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The smart poles developed by the LuxTurrim5G ecosystem have been used to build a unique network to Espoo. It covers the route from Nokia HQ Campus in Espoo, Finland, to the near-by Kera railway station. Comprising of 19 smart poles with the latest 5G technology and altogether 250 interconnected devices it brings super-fast connectivity and extensive sensor network available for practical piloting of digital services.

The LuxTurrim5G project has been progressing systematically from multi-disciplinary research to practice.  The 5G smart pole concept does not only boast a 5G base station integrated into a light pole but also weather and air quality sensors, video cameras, displays, an electric vehicle charging point and other devices. The concept has now reached its piloting phase for practical applications. The extensive piloting network of 19 smart poles has just been completed in Kera, Espoo, covering areas in Nokia’s Espoo Campus and extending to the nearby Kera railway station. The smart poles, using the so called millimetre wave 5G technology, bring high-speed 5G connectivity and an extensive network of sensors within the reach of the users. 

This is a globally unique smart city pilot where a high-speed and low latency 5G network, an extensive sensor network and a data platform bring novel services to the city, its people and community.

Project Manager Pekka Wainio, Nokia Bell Labs

Wallio continues to explain that the local data collected by the various devices, cameras and sensors within the network can be used to produce a multitude of local services through the open interfaces of the data platform. The project has received wide interest on how the surveillance cameras and radar devices can be utilised in overall security surveillance, traffic and road quality monitoring, for remote control of self-driving vehicles and in other transport and logistics services.

The smart pole network itself, built by Nokia and its partners, comprises approximately 250 interconnected devices, such as three new generation 5G base stations (26 GHz by Nokia), more than 50 WiFi devices (60 GHz), 75 video cameras, 49 different sensors monitoring the air quality, weather, temperature, road surface state as well as CO and CO2 levels etc. (Vaisala and others), nine radar devices (six traffic radars and three lidars), seven information screens, an EV charging point and a drone charging and landing stations at the top of the pole (Rumble Tools). 

In addition to the smart poles, the LuxTurrim5G test network also has two smart and safe bus stops (Connected Zone by Teleste,) and a separate city information display, showcasing how different sensors can be integrated into the elements found in the urban infrastructure. These are part of the “LuxTurrim5G smart urban furniture” we are developing for cities. Drones and self-driving vehicles, such as the self-driving shuttle bus (Sensible 4), are also an essential part of the piloting entity where the infrastructure, functionality and services for a smart city are developed in a holistic way. 

From light pole to smart pole 

The LuxTurrim5G smart pole concept has been developed to meet the future needs of cities. It is not about the light pole as such, as this is a completely new element forming an essential part of the key infrastructure of a smart city – its digital backbone. The recently implemented smart pole version already functions as a pre-commercial pilot product which helps to design the actual smart pole product family. The companies mainly responsible for the design and manufacturing of the pilot poles have been Tehomet Oy and Orbis Oy.

This is the first large-scale smart pole pilot in Finland, and a globally significant project. The shift from traditional light poles to smart poles is a natural, but also a challenging task where every partners’ role matters. Currently we are already working with the next generation of smart poles and focusing on designing and productising a complete product family. Smart poles hold huge potential for global markets.

Sami Huuskonen, Design Manager at Tehomet Oy

The integration of several devices to form a well-functioning entity has been the key area of development in manufacturing the smart poles.

Jani Linna-Aro, CEO of Orbis Oy, points out that the limited space in the smart poles sets its challenges in the installation environment. The devices integrated into the pole also have different interfaces that must be connected to the same cabling system for data and power supply. The smart poles that are being piloted during the LuxTurrim5G program enable services that are needed today but they also serve as a platform for future services. Which is why our solution is designed so that it is possible to add and replace equipment over the course of the smart pole’s life cycle. As the needs are evolving, it will not be necessary to replace the entire pole or dig new trunk cables under street level.

