2021 International Electrical Engineering Congress (iEECON2021)

March 10-12, 2021, Pattaya, THAILAND

Smart Street Lamp System using LoRaWAN and

Artificial Intelligence PART I
Natthaporn Saokaew
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT
Bangkok, Thailand
2021 9th International Electrical Engineering Congress (iEECON) | 978-1-7281-9584-1/20/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/iEECON51072.2021.9440337
Nuttapol Kitsatit Thanadol Yongkunawut
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT
Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, Thailand

Email: Natthaporn.sn@mail.kmutt.ac.th Email: Nuttapol.k@mail.kmutt.ac.th Email: Thanadol.tnd@mail.kmutt.ac.th

Piyasawat Navaratana Na Ayudhya Ekkachai Mujjalinvimut Tirasak Sapaklom

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT
Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, Thailand
Email: Piyasawat.nav@mail.kmutt.ac.th Email: Ekkachai.muj@kmutt.ac.th Email: Tirasak.sap@kmutt.ac.th

Preecha Aregarot Jakkrit Kunthong

Office of Building and Ground Department of Electrical Engineering
Management, KMUTT Faculty of Engineering, KMUTT
Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, Thailand
Email: preecha.are@kmutt.ac.th Email: Jakkrit.kun@kmutt.ac.th

Abstract— This paper presents the design of a smart
street lamp system around a football field at King
Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
(KMUTT). The system utilized the LoRaWAN wireless
communication protocol transmit at a distance over 500
meters between multiple LoRa nodes (Heltec Cubecell
HTCC-AB01 boards) and a LoRaWAN gateway. By
combining LoRaWAN, cloud computing server and
Artificial Intelligence technologies. The smart street
light system is able to detect 4 object classes (pedestrian,
bicycle, motorbike, and vehicle) and control street
lamps around the KMUTT football field at night.
Multiple IP cameras were place around the football
fields and a Nvidia Jetson nano AI board process
images information. When AI is detected at least one
object class, the smart street lamp will increase the
lamp’s brightness to 100%. If no object is detected for a
period of time, the lamp’s brightness decreases 50% to
save the energy unless more object is detected.
Keywords— LoRaWAN, AI, Cloud Computing, Smart
Street Lamp, IP Camera, Nvidia Jetson Nano, KMUTT
I. INTRODUCTION
WiFi and Bluetooth wireless communication
technologies are very popular since they are
ubiquitous and easy to use. One drawback for these
communication technologies however is the
communication range [1]. LoRaWAN or Long-
Range Wide Area Network is a wireless
communication technology that consume low energy
while offering extremely long range when compare to
many other wireless technologies such as WiFi,
Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, LTE-M and NB-IoT.
With these advantages, LoRaWAN is perfectly
suitable for long distance remote wireless
communications (many kilometers) that do not
require high speed communication (data rate up to
several kilo bytes per second) and consume low
power [2]. LoRaWAN is therefore often referred to
as the best technology in the Internet of Things (IoTs)
applications where low speed remote communication,
low energy, high link budget, and superior resistance
to interference is required [3].
According to the World Energy Outlook
organization, overall energy demand is set to drop by
5% and as much as 10% in some regions globally in
the year 2020 due to Covid-19. However, there are
some exception to this forecast including Thailand
where the country’s energy consumption is rising by
1.8% according to the Energy Policy and Planning
Office (EPPO). With increase energy demands, the
need to save energy is more important than ever. By
deploying LoRaWAN wireless technology in
conjunction with Artificial Intelligence (AI) image
processing algorithm, smart street lamps, an energy
saving system is presented in this paper. The system
consisted of multiple LoRaWAN nodes, a LoRaWAN
gateway, an AI processing unit (NVidia Jetson
Nano), IP cameras, a Node-red software and a Cloud
computing server.
It is noted that this article will be focusing on the
LoRaWAN communication datalink and the street
lamps brightness control. The next paper (part II) will
focused on the intelligence (AI) – image processing,
the underline decision making algorithm and the
cloud computing server software process.
II. System Description
A. System Overview
The system overview is summarized by Fig. 1
below and the LoRaWAN node deployed in this
project is the Heltec Cubecell HTCC-AB01 board (as
shown in Fig. 2) attached to the street lamp driver
circuit to control the lamp’s brightness. These street

