless AirPrime® HL Series embedded modules to enable cellular connectivity in smart parking deployments worldwide. The next-generation smart parking kiosks from Parkeon are already being deployed in North America and Europe.

The two companies have a long-standing relationship, and Parkeon selected Sierra Wireless based on the company’s expertise in wireless solutions for Smart City applications. The HL Series modules provide scalability across 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, and allow for worldwide deployments by enabling a path to LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) network connectivity and low power consumption for solar-powered parking meters.

“Smarter parking management is a key requirement for many city managers,” said Dan Schieler, Senior Vice President, OEM Solutions for Sierra Wireless. “Municipalities today are trying to improve their operating efficiencies while also managing increasing levels of traffic. Our continued collaboration with Parkeon using the HL8548 and HL7588 LTE modules allows Parkeon to deliver cost-effective solutions that meet the varying needs of any smart city deployment.”

Businesses within the vicinity of Parkeon’s smart parking kiosks can offer customized coupons and special deals, creating new revenue streams, and citizens will also have a more convenient way of paying their fines. Parkeon also introduced a very innovative mobile parking service through its Whoosh! app, allowing citizens to pay for parking through their phones, tablets, or computers.

Bertrand Barthelemy, CEO of Parkeon added: “Parkeon has a strong history of delivering innovative parking solutions and is thrilled to be working with Sierra Wireless to bring value-added services.”

“Our parking meters are now interactive kiosks, delivering services and connecting people.”

The HL Series from Sierra Wireless uses the CF3 form factor, which is footprint-compatible across product lines and network technologies, and is fully interchangeable with future modules, including LTE-M variants when they become available.

LTE-M is an LPWA technology that will provide a highly efficient cellular option with lower radio-frequency complexity, significantly reduced power consumption (up to 10 years of service on a single AA battery), better in-building signal penetration and lower costs. Sierra Wireless is an active contributor to the LTE-M standards definition process within the 3GPP and has committed to launching compatible modules timed with network deployments expected to begin in 2017.

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Solution reduces congestion and cuts cost in Belarusian capital.

Telensa, which provides end-to-end smart city solutions using its low-power wide-area UNB wireless technology, today announced a major new smart parking deployment in Minsk, Belarus.

The deployment, led by Russian partner Gorizont-Telecom, will lead to smart parking technology in more than 3,000 parking spaces across the capital. The solution has been built on Telensa UNB wireless technology, which combines the virtues of long range, proven scalability, low cost and very long sensor battery life.

The solution involves small battery-powered sensors set into the road surface of each street parking space. These sensors detect when a vehicle is parked above them and wirelessly communicate with laptop-sized Telensa base stations, each of which looks after thousands of sensors over a range of up to 8 kilometres. The sensors have a battery life of 5 years, even in the challenging low temperatures of a Minsk winter.

The real-time occupancy data from the sensors is used to inform three cloud-based systems. The central administration system provides the city with detailed analytics on capacity trends and bottlenecks, the phone app helps citizens find spaces and so reduces pollution, and the civil enforcement officer app reduces the cost of enforcement by directing officers to precisely where infringements are taking place in real time.

The Minsk project follows established deployments in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan in Russia and Shenzhen in China. Moscow is already the world’s largest bay sensor deployment and has the potential to cover 70,000 spaces. Telensa technology was chosen to replace several previous systems because of its proven reliability and low cost.

Telensa smart city solutions are built on its ultra-narrow band (UNB) wireless technology, which is the only low-power wide-area (LPWA) network deployed at commercial scale. Covering a city of 1 million people in less than a week, Telensa UNB is the ideal platform for a range of low-cost smart city control applications such as smart parking, smart street lighting and environmental monitoring. Telensa is the world #1 in smart street lighting.

Telensa CEO Will Gibson said:

“Smart city applications won’t become ubiquitous until a multi-purpose wireless technology emerges that can be deployed easily, that works reliably at massive scale and that delivers a compelling business case. Telensa UNB increasingly looks like the catalyst to make all cities smart and we’re delighted to see Minsk and Gorizont at the forefront of this movement.”

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Partnership with Dusun Electron introduces low cost, intelligent car park application to reduce parking congestion and to increase revenues for car park operators.

GreenPeak Technologies, the leading low power RF semiconductor company, and Dusun Electron Ltd, a rapidly growing electronic company focusing on development of wireless internet technology and pioneering the Internet of Things (IoT) industry in China, today announced their partnership with the launch of their first Smart City assisted parking application that addresses the growing parking problems in China’s larger cities.

