THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STREET LIGHTING

THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

IMPLEMENTATION OF A STREET
STREET
LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEM
SYSTEM USING A 802.11
COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL
PROTOCOL:
OL: A CASE STUDY
Eng. Alexandru LAVRIC PhD S, Prof. Eng. Valentin POPA PhD

Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania

REZUMAT. n aceast lucrare este prezentat proiectarea i implementarea unui sistem de control al iluminatului stradal
care are la baz un protocol de comunica
comunicaie 802.11 de tipul WiWi-Fi. n cadrul sistemului este aleas o modalitate de control
al iluminatului la nivel de zon. Avantajul
Avantajul implementrii unui astfel de sistem const n ob
obinerea unor costuri de
implementare mult mai reduse deoarece numrul de echipamente este mult mai mic,
mic, datorat controlului zonal. Dup
instalarea sistemului costurile aferente energiei electrice au fost reduse cu aproximativ
aproximativ 20% realizndurealizndu-se astfel economii
substan
substaniale.
Cuvinte cheie: controlul iluminatului stradal, sistem,
sistem, protocolul de comunica
comunicaie 802.11, arhitectur de control
ABSTRACT. This paper presents the design and implementation of a street lighting control system that is based on a
802.11 wireless communication protocol. Hence, the system integrates an area control method. The advantages brought
by the implementation of such a system mainly consist in the fact that the installation costs are much lower, as the number
well--defined control area. Following the installation,
of devices integrated in the system is substantially reduced, due to the well
the energy consumption costs have diminished by approximately 20%, as compared to the previous control
control system, thus
allowing for considerable additional savings.
savings.
Keywords: street lighting control, system, 802.11, control network

1. INTRODUCTION

lighting monitoring and control system because of low

cost devices and high number of nodes.
The reduction of the costs entailed by street lighting
The reduction of electrical power consumption is an
is
an
important issue that has drawn the attention of
important issue and on a European level are currently
numerous research centers. The scientific literature
seeking for solutions.
presents a series of street lighting control systems that
A brief comparison between the wireless
opted for an individual lamp command, by integrating a
communication protocols that can be integrated in a
WSN protocol, such as ZigBee [1] and 6LoWPAN [2]
street lighting control system is shown in Table 1.
or a PLC protocol type (Power Line Communications)
Table 1
[3] by using the existing power lines.
Wireless communication protocols
This paper presents the design and implementation
of a street lighting control system that is based on a
Bluetooth
ZigBee
Wi-Fi
UWB
WiMax
802.11 [4] Wi-Fi communication protocol. Hence, we
802.1
802.1
1
802.1
802.16
IEEE
have chosen an area control method. The advantages of
802.15.1
Standard
5.4
a/b/g/
5.3a
a/e/d
implementing such a system consist in the fact that the
n
installation costs are much lower, as the number of
868/9
10-66
devices integrated in the system is substantially reduced
15
2.4
3.1GHz
Frequency
due to the specific control zone. The control of street
2.4 GHz
MHz;
GHz;
10.6
Band
2 - 11
2.4
5 GHz
GHz
lighting systems in Romania relies on photoelectric
GHz
GHz
cells that use the external environment luminosity level.
250kb 54Mb/ 110M
The disadvantages of this control method consist in
Bandwidth
1Mb/s
75Mb/s
/s
s
b/s
a
reduced
performance level due to miscalibration,
>65.0
Number of
8
2007
impurity
built-up
or faulty installation that can
nodes
00
compromise
the
entire
system. The novelty of this paper
As can be noted, the ZigBee and Wi-Fi
consists
in
the
design
and implementation of a street
communication protocols can be integrated in a street
lighting control architecture which is based on a 802.11
wireless communication protocol.

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INT. SYMPOSIUM
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ON ELECTRICAL
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
ENGINEERING AND
AND ENERGY
ENERGY CONVERTERS
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ELS 2013
2013
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INT.
CONVERTERS

2. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
The system architecture is shown in Figure 1, as it
consists in the main control center, the wireless network
and the lighting control points distributed across a wide
geographical area. The system is based on a wireless
network that covers the entire city, implemented using a
Wavion WBS (Wireless Base Station) 2400 station. The
wireless 802.11 access point is a Wavion WBS-2400
station, operating in the 2.4 GHz band. The station has
an array of 6 omnidirectional antennas of 7.5 dBi with a
-105.5 dBm sensitivity and operating in 802.11g mode
[5]. The WBS-2400 is connected to the command
center where the graphical user interface (GUI) of the
street lighting control application is installed.
Specific area street lighting control entails the
presence of the central points that control a high
number of lamps in a specific geographic zone.
Previous papers [6] - [12] have presented the design and
implementation of a street lighting monitoring and
control system based on a WSN sensor network spread
across a wide geographical area. However, the
disadvantage of this system consists in the high
implementation costs due to the retrofitting of the lamps
with sensors.
As shown in Figure 1, the street lighting control
system uses the architecture of a wireless Internet
access system of the Free Hotspot type.

