The University of New Hampshire Connectivity Research Center (Connectivity) recently started on its first Smart City project in partnership with Senet, Inc. of Portsmouth, NH. Senet is a provider of public, low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) for long range Internet of Things (IoT) applications supporting the LoRaWAN™ protocol. The project, Smart Transportation Systems, involves deploying a network of sensors throughout the University of New Hampshire Durham campus to improve transportation. This is done by measuring parking lot occupancy and pedestrian foot traffic as a means to help direct traffic around campus in a more efficient manner. In order to achieve this outcome, data must be gathered to develop an understanding of the current traffic situation, the number of parking spots available all over the campus, and to create highly accurate predictive models with respect to traffic and pedestrian flow.
In the initial phase of the project, electrical engineering students from Connectivity built and deployed sensors to monitor the B-Lot Parking lot at the UNH-Durham campus. The sensors in B-Lot effectively count vehicles entering and exiting the parking lot and mark their time of arrival and departure. The data collected is transmitted via Senet’s public LPWAN network and then analyzed by graduate students in the Analytics program; these students are also creating a predictive model of the available of spots in the lot. The next steps will be to deploy sensors to monitor pedestrian traffic crossing Main Street, Durham in front of Thompson Hall. This new project is one of many smart city initiatives being worked on at Connectivity to advance the integration of network information systems, sensing devices and data analytics
Founded in 2015, Connectivity is a multi-disciplinary research center focused on network engineering, cyber security, and collateral technology areas. The focus of the center is to investigate next generation communication systems to enable a more connected world through partnerships with industry, academia, and federal agencies.
