Hi,
I’m new to OSM and have just started filling in houses and things in my local area. I have noticed lots of these devices appearing on lamp posts recently.
I believe they might have something to do with smart water meters but i’m not certain (they don’t seem to be cameras). Are these worth tagging (as what?) or is this too low level to care about?
Cheers
According to Google image search these devices control the street lighting.
Hi - I don’t think so because they only started appearing recently when they started installing smart water meters. According to Essex County Council - “Connexin has installed devices called LoRaWAN gateways on street lighting columns. LoRaWAN, or ‘Long Range Wide Area Network’, allows the data from devices, such as smart water meters to be sent over the internet. “ - see Smart technology: Improving everyday life in Essex | Essex County Council .
Cheers
They look different to the ones near me but could just be a different design lorawan device for reading water meters. I’ve not mapped any yet so cannot help with selecting a tag.
They look identical to those recently installed in the Whitstable & Canterbury area of Kent where there’s also a smart water meter rollout happening. I’ve not mapped any yet either, but have considered doing so. So I’d welcome any thoughts on tagging too.
I’d map them as some comms equipment. Mini5g cell?
man_made=antenna
antenna:type=?
technology=?
operator=incompetentwaterco
support=street_lamp
That they might be fitted for a smart water meter network is irrelevant. They’ll be used for anything suitable for the range.
Even the waterco bit may be wrong. Operator is likely a third party leasing the technology
So, it’s a LoRaWAN gateway. Put up apparently as a joint project between Essex Council, Essex and Suffolk Water, and Connexin. First batch of LoRaWAN Gateways are expected to be initially used by the water company to connect with smart meters. More LoRaWAN Gateways are expected to be set up by Essex Council, and will not necessarily be on Street Light posts.
It appears to need a separate node on top of the street lamp.
After a bit of taginfo searching I’d suggest the following tagging
man_made=antenna
communication:lorawan=yes
technology=lorawan
frequency=868 MHz
network=Connexin IoT (how we separate these IoT networks needs discussion)
operator=Essex County Council
support=street_lamp
description=LoRaWAN Gateway for council approved IoT
OK I created one of these - Node: 13990246693 | OpenStreetMap Hopefully I got the tags right.
How do you know the frequency? If it’s part of the standard for the tagged type of technology, isn’t this effectively duplicate information?
I don’t actually know the frequency, I just presumed it would use 868 MHz, which might be the wrong thing to have done.
I’ve looked at this LoRa or LoRaWAN stuff a while back when you topic came up in an electronics YouTube video. I was looking at the community open networks (IoT) being setup. Interesting idea but I’ve not gone much further.
LoRaWAN can operate in the UK at 433 MHz, 868MHz, 2.4 GHZ frequencies.
So since in the UK we have the a 868 MHz frequency with rules set up for IoT / LoRaWAN we can presume that frequency is being used for large scale LoRaWAN networks.
But is it a necessary, or good idea to add it? I’ll let other decided.
Thank you JassKurn. Verification niggles too I think on the frequency. Perhaps SWW will start using this tech too once everyone else has sorted the problems.
I removed the frequency.