Digital services for sustainability and smoother living

Espoo is going to transform the Kera area to a smart and urban district with at least 14,000 residents and 10,000 jobs in near future. Kera will become a showcase of sustainable urban development and an international reference case, where the city works together with its partners to create novel, clean and smart solutions to enhance the smoother living of its people. The future Kera will be a significant piloting ground for new solutions, paving the way to larger international projects. The role of Espoo as a pioneer of sustainable development appointed by the United Nations also promotes this approach. 

The newly implemented LuxTurrim5G pilot network and its smart route from Nokia Campus to Kera railway station showcase an excellent example of a new kind of bold and concrete co-innovation between companies and the city.

Pekka Vilkkula, Project Director at City of Espoo

The LuxTurrim5G smart pole network forms the digital backbone of a smart city offering high-speed connectivity and a versatile sensor network. This in turn brings a wide variety of relevant on-line data available e.g. on environment, weather, traffic flows, public safety, usage of energy to be used by the city and companies for specific needs and to create holistic situational awareness.  Cities have also big amounts of own data which often is not widely utilized. The project has already been developing a data platform that is capable of processing large masses of data from various sources in a reliable and efficient manner. All this is important for building new data-driven services for the city needs. LuxTurrim5G partners are excited to move now to practical piloting of different service concepts in the actual live environment. This lays the foundations to the development of the Kera area and helps us to validate our solutions for scale-up in international projects. Through this Espoo pilot, the LuxTurrim5G consortium shares an ambitious target to expand to global smart city markets, worth tens of millions of euros. 

Background information

For more information contact

Juha Salmelin, Nokia, Ecosystem leader
juha.salmelin@nokia.com, +358505223508

Markku Heino, Spinverse, Ecosystem coordinator
markku.heino@spinverse.com, +358407191221

Partners of the LuxTurrim5G ecosystem: 

Nokia Bell Labs, Nokia, Premix, Teleste, Vaisala, Indagon, Rumble Tools, Orbis, Tehomet, Destia, Sitowise, A-Insinöörit, Caruna, Link Design & Development, Vedia, Agora Networks, Sensible 4, City of Espoo,  Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Tampere University and Spinverse (coordinator of the ecosystem). 

The project is funded by the participating companies and Business Finland.

The expansion in digital services and new technologies requires a data communication infrastructure that can transfer large amounts of data wirelessly and reliably in real time. Smart pole technology is being integrated into the urban environment as discreetly as possible while protecting it from vandalism. The pole functions as a base for various devices and sensors, and within the reach it brings services to city residents and companies. The Hiedanranta pilot pole incorporates not only a mobile network base station but also controllable LED lights, CCTV camera, a USB charging point and a bench for resting.

The first product development version of a smart pole suitable for a park environment has been built in Hiedanranta. Through our collaboration we were able to create a functioning solution that meets the data transfer needs of the future.

Head of the project Anu Peussa, Orbis Oy

Challenges inspire innovation

According to Sami Huuskonen of Tehomet Oy, which was responsible for the design and manufacture of the pole, the overall appearance in the cityscape has to be taken into consideration: “I feel that it is important to ensure that the equipment is disguised and integrated as far as possible in order to avoid an uncoordinated urban environment.” Because the pilot pole combines lighting with other equipment, it took time to create the design in order to ensure that all the components would fit into the finished solution as planned. 

In addition to being responsible for running the pilot project, Orbis Oy is also behind the cabling and connectivity solutions for integrated data transfer and power supply. The smart pole as an installation environment and the interfaces of the various devices meant that there was a lot to be developed. The limited space inside the pole posed the greatest challenge. Cables were grouped together, technologies were combined into hybrid solutions and new, small and weather-proof connection boxes were developed. In addition, there are extra connection points in the pole which ensure that more devices can be flexibly added in the future if needed. 

“In the 5G mobile network, base stations are being built in close distances so in addition to smart poles, cabling will be integrated into other street elements, such as bus stops,” Anu Peussa explains.