The number of cars in Beijing has grown quickly as urbanization and modernization have progressed. Today, the capital has over 5 million registered vehicles and only 1.5 million available parking spaces. Chinese ministries are launching major programs focused upon achieving sustainable urban development. The Chinese Smart City initiatives, driven by national and local governments, are intended to improve efficiency of cities and aim to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability through the systematic integration of ICT solutions into their planning, design, operations and management.

GreenPeak Technologies and Dusun Electron have launched a Smart Parking application for smart phones that guides car drivers to an available parking space. Based on individually selected criteria such as the walking distance to the destination from the parking space and the parking tariff selected, the application guides the user to the nearest available parking space in just a few clicks. Inside the parking lot, every parking space is equipped with a wireless sensor that detects if the parking space is empty and reflects availability in floor and row signage on car guidance displays. GreenPeak Technologies has developed the sensor technology, the radio chip and the networking technology. Building on this, Dusun Electron has developed the cloud infrastructure and Smart Parking application. The gateway sends the parking availability information to the cloud environment where the data is analyzed for display in the mobile app and parking location signage.

GreenPeak’s solution provides the low cost communication system and easy to install software. One of the GreenPeak advantages is the long battery life of over 5 years for the wireless sensors. GreenPeak’s patented radio technology guarantees best range and optimal signal quality, even in concrete and steel parking lot structures.

The benefits for car park operators are significant: low cost installation due to absence of wiring, low cost maintenance due to long battery life, easy and reliable operation due to the self-learning algorithms in the sensors, and high detection reliability. Additionally, the system provides opportunities to further enhance the application with value added services (e.g. flexible/peak pricing and online reservation system) to further optimize revenues. The first implementation of the system is developed for use in the Smart City program of the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

“The Smart Car Parking system is an integrated solution that combines gateways, sensors, cloud infrastructure and the Smart Parking application. A single gateway can connect up to 200 sensors, which is a cost effective solution as the price of our sensors start at $15 per unit and gateway at $25,” says Tiny CAO, Vice President of Dusun Electron. “The Smart Parking system is a very important cooperative project with GreenPeak.”

“Based on the Dusun Electron Smart Parking system for big data analysis, we can provide practical and detailed comprehensive data for urban construction parking management to urban government, which includes usage rates for city parking areas, density of parked city vehicles, analysis of expected garage building requirements, etc.”

“A critical key to solving congestion problems is by better organizing traffic. Streamlining the process for people to find parking spaces is essential for enhanced and controlled vehicle routing and reducing unnecessary traffic. This new system requires a small investment and provides a tremendous improvement,” says Cees Links, Founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies.
“Working with an experienced partner like Dusun Electron allows us to offer an effective total solution and a large improvement on the parking experience. Both companies are committed to ground breaking Smart City innovations that will deliver efficient and stress-free parking.”

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Assets to be integrated to boost solutions for a smarter urban mobility.

The Swiss technology company Paradox Engineering SA and Tinynode SA, the business created in 2012 as a spin-off of Shockfish SA and specialized in wireless vehicle detection systems, are now part of the same group. The holding group being already the majority shareholder of Paradox Engineering SA has announced the acquisition of Tinynode SA to create synergies in an extended Smart City ecosystem.

The ecosystem enlargement is an important step of Paradox Engineering’s growth strategy and reinforces its positioning as unique enabler of any kind of smart environment through compelling solutions for the Internet of Things era. Within this widened Smart City ecosystem, Tinynode will have the opportunity to further grow and leverage robust competences, technologies and market presence.

Gianni Minetti, President and CEO, Paradox Engineering SA, states:

“The spark for a smarter world can be lighted by using smart technologies to connect, control and manage the multitude of objects which are disseminated in our cities, therefore creating smart environments for today and tomorrow.”

“About one year ago we announced the availability of PE.AMI Parking Management solution, our off the shelf vertical application for managing parking in a smarter way. Thanks to the company proximity with Tinynode, we are now able to fast-track the development of sound urban mobility platforms and accelerate the adoption of future proof network infrastructures for any kind of smart service based on the Internet of Things”.

“Tinynode aims at helping to create a smarter, safer, easier and more comfortable driving world, and we keep pushing to improve performance of our systems for vehicle detection”, adds Pierre Metrailler, CEO, Shockfish SA. “We have been partnering with the best experts in signal processing, wireless and low power communication, and are now delighted to recognize in Paradox Engineering the unique competencies and synergies that are needed to boost Tinynode products and business development strategy, with the possibility to address new smart markets on a potential global scale”.

