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    Light Your World Blog

    How a new lighting industry open-platform will lead us to IoT

    June 30, 2020
    City view in the night
    Since the adoption of LED in outdoor lighting, we have seen more advanced lighting control systems connecting luminaires and other assets to operators using cloud-based systems, sometimes referred to as, software as a service, that maximizes energy savings, adapts lighting to local activities and acts as an asset management tool. They are connecting luminaires/assets to cloud-based systems and provide controls, scheduling, alarms, maintenance planning​ and work flow tools for lighting managers. They are designed for professional lighting owners and allow operators to communicate using RF communication and cellular networks. To deploy such connectivity, several investments will need to be made. To incorporate such communication structures several costs are added to standard lighting equipment and sometimes it even doubles total cost. Some of the reasons for this increase are the cost of equipment, additional luminaire custom designs required for the radio and antennas, effort for the commissioning, cost of maintenance, lack of standardization and non-open systems as well as the unknown system technology evolution. And that’s what is preventing the wide adoption of connected lighting.
    City infographic
    With luminaires located on every street and intersections in our cities, our industry is well positioned to integrate more value-added functionalities to connected lighting such as pollution alerts, criminal activities tracking, electrical grid power quality, and more. We are involved in beyond lighting projects like smart city, smart grid, smart building which are challenging to support. How can we connect to other industries systems if we don’t even have our own industry open eco-system? We have a great opportunity to contribute and lead these initiatives, but this might change if we can’t figure out how to connect our own stuff!
    Our industry leaders are aware of these barriers of adoption and fortunately some lighting research centers, standards organisations and many manufacturers are working together on resolving these hurdles. One specific initiative was created and will be deployed this year that will certainly help in accelerating and improving public and private lighting systems. It’s the luminaire open platform architecture for luminaire manufacturers, lighting control system manufacturers and multiple types sensors manufacturers. This IoT (Internet of thing) platform now includes a certified program called D4I, that enables LED driver, system controllers, sensors and luminaire manufacturers to be part of an open system platform, that significantly lowers the cost of the equipment, improves reliability, ensures long-term upgradability, and lowers the overall complexity.
    Street light features
    Customers would benefit from a sensor ready lighting system because it is compatible with multiple controllers from multiple manufacturers. It allows them to easily choose a system option, to upgrade/change its system in the future, but mostly lower the total cost of the lighting solution now and in the future. It also enables standardized features such as data collection from the luminaire components (LED drivers and lamps), precise metering and the addition of other sensors for motion, noise, vibration and pollution purpose. These sensors are key enablers for advance data collection, leading to an improve source of data used in public artificial intelligence applications in smart city projects.
    drivers' pattern
    Additionally, the platform architecture also enables other functionalities like extra power supply output for other devices used in connected lighting system as well as controller and sensor(s) which reduce the cost of components, and the points-of-failures in all standardized mechanical and electrical interfaces, that simplify​ planification, installation and maintenance. Also, the 2-way digital communication protocol between LED driver power supply, system controller and sensor(s) enable further possibilities such as advance data communication between light engine (driver and lamp), the controller and sensor(s). The protocol used is based on DALI, a standard already in use and proven for many years in our lighting industry. Since we are talking about IoT, to add flexibility for future needs, we need to continue to evaluate through a new standard organisation DiiA that follows our industry’s needs. In addition to DiiA, this platform is also supported by, and works in ZHAGA, ANSI C136 and ANSI C137 standards bodies.

    This new IoT platform already has multiple partners who are helping customers make a significant step towards connected lighting that will significantly improve the customer/resident experience.

    For more information on D4i or D4i certification:
     

    D4i: https://www.digitalilluminationinterface.org/d4i/

    D4i certification: https://www.digitalilluminationinterface.org/d4i/certification.html

    Blogger

    Martin Mercier
    Martin Mercier

    Post tags

    ansi c136, ansi c137, asset management tool, connected lighting, data collection, diia, ies, internet of things, iot platform, led drivers, LED lamps, led lighting, light engine, lighting control system, lighting industry, lighting research centers, lighting solution, manufacturers, motion sensors, noice sensors, open platform architecture, outdoor lighting, private lighting systems, smart building, smart city, smart grid, software as a service, sr platform, street luminaires, zhaga
    More tags
    2020
    Innovation
    Martin Mercier
    June

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