As one of the first cities in the world, Aarhus has established a “narrowband network” that covers the entire municipality.
Aarhus has through the work in Smart Aarhus achieved a wide range of experiences in exploring and exploiting new technological opportunities in Open Data DK, Internet of Things (IoT) and citizen involvement. The establishment of a new network is a natural extension of this work and offers potential for both efficiency and better use of resources, increased decision supports and rethinking of services.
The network is based on the open-standard LoRaWAN (a so-called Low Power Wide Area Network Technology) that makes it possible to send small packages of data over long distances – up to 15 kilometers with very low power, enabling battery-powered measurement points with battery life for several years. This gives the municipality completely new possibilities for using sensors in the city's rooms, buildings, inventory or vehicles, which can send data to the municipality's professional systems and employees independently. All of these possibilities have until now been significantly limited due to expensive establishment costs.
With this municipality-wide network Aarhus expands its already strong digital infrastructure and the new network will provide the backbone for a wide range of applications across all municipal disciplines, such as optimization and measurement within traffic and mobility, parking, renovation, telemedicine and much more.
The first use
One of the first concrete uses of the network is the detecting of unexpected temperature fluctuations in the municipality's approx. 1,000 district heating wells, which is where the district heating lines are connected. As it is always a matter of time before a leak occurs, it will thus be possible to detect breakages on the wires faster so that you can repair it immediately. This reduces heat loss, as well as the repairing of wires becomes cheaper.
