Smart cities and smart factories: not the future, but the present

IERTEC presents its ecosystem for smart cities and smart factories.

The Smart City concept emerged around 2004, specifically in Spain, where the Ministry of Industry launched a Digital Cities programme.

With the increasing use of small tracking devices, sensors and citizen interaction systems, new needs are arising in urban areas, where efficient resource use can mean a significant reduction in public and private expenditure.

Thanks to new technologies, local councils can reduce the costs of their infrastructure, vehicles and energy consumption, among other things. Through the deployment of these tools and greater awareness among these bodies' technical teams, within a few years we will see more ‘smart’ resources and optimisation of cities' principal resources: lighting, water management, energy, vehicle routes and even human resources.

There are two common denominators in all these initiatives and in all the devices and resources encompassed by the Smart City concept: energy and communications.

In terms of energy, given that there is no short-term future for energy harvesting, manufacturers are choosing to create ultra-low-power devices which, equipped with small batteries, can perform their tasks over long periods.

In communications, meanwhile, several international initiatives use sub-GHz networks (networks operating at frequencies below one gigahertz, far below those of conventional Wi-Fi), such as LoRa or Sigfox.

These communications initiatives have not enjoyed all the success anticipated or, at least, are not being deployed as quickly as the market demands, so various manufacturers are opting to develop their own systems.

IERTEC has developed its own communications system for smart cities and smart factories. Based on frequencies of 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 916 MHz, IERTEC designs and manufactures its own sub-GHz routers and access points to facilitate ultra-low-power communications in smart cities and factories.

Alongside this communications system, we are working on a range of standalone sensors, with batteries guaranteeing up to five years of uninterrupted operation, interactive tourism systems and measurement devices.

One of the greatest advantages of our communications ecosystem is security: our devices communicate using 256-bit AES encryption and redundant node identification systems to prevent leaks.

Our ecosystem is currently being implemented and tested with environmental sensors, real-time measurement, user interaction, industrial sensing and people tracking.

We are part of the change.