Glasgow has extended its Internet of Things gateway as it accelerates its efforts to become a 'smart city'. The addition of another gateway, which now brings the total to nine, will significantly enhance connectivity and coverage across the Scottish city.
The new Internet of Things gateway will be erected at the City of Glasgow College's new Riverside Campus on the south bank of the River Clyde, which adds to additional sites already placed in the central, west end and northern areas of the city.
The primary purpose of the new IoT gateway is to improve the consistency of connectivity for devices in Glasgow's city centre, with a particular focus placed on devices inside or under the buildings. Stream Technologies also known as (SemTech) are one of several entities that form the consortium spearheading the city's LoRa network. Other companies include Boston Networks, Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (Censis). It has also been disclosed that the consortium will work closely with the college's faculty staff and students in order to help them use the new technology.
It has been suggested that each gateway can connect as many as 10,000 devices within a radius of at least three miles in urban areas. The Glasgow network is already been utilized in order to monitor river levels, the capacity of public bins and pollution levels in the city center and is engaged in several new trials, all of this is part of Glasgow's concerted bid to become a 'smart city'.
Douglas Morrison, STEM and innovation project lead at City of Glasgow College declared that Glasgow was already a 'smart city' and that this latest IoT deployment would only cement its status as one of UK's smartest cities. He said, "We are delighted to partner on this exciting project. Glasgow is very much a smart city and the continued growth of IoT means we are always on the lookout for innovative education solutions across our super college. Not only is City of Glasgow College an established technical and professional center of excellence, our Riverside campus is the most technologically advanced maritime and engineering campus anywhere, so this is a great fit. Each day we work to ensure that our students are equipped with relevant and modern skills to flourish in the workplace. We look forward to further developing this relationship with Censis."
Dr. Mark Begbie, who is the Business Development Director at Censis said the city's new Riverside Campus was the ideal location for the deployment of the new gateway and said the project was just the latest in a series of exciting new projects involving Internet of Things technology. He said, "The City of Glasgow College's Riverside Campus is the ideal location for the latest addition to the Glasgow LoRa network - enhancing the city's existing coverage and extending it to the south east. It will also act as an important engagement point for us with the college's staff and students, giving them the best possible opportunity to use the IoT. We look forward to working with them on new applications and projects for this exciting technology in the near future."