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 2021 International Electrical Engineering Congress (iEECON2021)
March 10-12, 2021, Pattaya, THAILAND
lamps were installed around the university’s football
field. Each LoRaWAN node continuously listening
for commands from the LoRaWAN gateway located
on top of the class room building 4 (CB4) at a
distance of approximately 500 meters away.
Fig. 1. System Overview
The system helps save electricity energy by
setting the street lamp brightness at 50% when the AI
image processing detecting no pedestrian, bicycle,
motorcycle and vehicle around IP camera looked out
areas. As the camera detected the objects (people, car,
bicycle and motorcycle), the LoRaWAN gateway
transmits a command set to the LoRaWAN node to
brighten the street lamps to 100% for a period of time
before the lamp’s brightness return to 50% to save
energy. This cycle continues all night to ensure the
pedestrians’ safety and security while saving energy.
B. Setting up LoRa nodes and a Gateway
In order for LoRa nodes (Heltec Cubecell HTCC-
AB01 board) and the gateway to communicate to
each other, an arduino code is needed to be
programmed to the LoRa nodes.
Fig. 2. LoRa node - Heltec Cubecell HTCC-AB01
Fig. 3. An arduino code for the LoRa node
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It can be seen that various information as show
in Fig. 3 must be included in the arduino code before
it can be programmed into the LoRaWAN nodes.
Unique parameters such as deviceEUI, AppEUI and
AppKEY are require for the node to communicate
with the gateway [4]. The same deviceEUI, AppEUI
and AppKEY must be preprogrammed into the
gateway and the nodes. Any mismatch information
will result in both devices will not be able to
communicate to each other. Since the node units are
powered by an AC power supply, the LoRaWAN
class can be set either class A or C. LoRaWAN class
A will consume more energy since both devices
(gateway and nodes) are on all the time. LoRaWAN
class C is essential for a battery operation. Since
LoRaWAN class C require the least power when
compare to the class A and B due to both gateway
and nodes only transmit and receive at a pre-
determine period [5].
C. Smart Street Light On/Off and Brightness Control
The smart street lamp brightness control is based
on the lamp’s driver, a Bipolar Junction Transistor
(BJT) circuit, and the Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) in the LoRaWAN node. To turn on or off the
lamp completely, a small 5A relay is used.
The smart street lamp’s driver input voltage
range from 100-277 V, current rating of 0.33 A, rated
power 70 W, and 0.95 power factor. The lamp’s
controller has 5 connections: L (line), N (Neutron),
ground, Dim+ and Dim-. To control the lamp’s
brightness, a BJT driver circuit is needed to connect
to both Dim+ cable and Dim- cable.
The Fig. 4 shows an arduino IDE PWM control
code to be programmed into the LoRa nodes. Using a
BJT circuit in Fig. 5 to drive the PWM signal on
Dim+ and Dim- pins.
Fig. 4. BJT circuits for simulation
To perform calculations for the above BJT circuit
design, based on the calculation equation (1)
VB = VIN – VCE (SAT) (1)
The value VB = 2.6V, and by selecting RB =
10kΩ, IB = 2.6x10-4 A, according to the BJT
datasheet, the bata value β = 250 for the bc337
transistor. Because IC = βIB, the calculated IB = 0.065
A and the value of a resistor at the transistor’s
collector (Rc), Rc = 143.07Ω. In practice, one will
choose the closest resistance available in the market
which is 180Ω.
 2021 International Electrical Engineering Congress (iEECON2021)
March 10-12, 2021, Pattaya, THAILAND

III. EXPERIMENT
There were five different tests performed before B. LoRaWAN data transmission test
the final system was to be deployed in the field to This test determined how much LoRaWAN data
ensure the system robustness and reliable operations. rate effected by many factors including distance
These testes would include LoRaWAN distance vs between transmitter and receiver, Spreading Factor
Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), data (SF) value, and each node’s Signal to Noise Ratio
transmission, lamp’s on/off control, lamp’s brightness (SNR). Fig. 7. and Fig. 8. revealed the RSSI, SNR and
control, and the Node-Red software control system data rate at the gateway.
integration tests.
A. LoRaWAN Distance vs Received Signal Strength
Indicator (RSSI)
It could be observed that radio signal strength
depends on distance between the transmitter and the
receiver. The signal strength of the receive decreases
as the distance from the transmitter increases. This
phenomenon obeys the “inverse square law” of radio
propagation. In this experiment, a transmitter
(gateway) was kept stationary and receivers (nodes) Fig. 7. LoRa Server webpage
moved to different locations in the KMUTT campus.
The results showed that the RSSI decreased as the
distance increased as shown in the Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. LoRaWAN RSSI level at various distances