Cities steer development

These days, data communication services are no longer solely in the hands of telecommunication operators. End users and cities play a key role in determining needs and construction sites because they decide what kind of services are needed and desired. 

For Hiedanranta the vision of the City of Tampere is to be an attractive district for its residents and companies operating in the area. Hiedanranta is a place for innovation that serves as a development environment and a platform for collaboration for smart and sustainable urban development projects and experiments. Hiedanranta’s aim is to be an example for a smart city district, making the area a suitable location for the smart pole pilot project. “The city wants to be a facilitator for trialing of various types of solutions. It would be good to find a common solution that is largely based on the existing urban environment. In order to speed up the construction of data communications networks, we want that the construction is carried out all at once, which helps us to maintain an aesthetically pleasing urban environment. In normal construction, we make reservations for the growing demand for data communications,” says the City of Tampere’s Project Manager, Mika Heikkilä about the construction of a smart city environment.

Telecommunication operator DNA Oyj’s Tero Seppälä participated in the smart pole project as a technical expert. He sees potential in smart poles: “This is a new business concept for DNA. We are interested to see how this project will develop and what form potential cooperation with other cities will take.” Seppälä provided important support for the construction of the pilot pole, for instance by providing information on the physical size and power requirements of the mobile network equipment and on development trends of 5G technology. 

A concrete example is helpful for the planning of future needs and Anu Peussa of Orbis Oy would like the developers of smart cities to visit Tampere to learn about the smart pole: “We are particularly interested in presenting the Hiedanranta pilot project to city representatives who are responsible for digitalization and data transfer.” Sami Huuskonen of Tehomet Oy adds: ”The aim is to start a dialog about the benefits and challenges of integration of various technologies into urban infrastructure.”

More smart poles are already in the pipeline

Orbis and Tehomet continue the cooperation on smart poles. Both companies are involved in the construction of the next pilots in the LuxTurrim5G+ project in Espoo headed by Nokia. The aim of the project is to productize the smart pole concept into a modular product family suitable for different urban environments.  

More information

About Orbis Oy 

The Finnish family-owned company Orbis Oy has operated at the forefront of the technology since 1949. Today we develop solutions for the digital society and its next generation mobile networks and smart cities. We offer know-how on RF and fiber optic cabling technologies, which are needed to ensure reliable data communication in buildings, data centers, devices and industry as well as in smart cities and telecom operator networks. Our head office is located in Finland and we operate also in the Baltic states and Russia. Read more about us here.

About Tehomet Oy

http://tehomet.fi/index.php/en/   

About DNA Oyj

https://corporate.dna.fi/contact-us

Photos

In the second phase of the LuxTurrim5G ecosystem projects, the recently developed 5G smart pole concept is moving towards productization and practical piloting. Another major goal is to create a platform utilizing a wide variety of data in a reliable and secured way and develop new digital services to meet real needs of cities. This includes also evaluating and piloting of a Neutral host operating model for high-speed city networks. Through a two-year, EUR 26 million, intensive co-development effort the group of 26 partners target the global smart city markets worth tens of billions euros.

The first phase of the LuxTurrim5G project, which ended in May, successfully developed the 5G smart pole concept, which integrates the 5G base station, weather and air quality sensors, video cameras, monitors electric vehicle charging unit and other active devices. The good results and the first pilots at the Nokia Campus in Espoo, Finland have attracted a lot of interest around the world and given the LuxTurrim5G ecosystem a boost for further expansion. 

A number of new companies are joining the second phase of the development and altogether 26 partners and well over a hundred experts in various fields are working closely together to develop and evaluate new solutions for e.g. 5G radio technology, data processing, materials, sensors and urban design. New service concepts and business models are being developed for transport, logistics, energy management, urban infrastructure, health and safety, and network operations.

