22.05.18 | Kerlink and SITEC help bring Internet of Things to remote village in Corsica with Small Private Network
Deployment on Mediterranean Island Demonstrates Flexibility of LoRaWANTM Connectivity for Keeping Rural Areas Connected in Digital Era
Thorigné-Fouillard and Bastia, France – May 22, 2018, 06:00 p.m. CET – In an Internet of Things (IoT) deployment showing how LoRaTM technology and small private networks can keep rural communities connected in the digital era, Kerlink (ALKLK – FR0013156007) and SITEC have built a “Smart Paese” (smart village) network in a secluded village high in the mountainous Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Customized for the demographics and specific characteristics of the 300-person village, Cozzano, the LoRaWANTM IoT network provides real-time data for monitoring village infrastructure, including a biomass boiler and micro-hydropower plants, and a school with 40 students. In a companion smart-farm application, GPS sensors designed by SITEC, a Corsican computer-services company, and attached to a local farmer’s pigs allow the farmer to track their location in the thickly wooded area surrounding the village and monitor their conditions throughout their lifecycle for improved farm efficiency.
Kerlink, a specialist and global leader in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things, provided solar-powered Wirnet stations for the network, which also will monitor temperature, air quality and soil quality.
“The Cozzano IoT network demonstrates how LoRaWANTM small private networks can be designed for and deployed in a wide range of unique and challenging environments, such as the thickly wooded, hilly terrain of Cozzano, whose elevation ranges from 700 meters to 2,000 meters,” said Marie Le Berre, vice president, Kerlink Infrastructure Solutions. “This robust, flexible network overcomes all those challenges to provide the security, performance and reliability of the most-dense LoRaWANTM networks anywhere.”
SITEC also designed the small private network along with the University of Corsica and CNRS, France’s largest governmental research organization, which also provided network simulation.
“As the world’s population continues its steady migration to urban areas, there is a risk that rural areas and communities far from the cities will fall further and further behind in the implementation of digital technologies that can improve health, the economy, security and transportation,” said Jean-Sébastien Gualtieri, IT research engineer, SITEC. “The LoRaWANTM small private network in Cozzano is a case study of how governments at the state level can team up with innovative companies to prevent rural communities from falling behind”.
“In Cozzano, researchers made the rural dimension the core of their scientific thinking, involving local stakeholders, such as small farm operators,” Gualtieri said. “In addition to making the local infrastructure more efficient, the network provides practical applications that help sustain small agribusinesses, which are a vital part of many rural communities.”
EDF, the large French integrated electricity company, is also a partner of the “Smart Paese” project.