A Framework for the Design and Deployment of Large-Scale LPWAN Network for Smart Cities Applications

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables the connectivity of massive numbers of sensors to facilitate the delivery of immense sets of data. This valuable data promotes higher productivity, effectiveness, and sustainability. With the accelerating global urbanization, many cities and suburbs are expected to face increasing challenges related to urban planning, resources and livability. These challenges stimulate new opportunities for communities and governments to collaboratively incubate new planning and development strategies relying on the insightful IoT data. This concept is commonly referred to as smart cities. Accordingly, a wave of smart cities implementations is currently emerging. However, the underlying IoT network deployments are developed in silos, and thus require more harmonization. In this paper, we present a design and deployment framework for large-scale low power wireless access networks (LPWAN) in order to harmonize and guide the end-to-end process. This framework is derived from the acquired expertise and learned lessons from the largest open-access LPWAN deployment in Australia. The framework includes various aspects related to the state-of-the-art design techniques, smart cities use-case scenarios, project development and implementation, network management, and finally a robust performance testing mechanism for quality of service assurance. All these components were put into rigorous verification and testing under this realistic large-scale IoT network deployment.