Digital Innovation Network
Overview
The Digital Innovation Network was funded by the Welsh Government, WLGA, Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme and the four Local authorities in the region. This network of 240+ Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) gateways provides connectivity to enable the use of IoT.
The deployment of these types of networks is increasing nationally to assist with the ever-growing need to use data to inform decisions and optimise service delivery, assisting with the future digital transformation of the public and private sector.
This technology provides wireless connectivity for a range of IoT (Internet of Things or network of connective devices) solutions.
The low-cost, battery, solar, or heat powered IoT sensors work with the gateway unit to allow remote collection and monitoring of a wide range of data, which can provide insights to better inform the research and technology development being undertaken, with the aim of developing long-term solutions.
The Digital Innovation Network is predominantly being used by the public sector to enable their use of IoT sensors to facilitate the following use cases:
- Monitoring entry and exit at car parks to notify users on spaces available/ when at capacity.
- Visitor footfall monitoring in town centres across the region and sharing data with local businesses to inform key business decisions.
- Environmental monitoring.
- Temperature and humidity monitoring at public sector buildings, especially schools.
- Waste management, for example, deployment of bin sensors to determine when they are at capacity and using this data to inform waste clearance routes and frequencies.
- Theft and anti-social behaviour in parks and other hot spots.
- Water safety – sensors deployed on life buoys in Llyn Llech Owain (Carmarthenshire) to notify the operations team when deployed.
In partnership with Neath Port Talbot Council, the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) has agreed to host one of the gateways at its 700-hectare site near Onllwyn.
Testing scenarios such as flooding, subsidence and temperature monitoring can all be tracked to ensure that rail services are working more sustainably and affordably, making them increasingly consumer and environmentally friendly.
Current, live locations can be viewed at any time on the LoRaWAN Gateway Map with access readily available via The LoRaWAN Network server for scale, The Things Industries or The Things Network (for start-up businesses).
If you'd like to know more about the Digital Innovation Network, please get in touch with the regional team.