From Smart Parking to Smart Cities
As cities continue to develop and have an increasing need for energy and services to satisfy emerging urban needs, smart technologies can help municipalities better manage key resources and improve liveability, sustainability and local economy. Intelligent urban mobility and transportation services are as important for the well-being of people and communities as energy and water distribution, lighting management or waste collection. Independent studies highlighted that people spend up to 60% of their driving time randomly looking for a parking space: through the Internet of Things paradigm, it is nowadays possible to add intelligence to vehicles and parking lots to save time, limit air pollution, and ensure better quality of everyday life.

By combining Tinynode’s high performance detection systems for parking-related applications with Paradox Engineering’s PE.AMI smart urban network platform, municipalities will have the opportunity to develop an integrated hardware and software network communication infrastructure to manage and control a number of smart urban services, including seamless parking and mobility management.

PE.AMI is Paradox Engineering hybrid wireless/PLC mesh network multi-application platform, supporting multiple vertical services (from smart lighting to smart metering, from parking management to solid waste management, and many more) through a unique interoperable and highly scalable IPv6/6LoWPAN infrastructure, which really helps cities achieve their own goals in teams of greater liveability, improved environmental sustainability and public security, while at the same time supporting local economy. Based on open standards, PE.AMI does not impose any technological constraint, thus it enhances any kind of existing infrastructure safeguarding present and future investments.

Tinynode’s wireless parking sensors will further enrich PE.AMI Smart City smart urban network solution and open the way to design and engineer innovative urban mobility applications. Tinynode’s products rely on a patented, lowest-power, multi-hop, self-configuring radio communication protocol, offering a detection reliability above 98% and a radio communication availability above 99%, also granting up to 10 years battery life, low-tech installation and management.

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PLAT.ONE, the first Enterprise-Grade Internet of Things (IoT) application platform, today announced a partnership with Nwave, a rapidly growing supplier of low-power, wide-area (LPWA) wireless network solutions to bring a suite of ready-to-use industrial solutions to market, starting with a parking solution.

Nwave’s LPWA wireless communication platform and devices are optimized for low data intensive IoT applications. Unlike GSM, CDMA or ZigBee technologies, Nwave’s technology is based on an ultra narrow band radio protocol targeted at large scale, high-density, low-maintenance networks of sensors and devices.

Combining Nwave’s communication technology with tailored applications built on PLAT.ONE’s Enterprise-Grade application platform enables rapid, secure and cost-effective deployments of large-scale IoT solutions for energy, city services, environmental monitoring, healthcare, agriculture, as well as other industries.

NWave SParkit smart parking solution

“Our focus at Nwave has been on time to value, enabling customers to rapidly deploy private LPWA solutions in days not months,” said Jonathan Wiggin, CEO of Nwave.
“PLAT.ONE’s rapid application platform allows us to offer those same customers a complete parking management application with an uncompromising approach to security and scalability.”

Filippo Murroni, CEO of PLAT.ONE, said:
“We are excited to add Nwave to our rapidly growing eco-system of PLAT.ONE-Ready partners.”

“Nwave’s unique private LPWA solutions are a perfect complement to PLAT.ONE’s Enterprise-Grade rapid application platform providing an open-standards-based set of solutions with proven technology and unmatched scalability.”

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Machine-to-machine communication (M2M) has reached city life. As the mainstay of the Internet of Things and the basic technology behind Smart City solutions M2M is connecting more and more areas of municipal infrastructure, from parking spaces via streetlights to garbage cans.

But how do citizens, authorities, and private enterprises benefit and what opportunities arise for the M2M industry as a result of smarter cities? Let’s take a look at the opportunities and challenges for the connected city.

Looking for somewhere to park in the historic city center of Pisa, Italy? In future you will no longer have to cruise for ages around the narrow streets. Motorists will merely open the Tap & Park app and input a destination area. The app will then pilot them on the shortest route to a free parking space. This service is based on a sensor-assisted parking guidance system that Pisa is introducing jointly with Deutsche Telekom. In the pilot project, the partners are equipping 75 parking spaces on the Piazza Carrara by the banks of the Arno with sensors. Three mobile network gateways collect the sensor data and transmit it to the municipal IT infrastructure, the indicator boards and the drivers’ app. The city receives accurate statistics about the utilization of parking lots and motorists are spared the tiresome and at times very time-consuming search for a parking space.

