Ubiwhere boosts smart and connected urban furniture in three European cities

The telecommunications environment is a constantly evolving medium, which foresees the massification of innovative technologies leveraged by the 5G mobile network. With the main goal to support cities, mobile network operators, and owners of telecommunications infrastructures in an effective and sustainable transition, Ubiwhere created URBSENSE.

The project was launched by Ubiwhere in January 2019, with the support of the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation of the Portugal 2020 Programme, and was also awarded by the European Commission’s Seal of Excellence, which highlights it for its motivation to introduce 5G technology in Portugal.

URBSENSE is a radio device management platform for the 5G network. Its main feature is retrofitting, that is, the ability to equip existing urban infrastructure (such as lampposts and street cabinets) with wireless communication features, sensing, computing, data storage, and infrastructure management; and thus, transforming them into platforms for collecting and processing data and making communications available through 5G networks.

More than enabling the use of urban infrastructure, and thus limiting visual pollution and additional buildings in cities, URBSENSE builds a new business model: it allows the sharing of infrastructure through an open access model, benefiting both mobile network operators and other players that operate in different verticals, thus facing lower installation (CAPEX) and operation (OPEX) costs related to 5G networks.

Another innovative component of the project is Edge Computing, a technology for extending the centralised architecture of the cloud to the Edge of the network: it shortens the distance between the data processing source (small cell, for example, existing urban furniture) and the receiver (mobile devices, connected vehicles, etc.). This new project optimises general network connection capabilities, making it faster, safer, and more reliable, providing a better experience for the end-user.

This is the principal technology to be explored in the first pilot of the project that will take place later this year in Helsinki.

In this pilot, Ubiwhere’s goal is to monitor traffic intelligently, quickly, and safely throughout various points of the city. To this end, traffic monitoring sensors were installed on traffic lanes, as well as video vigilance cameras using computer vision technology in buildings, capable of detecting vehicles (distinguishing them by typology) and people.

With the help of Edge, the data processing will be done in a distributed way that is, instead of sending the streaming video to a central server, the system processes the information on the various nodes of the network, installed in lampposts distributed throughout the city. In addition to speed, the technology will provide a lower cost of telecommunications for the city and ensure greater privacy and security for people who circulate in the monitored points (since all processing is carried out locally, with no content coming from the video streams).

In addition, some Air Quality sensors will be installed on the lighting poles to obtain an intelligent analysis, and a correlation between this and the traffic volume of the city can be made.

With URBSENSE, cities enjoy their resources, combined with innovative technology, which makes them aware of the challenges and difficulties of each vertical of the city. It will also leverage the implementation of intelligent services, which are managed according to the information collected, to have a real impact on improving citizens’ quality of life.

During the first quarter of 2021, Ubiwhere intends to implement the platform in two more cities - Barcelona and Aveiro. Our focus is once again to boost the European 5G telecommunications market, and more than that, to make cities more capable of responding quickly and effectively to the emerging needs of their citizens, always with sustainability in mind.