Although LoRaWAN link budget can be as high
as 151 dB and the communication distance can reach
up to 800 km under optimal conditions [6]. To ensure
the LoRaWAN radio link reliability under extreme
attenuation due to bad weather and severe
interferences. The signal strength at the receiver node
of the smart street lamp system will not be lower than
-121 dB at any given time. Fig. 6. shows multiple
sensors placed on the KMUTT campus.
Fig. 8. Display RSSI, SNR and Data-rate while
connected
After uploaded the running code to the LoRaWAN
nodes (Heltec Cubecell HTCC-AB01) using an
Arduino IDE software platform, it can be seen that the
nodes automatically connected (joined) to the gateway
and started sending and receiving data packages
within a few milliseconds of the nodes boot up time.
C. Lamp On/Off test
The smart street lamp can be switched on and off
using a small 5A relay controlled by a digital (ADC)
pin D3 of the LoRaWAN node as shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9. LoRaWAN node turning lamp on and off

As the ADC pin is set to low, the relay will not

operate and the lamp will turn off but when the ADC
Fig. 6. Multiple sensors on campus pin is set to high, the relay will operate and the lamp
will turn on.

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 2021 International Electrical Engineering Congress (iEECON2021)
March 10-12, 2021, Pattaya, THAILAND
D. Lamp Brightness Control
The LoRaWAN node control the brightness of the
smart street lamp driver by deploying Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) technique through a BJT circuit.
The LoRaWAN node (Heltec Cubecell HTCC-AB01)
is connected to the lamp’s driver board pin dim+, dim-
through the BJT circuit.
Fig. 10. Lamp brightness with PWM 0 % and 100 %
Fig. 10. shows how bright of the lamp when the
node sent PWM 0 % and PWM 100 % respectively. It
is noted that the lamp will not turn off completely as it
received PWM 0% due to the lamp driver board
default setting, to turn off the lamp, a relay is required
as described in the previous section.
E. Node-Red Software Control System Integration test
To test the operation of the complete system, each
sub-system must be integrated. The AI system that
transmits data to the gateway is part of another
working group. It is therefore outside the scope of this
paper and will not discussed in detail here. A Node-
Red software was used mimic the AI – Image
processing and decision making algorithms of the
project. This software was able to transmit command
in term of data packets using MQTT protocol from the
cloud computing server to the gateway. The gateway
then transmitted the control commands over radio
wave (923MHz – AS923 band) using LoRaWAN
protocol to the nodes. When sending command from
the gateway to the nodes, one would refer this process
as LoRaWAN “downlink”.
Fig. 11. Node-Red flows to control lamp brightness
Fig. 11. shows a simple but effective Node-Red
flows installed on a cloud computing server. By
pressing the on and off buttons, the relay at the lamp
will turn on/off according to the commands. Same
idea applies to the 50% and 100% buttons, whereas
the lamp brightness will change due to the node’s
PWM output.
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IV. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The design of the smart street lamp using
LoRaWAN communication and Artificial Intelligence
was presented in this paper. Since the Artificial
Intelligence part was in the developing stage, a Node-
Red software package was used to mimic the AI
image processing and decision making algorithm.
As the result, the system was able to perform as
designed. The gateway was able to transmitted
downlink commands to the LoRaWAN receiver node
to turn on/off and control the lamps brightness
reliably at a distance over 500 meters.
Multiple IP cameras, a Nvidia Jetson Nano
board and an AI image processing – decision making
algorithm is responsible of detecting 4 object classes
(human, vehicles, bicycles and motorcycles) on the
street at night around the football field in KMUTT
campus. As the AI algorithm detected any of these
classes, it will summit the detection results to the
cloud computing server. The server will then save the
detection results into a database (MySQL) and send a
MQTT message request to the gateway. The gateway
will transmit downlink commands to the receive
LoRaWAN nodes (Heltec CubeCell HTCC-AB01
board) through LoRaWAN communication Protocol
to turn on/off or change the lamp’s brightness
accordingly. It has been expected that the smart
lighting system will help the university save energy,
increase the lamp’s operation life and increase safety
and security of pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles,
and vehicles for many years to come.
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