Drivers for Smart City solutions

The parking lot management solution that is used in Pisa is one example among many. Cities all over the world are trying out M2M solutions. Analysts forecast brilliant market prospects for M2M providers. Machina Research, for example, forecasts over 747 million M2M connections and revenues totaling USD29.2 billion by 2022 for the Smart City & Public Transportation segment. Traffic management, including the parking guidance system that is being trialed in Pisa, will account for 49 percent of this total.

Societal, economic and technological factors account for the rising demand for Smart City solutions. The world’s cities are growing. According to the UN, around 3.6 billion people lived in cities in 2011. By 2050, this number is expected to increase to 6.25 billion, or 67.2 percent of the world’s population. At the same time cities are smothered in smog. They account for up to 70 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions yet for only two percent of its surface area. In March 2014, Paris imposed traffic bans for the first time in 17 years. Nearly every area of municipal infrastructure is confronted by statutory requirements intended to ensure more sustainable urban areas in the long term.

Further drivers are advances in sensor technology, falling prices of M2M modules, and new business models. Until recently a Smart City solution required heavy investment in hardware and IT infrastructure. Today OPEX-based offerings are coming onto the market. Cities book Smart City solutions as an all-inclusive service for a monthly fee that includes hardware, administrative software, connection costs and support. Instead of high procurement costs, they have only the running costs to pay, which makes cost calculation much easier. Cities are now able to weigh up and carefully compare the costs and benefits of Smart City solutions.

Orderly city traffic

Parking lot management is an example of the benefits to be gained from a smartly located network of sensors. Sensors attached to the parking spaces first sense, by ultrasound, whether a space is in use or vacant. On its own this information is of little use, but as soon as sensor data for several parking spaces is merged, evaluated and passed on, an overview of the city’s parking situation is gained. The city’s ecological balance sheet certainly benefits. Experts estimate that around 30 per cent of inner-city traffic consists of motorists are looking for somewhere to park. In New York this figure is said to be 45 per cent – a figure that could soon be reduced by sensor-assisted parking guidance systems.

Along with parking guidance systems, Smart City solutions that focus on mobility management are also on the market. The RFID Mobility Passes from Deutsche Telekom’s partner Kiunsys have been in use in Pisa for five years. Instead of paper parking permits residents, taxi drivers and suppliers receive an RFID chip. For Pisa, the administrative outlay is lower and for motorists too the new system is more comfortable. They still have permits even when they re-register at a new address or apply for a permit renewal.

Evaluation of mobility data is another focal point of collaboration between Pisa and Deutsche Telekom. In the past, the city collected data but did not evaluate it to any great extent. A Deutsche Telekom Big Data service is now about to change that. Over an initial six months, the service will analyse all of the historical data and all of the new, incoming traffic data. The resulting findings are to be incorporated in the city’s municipal and traffic planning, to help improve traffic flow and reduce carbon dioxide emissions as envisioned by Pisa’s Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP).

From connected street lighting to the multifunctional network

A further approach to reducing municipal energy consumption involves street lighting. Lighting for streets and parks at night accounts for over 40 per cent of municipal energy costs. Directives have already been enacted to require street lighting to use less energy. The EU regulation EC 245/2009 requires around 100 million street lamps to be replaced within the European Union by 2015. This is an opportunity for cities and local authorities to both use more efficient lighting and implement control systems.

Once street lamps are connected, the city can access them remotely. Most solutions are based on the gateway model, which is similar to the solution for parking lot management. A networked device fitted to all street lamps checks their status and receives control instructions such as to switch the lamp on or off or to dim it. The devices in the lamps communicate in turn with gateways which are connected by the mobile network to the municipal server infrastructure.

In this way, Deutsche Telekom’s Street Lighting Management solution generates an IPv6 mesh network that can host other Smart City applications, be they parking lot management, smart metering or a charger station for battery-powered vehicles. Even data-hungry applications such as traffic monitoring or hotspots can be operated via the multifunctional network.

To manage street lighting and other applications a Cloud-based Web portal is used. This enables the authorities to check the status of all lamps remotely and to program their lighting behaviour. Cycles can be set up, for example, during which lamps are switched on or off. In addition to timing, they can be based on other information such as data supplied by brightness sensors. In twilight, for example, the lamps are brightened gradually in accordance with what is left of the natural light.