Fig. 1. System structure.

Since the 2400 WBS station must be installed at a

high altitude in order to cover as wide an area as
possible, a communication link is used between the
station installation point and the system control center.
This link operates in the 5 GHz ISM (Industrial
Scientific and Medical) frequency bandwidth. This link
enables Internet access; the type of equipment used is

provided by the Nano Station M5 Ubiquity [13] which

allows for a data transfer rate of 54 Mb/s within a 10
km radius.
The coverage area of the WBS 2400 base station is
of approximately 25 km in non-LoS (Line-of-Sight)
conditions, enabling a transfer rate of up to 54Mb/s due
to the beam forming technology operating in the
unlicensed 2.4 GHz frequency bandwidth. Thus, when
performing an operation from the control center, the
command is sent through the link to the station and is
afterwards diverted to the control point of the specific
area. The connection between the control points
installed across a wide geographical area and the base
station is ensured by devices such as the CPE
(Customer-Premises Equipment) NanoStation M2 that
operate in a 2.4 GHz bandwidth. These are connected to
a VPN (Virtual Private Network) wireless network
provided by the base station.

3. HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT
The control system consists of two modules, i.e. the
automatic street lighting control and the remote control
system that allows the setting of a default operating
program. The automatic street lighting control is based
on an Astro controller [14] that commands (on/off) the
lamps automatically, depending on the sunset/sunrise
time that the module calculates by using a specific
algorithm.
The Astro module is configured by entering the GPS
coordinates (latitude and longitude) of the location
where the device is installed. The device has a built-in
astronomical clock which calculates the sunrise/sunset
times by using a microprocessor with a 2 ms error,
based on the exact location on the globe. The system
can operate in the standalone configuration, thus
replacing the traditional photovoltaic cells or the
programmable clocks which may affect the
performance of the system due to faulty installation or
degradation.
The second part of the system is based on a PCL
(Programmable Logic Controller) Barix programmable
automaton of the Barionet 50 type. The PLC has four
contact closure inputs, four relay outputs which support
a maximum voltage of 24V and a current of 0.5A [15].
The relays can be controlled by using a TCP/IP
communication protocol and a web interface via the
built-in 10/100 Ethernet port.
Since PLC networks cannot support more than a
24V DC voltage, two additional power relays are used
to command the street lighting control contactor. Figure
2 shows the PLC and the Astro devices.

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THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STREET LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEM

THE DESIGNPROTOCOL:
AND
USING A 802.11 COMMUNICATION
A CASE STUDY
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a)

b)

Fig. 2. Astro (a) and Barionet 50 (b) devices.

Figure 3 shows the hardware diagram of the control

panel. The system consists of the CPE device that
enables the remote control transmission, the PLC
Barionet, two relays, the Astro device and the contactor
that controls the lamps.
Fig. 4. Astro configuration software.

The street lighting on/off command time table is

presented in Figure 5, as calculated by means of the
algorithm integrated in the Astro and the timetable
without the control system. Street lighting is therefore
precisely controlled by simply determining the exact
sunset and sunrise time and thus diminishing the power
consumption costs.

Fig. 5. Sunset/sunrise hours calculated by Astro.

Fig. 3. Hardware Design.

Figure 4 presents the configuration interface of the

Astro device. Programming it is relatively easy, as the
only settings the user must make are the time zone, the
GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) of the location
where the device is installed and the operating method
that can be of the sunset/sunrise or trigger on twilight
type.

4. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
The logical diagram of the user interface installed in
the control center is presented in Figure 6. As can be
noted, when the command is received, the first step is to
stop the automatic control provided by the Astro device,
by enabling the first relay, and then enabling the second
relay that controls street lighting (on/off command).
The Barix module has an integrated web server that
allows the disabling of the Astro automatic control and
the enabling of the street lighting control relay. Thus,

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ENGINEERING AND
AND ENERGY
ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELS
ELS 2013
2013
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CONVERTERS
street lighting control can be performed according to
specific needs and circumstances.

Such a map providing information on the status of

the lamp control points is presented in Figure 8. When
the lamps are on in the area, they are shown as green
dots, while if turned off, they are shown as red dots.
Thus, the user can easily detect any problem that may
occur.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Fig. 6. Logical diagram.

In Figure 7 is presented the web server that runs on

Barionet device. In order to manually command the
street lighting the user must first stop the automatic
control assured by the Astro device.