This extensive joint development coordinated by Spinverse consists of two closely related projects: LuxTurrim5G+ focusing on the productization of the smart pole concept and extension of the 5G smart pole pilot network in Kera neighbourhood in Espoo, while the Neutral Host Pilot project focuses on data-driven business and service development, intelligent network construction and operation models.

”Both mobile operators and cities would like to have a common data platform, which does not yet exist. We now have a great opportunity to join forces and bring together smart light poles and data platform to boost the sustainable development of urban areas,” says the LuxTurrim5G ecosystem leader, Juha Salmelin from Nokia.

Both mobile operators and cities would like to have a common data platform, which does not yet exist. We now have a great opportunity to join forces and bring together smart light poles and data platform to boost the sustainable development of urban areas

LuxTurrim5G ecosystem leader Juha Salmelin, Nokia

LuxTurrim5G network forms the digital backbone of smart city

5G technology is expected to revolutionize many fields. Smart cities are eagerly waiting for 5G networks for super-fast connectivity and huge amounts of online data enabling new services they need. Building a dense 5G network based on smart light poles brings, however, both new challenges and opportunities. New operating models are needed for smart city infrastructure planning.

”Via these new information flows we enable people’s ability to act in a smart and ecological way in an urban environment, also in its planning, designing and construction. We bring new kind of predictive information at hand concerning city functions, such as what is the status of infrastructure, what is the air quality indoor and outdoor, how to avoid traffic jams and what is the safest route to walk to school, says CEO, Jyrki Keinänen, AINS Group.

Together with AINS Group, companies like Sitowise, Caruna, Destia and the City of Espoo are involved in the planning and implementation of the novel city infrastructure. The pole development in turn is driven by Tehomet and Orbis. Modern Urban Planning tools developed by Sitowise including 3D city models and digital twins enable efficient data utilization already during the construction phase. Co-construction of electricity and telecommunications networks driven by Caruna brings cost efficiency, speed and functionality.

Mobilizing data – widely and reliably

The LuxTurrim5G smart pole network creates the digital backbone of the smart city. It provides a high-speed communications platform and creates an extensive sensor network that can collect a wide range of different data, for example, on environment, traffic, weather, energy usage. This is important to be able to build comprehensive situational awareness for the city. In addition, cities have already a large amount of own data available that could be used to develop a variety of new useful services. The aim of the project is to create a data platform capable of receiving, handling and enriching these large masses of data from various sources in a reliable and efficient manner for use cases. In this project, one area of research is the Neutral host operator model, where a “neutral” local operator would take care of building and operating the urban 5G network and providing a data platform for service providers. The rules of the data market are a key issue that will be addressed also by researchers of VTT, Aalto and University of Helsinki. The project aims not only to investigate different scenarios and business models, but also to pilot the Neutral host operating model in practice in the Kera neighbourhood in Espoo.

“Neutral Host models could allow cost-efficient building of 5G network services in cities and along transport routes. Building out 5G extensively will probably require new approaches to, for example, business models and infrastructure sharing between operators, as well as telecom and spectrum regulation enabling these new solutions. We see clear socio-economic benefits in co-operative models of building the future digital infrastructure, says Heidi Himmanen from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s 5G Momentum ecosystem.

New digital services for the smart city

Smooth mobility, transport and logistics are one of the major everyday challenges that will make the smart city breathe in the right pace and save time and costs. The GACHA Robot Bus by Sensible 4, recently awarded as the world’s best start-up for self-driving vehicles, utilizes the high-speed 5G network and contributes to the expansion of the sensor platform. Vediafi and Agora Networks, in turn, are developing together with VTT new solutions for the last mile logistics to ensure efficient supply chains in a city. Urban planning and new operating models and services related to construction is a development area being taken forward by Sitowise and A-Insinöörit. New energy solutions and services are being developed by Caruna. Driven by Vaisala, weather and air quality data are widely utilized to develop specific services for traffic management, energy management and preventive health. Link Design in turn brings service design as part of the joint work. From a city perspective, a comprehensive, up-to-date on-line situational awareness on e.g. safety, environmental, traffic and energy issues is a major new opportunity provided by the smart light pole network with its high-speed 5G connections and extensive data base gathered by the wide sensor network and Teleste’s video management solutions. 