The Smart Stadium

Machine-to-machine communication makes not only municipal infrastructure but also event venues smarter. IBM and Deutsche Telekom offer a connected overall concept for stadiums. It simplifies all of the event management’s tasks – from standard instructions for incidents to the management of concessions. At the same time, the system reduces the stadium’s energy consumption and offers fans a more intensive match experience. Here too the approach is based on integrating and evaluating data from different sources, which can include sensor data from people counters, video analyses, and weather and traffic data.

On the basis of this data, the system makes decisions by itself and optimises the ongoing operation. Guidance systems manage the flow of visitors, thereby ensuring shorter waiting times at ticket counters, soft drink stands and sausage stalls. The Smart Stadium also opens up new services for the fans. Information boards and fan apps ply them with additional information about the match and others taking place at the same time.

Just as the Smart Stadium is already bringing together information from totally different areas, from the ticket counter to the refrigerator for VIPs, cities are increasingly networking their entire infrastructure. One of the greatest challenges is to connect the individual pieces of the puzzle. Silos must be avoided. Just as Smart City solutions bring different areas together, different players must be able to take part: citizens, authorities and private enterprises.

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Text2Valet enables direct SMS messaging to valet stands. Requests for pickup sent direct to cellular printer located at the stand.

Telit Wireless Solutions, a global provider of high-quality machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions, products and services and DCS Solutions, a provider of high-quality wireless data products, solutions, and services to the wireless data market, today announced that DCS is to utilize a wireless cellular printer that employs Telit’s 800/1900 MHz CDMA/1xRTT CC864-DUAL module in its innovative parking solution.

Text2Valet is a simple to use, cost effective, unique communications solution for businesses that operate a vehicle valet service. The uniqueness comes from the use of a cellular wireless printer operating on a nationwide CDMA cellular network. Customers are not required to download any type of app onto their mobile phones; instead, they simply use their own SMS functionality, making the service available even to non-smart phones.

At drop off, vehicle owners receive a valet ticket with a local telephone number. When ready to depart, customers simply send a text message to the phone number on the valet ticket. The request for vehicle pickup is sent directly to the cellular printer located at the valet stand. Valet attendants are prompted immediately to retrieve the vehicle. This improves comfort, convenience as well as personal security for valet patrons.

Chris Bursey, managing partner, of DCS, said:

“We recognized the need for a truly mobile parking solution that did not require an Internet connection.  In addition we wanted to deliver the industry’s lowest cost solution without cutting corners.”

“Text2Valet is another great DCS product.  It is an innovative turnkey solution that delivers significant benefits to operators of a valet service as well as their customers,” said Mike Ueland, senior vice president and general manager of Telit Wireless Solutions North America.

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The Intelligent Parking solution in Moscow, now in its second year of operation, has proven the success of the combination of Worldsensing’s Fastprk solution and cost-effective, low-energy consuming SIGFOX connectivity.

Fastprk, the intelligent parking solution from Worldsensing, combined with the unique SIGFOX cellular based connectivity offer, has proven its success and is now in its second year of operation in Moscow.

The recent installation of 11,000 sensors, adding to the 4,000 sensors already deployed, equips the Russian capital with the world’s largest deployment of an Intelligent Parking solution.

This solution, in operation since November 2013, enables Moscow to reduce traffic in the city center. According to The Moscow Times, the Russian capital is the most congested city in the world, followed by Istanbul, Warsaw and Marseille.

The project is deployed, maintained and operated by Micronet, the SIGFOX Operator connecting Russia to the SIGFOX Global Network.

Moscow now benefits from Fastprk technology, which enables users to find a parking spot via a mobile app or through electronic street panels.

The solution also facilitates optimal management of urban parking areas by providing, for instance, information about the most frequented areas and times of the day. Furthermore, by reducing the time to find parking, traffic density is reduced and the user saves fuel and time, consequently reducing CO2 emissions, thus making the city greener, and a more pleasant place to live.

Ignasi Vilajosana, CEO of Worldsensing, says:

“With SIGFOX, FastPrk sensors no longer need any local network infrastructure, since they now connect directly to the FastPrk platform, thanks to out-of-the-box connectivity.”

According to Jaap Groot, SIGFOX VP Global Sales:

“Being chosen as the connectivity solution for this large scale project confirms our approach to smart cities’ needs for low power and plug&play connectivity.”

“We are confident that Micronet will roll out many more IoT projects on the SIGFOX network as our operator for Russia.”

The plan for the coming years is to continue to grow the number of sensors, providing continuity to this project, which is driving the city forward.