The street lighting control system was implemented

in a town, in Romania. The previous command system
was based on photoelectric cells that maintain a low
performance level. The control panels were installed at
all the seven control points installed across a wide
geographical area. The lamps integrated in the system
are of the HPS (High Pressure Sodium) 240W type.
Following the installation of the suggested system, the
energy consumption costs have diminished by
approximately 20%, as compared to the previous
control system, thus allowing for additional savings.
Thus, the proposed system enables the considerable
reduction of the energy costs. The implementation costs
are quite low, due to the small number of devices used.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fig. 7. Barionet interface.

The application suggested was implemented in the

Visual Basic programming language and provides the
user with a map showing the location of the centralized
control points. The user interface installed at the
command center is presented in Figure 8.

Fig. 8. Graphical User Interface.

This paper was supported by the project

"Improvement of the doctoral studies quality in
engineering science for development of the knowledge
based
society-QDOC
contract
no.
POSDRU/107/1.5/S/78534, project co-funded by the
European Social Fund through the Sectorial Operational
Program Human Resources 2007-2013.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Maciej Mendalka, Michal Gadaj, Lukasz Kulas, Krzystof
Nyka, "WSN for intelligent street lighting system,"
International Conference on Information Technology,
pp.99-100, 2010.
[2] LiLong, ChuXiumin, WuYong, WuQing, "The development
of road lighting intelligent control system based on wireless
network control," International Conference on Electronic
Computer Technology,pp. 353 - 357, 2009
[3] Yun-gui Zhang, Li-na Zhao, Li-na Wang, Sheng-yong
Zhang, "A Web-based Management System for Urban Road
Lighting," International Conference on Web Information
Systems and Mining ,pp. 279 - 282, 2010.
[4] IEEE 802.11-2007, "IEEE Standard for Information
technology- Telecommunications and information exchange
between systems- Local and metropolitan networks- Part 11:
Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical
Layer (PHY) Specifications," 2007.
[5] http://www.wavionnetworks.com/

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[6] Alexandru Lavric, Valentin Popa, Ilie Finis, Daniel Simion,
"The design and implementation of an energy efficient street
lighting monitoring and control system," Przeglad
Elektrotechniczny, Nr. 11, pp. 312-316, 2012.
[7] Alexandru Lavric, Valentin Popa, Ilie Finis, Adrian M.
Gaitan, Adrian I. Petrariu, "Packet Error Rate Analysis of
IEEE 802.15.4 under 802.11g and Bluetooth Interferences,"
9th International Conference on Communications, COMM
2012, pp. 259-262, 2012.
[8] Alexandru Lavric, Valentin Popa, Codrin Males, Ilie Finis,
"A Performance Study of ZigBee Wireless Sensors Network
Topologies for Street Lighting Control Systems," International
Workshop on Mobile Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks
iWMANET, France, pp. 130-133, 2012.
[9] Alexandru Lavric, Valentin Popa, Ilie Finis, "The Design of
a Street Lighting Monitoring and Control System," Conference
Electrical and Power Engineering EPE , pp. 314-317, 2012.

[10] Alexandru Lavric, Valentin Popa, Codrin Males, Ilie Finis,

"New Technologies in Street Lighting", International Word
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[11] Lavric Alexandru, Popa Valentin, Finis Ilie, Males Codrin
Gaitan Adrian-Mihai, "An original lighting monitoring and
control system using Wireless Sensor Networks," Proceedings
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[12] Alexandru Lavric, Valentin Popa, "The Design and
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[13] http://www.ubnt.com/
[14] http://www.gicindia.com/
[15] http://www.barix.com/Barionet_50/1351

About the authors

Eng. Alexandru LAVRIC, PhD. S.
University Stefan cel Mare of Suceava, Romania.
email:lavric@eed.usv.ro
Graduated at the Gh. Asachi Technical University, Faculty of Electronic Telecommunication and Information Technology
in 2009. In 2008 he obtained a Bachelor degree in Administrative Sciences from "tefan cel Mare" University of Suceava,
Faculty of Economics and Public Administration and in 2010 obtained a Master degree in Business Affairs from the same
University. Since 2010, he is a PhD attending student in Electronics and Telecommunications, and also pursuits a Master
of science diploma in Computer and Communications Networks. His main research areas are: lighting control systems,
WSN and wireless communication technologies.
Prof. Eng. Valentin POPA, PhD.
University Stefan cel Mare of Suceava, Romania.
email:valentin@eed.usv.ro
Graduated at the Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Electrical, Electronics and Telecommunications Faculty, study
program- Electronics and Telecommunications in 1989. After finishing the faculty, he followed a PhD. study and
graduated in 1998. Since 1992, he works at tefan cel Mare University of Suceava receiving the title of Prof. in 2005. His
main research areas are: RFID systems, intelligent sensor networks and wireless data transmission systems. From 2009, he
is a PhD. coordinator. Since his employment in the academic environment, he is responsible for multiple research grant
agreements. Currently, he is the rector of the tefan cel Mare University of Suceava.

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