“We are delighted to continue the productive collaboration with Nokia and the research consortium to roll out dense observation networks and digital air quality mapping and forecasting to create healthy, resilient and efficient urban environments,” says Erik Sucksdorff, Head of Strategy and Business Development for Vaisala’s Weather and Environment Business Area

Smart and green Espoo – aiming for a smooth, healthy and safe everyday life

Espoo aims to be Europe’s most sustainable city and carbon-neutral in the 2020s. Clean technology solutions will be developed and implemented with partners to support sustainable growth. Together with businesses, the city is at the forefront of smart urban development, climate work and the circular economy. The Kera area will undergo major changes in the 2020s.

The new Kera is the first place on the city rail line to build the smart city of the future. There is a need for sustainable urban development that can be enabled by digital platforms. Together with our partners, we are actively developing smart and clean solutions that enable sustainable growth. An intelligent city is being built in Espoo in a population and customer-oriented way. The goal is a smooth, healthy and safe everyday life.

Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor of Espoo

The Kera area will be transformed to an urban and smart district with at least 14,000 residents and 10,000 jobs. There are already large corporate headquarters in Kera and the new change is beginning with the revival of silent and crumbling industrial halls for temporary use. Kera will be built into a pearl of sustainable urban development and an international reference point where the city, together with its partners, will create new clean and intelligent solutions that make life easier for residents. The LuxTurrim5G ecosystem plays an important role in Kera’s development. The modern Kera, which will be built in the coming years, will provide a significant pilot ground for new smart city solutions, which will also pave the way for larger international projects. Espoo’s role as a UN model city for sustainable development contributes to this. The first pilot phase, to be completed by the end of this year, will provide a network of 15 smart light poles covering the route from Nokia’s Campus to Kera railway station supporting also the self-driving robotic bus service. Next year the plans include already first international pilots.

Background information

The LuxTurrim5G ecosystem consists of two parallel projects funded by the participating companies and Business Finland:

LuxTurrim5G +

• Nokia Bell Labs: project lead, 5G radio technology & networks
• Spinverse: project & ecosystem coordination  
• Premix: specific materials for antenna radomes 
• Teleste: city safety and information solutions 
• Vaisala: environmental & weather-related services 
• Indagon: positioning technologies & services 
• Ensto: luminaires, electric vehicle charging 
• Rumble Tools: Drones, drone docking station & services 
• Orbis: cabling, connections, integration 
• Tehomet: smart pole design & manufacturing 
• Destia: street lighting & infrastructure 
• Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT): radio technology, positioning, connectivity platform development 
• Aalto University: radio technology, thermal/energy management, design
• Tampere University: mechanics & sustainable materials development

Contact persons: Pekka Wainio, Nokia Bell Labs & Joni Turunen, Spinverse
Read more about LuxTurrim5G + >>

Neutral Host Pilot

• Nokia:  project lead, data platform, 5G radio technology & networks
• Spinverse: project & ecosystem coordination  
• Sitowise: Urban planning and 5G city infrastructure
• Caruna: Energy distribution network and 5G infrastructure 
• Vaisala: Air quality & environmental observation related services in a city environment 
• A-Insinöörit: Integrated city development and utilization of 5G in construction 
• Link Design & Development: Service design development 
• Vediafi: Last mile logistics services
• Agora Networks: Last mile delivery services
• Sensible 4: autonomous driving system 
• City of Espoo: Smart city and Kera area development
• Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom: support for 5G trials and development of enabling regulation
• Aalto University: Smart city business and value network modelling
• VTT: Data operator business architecture and operation models
• University of Helsinki: Legal and regulatory environment

Contact persons: Juha Salmelin, Nokia & Pekka Torvinen, Spinverse

Orbis contact person