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In France, parking availability and management is one of the main concerns of cities. To support cities and parking stakeholders, Orange has teamed up with Streetline, a U.S.-based company that provides smart parking solutions.

Nathalie Leboucher, Head of the Smart Cities Programme at Orange, said:
“Our partnership with Streetline meshes with our strategic programme Smart Cities, which aims to use information and communication technologies to help cities solve their urban challenges.”

Among major elements of the programme, we are developing a set of connected services embedded in the vehicle or dedicated to drivers.”

“We believe that by combining our expertise in connectivity and integration with innovative solutions created by Streetline, we can help cities enable the use of digital services for citizens and visitors. With 1,300,000 regulated parking places in France, the smart parking market is very promising.”

Streetline brings its smartest parking solution, for the first time in France. This solution is based on sensors which detect the presence of vehicles in on-street and off-street parking areas, identify and signal open spaces to the data management system. Drivers can find the spaces using a mobile application which provides vocal directions to guide them to nearby open spaces and offers additional information, including hours, prices, and other policy information. In addition to reducing congestion and improving service quality for users, Streetline offers a solution designed for city leaders to help them manage and analyze the use of parking via a suite of real-time and historical analytics applications.

Orange Business Services is responsible for commercializing, deploying, and providing support for the solution to cities and parking management companies. Orange Business Services relies on its expertise as a network operator to provide the connections which the sensors use to signal available spaces to the management platform. Cities can enjoy an all-inclusive solution and service package, including the technical solution, the service and the connectivity.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with Orange. The lack of parking is a real problem for drivers. Streetline’s technology, which has already proven its worth in the U.S, UK and Germany offers drivers an easier, more efficient way to find a parking space, and gives cities a profitable way to improve quality of life despite their ever-tightening budgets,” explained Zia Yusuf, president and CEO of Streetline.

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Telematics-enabled smart parking services take aim at reducing congestion, enhancing revenue, and making parking easier for motorists.

Telefonica and Streetline, Inc. have reached an agreement to jointly market telematics-enabled smart parking services that allow cities to optimize parking management, while delivering higher quality of life to their citizens by reducing car traffic.

The partnership was announced today in a press release by Telefonica at the Smart City Expo World Congress held this week in Barcelona, Spain.

The agreement which gives Telefonica’s professional teams access to Streetline’s market-leading telematics products and services, helps the company advance towards its goal of boosting revenue generation beyond connectivity. These M2M (machine to machine) products add incremental layers of value to customers in efficiency and sustainability, as they seek to gain competitive advantage.

According to the terms of the agreement, the two companies will jointly market and sell products designed to target the growing Smart Parking market, where cities could benefit from increasing parking revenues, occupancy and enforcement efficiency. This product suite enables cities to launch their smart city initiatives thanks to a use case with a clear impact on city operations and, at the same time on citizen behavior. Initial focus will be on Europe and Latin America.

Streetline will provide Smart Parking services, applications, and technical support, while Telefonica will contribute with its m2m platforms, financial services, commercial network, including pre- and post-sales support, and customer care. Everything will be deployed over the best in class global networks of Telefonica.

The joint product suite will also include applications that allow citizens to find empty parking slots thanks to sensors deployed on street, software to municipalities to manage parking facilities, mobile applications to guide enforcement, and off-street parking management tools. The solution will be part of the Telefonica Smart City platform strategy and integrated with other initiatives such as mobile payments.

“This innovative partnership with Telefonica represents the next step in the evolution of the global Smart Parking market,” said Zia Yusuf, president and CEO of Streetline.

“The demand for Smart Parking solutions around the globe only continues to grow. Together, we will leverage Streetline’s market-leading products and Telefonica’s strong commercial capabilities to deliver valuable solutions for municipalities, universities, and private operators alike.”

Since its founding, Streetline has become the recognized industry leader in real-time vehicle detection, and has set the standard of best practice for sensor-based parking management applications. The company’s solutions can help Cities to alleviate parking congestion to improve quality of life for citizens, parking turnover for merchants, provide more revenue for the city, reduce air pollution, and provide optimal parking pricing and policy information.

Streetline sensors have recorded over 40 million parking sessions. Information gained from sensors has helped cities to set new parking prices to match demand patterns, and has helped city managers communicate the value of these changes to city management, merchant associations, and the public. The company’s innovative applications have provided a dramatic return on investment through improved enforcement productivity, motorist compliance and meter management.

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