Challenge
Our client is a leading UK-based provider of a complete lighting control system that manages upkeep activities of street lights and other associated illumination equipment anywhere and at any point. The client’s business also includes assembling & selling of devices like S6000 Socket, External & Internal DALI Node, and Sub Master.
Additionally, the client wished to support the motion sensors and smart city solutions by developing an application to control the complete lighting model. The aim was to have a system comprising of 4 parts:
Additionally, the client wished to support the motion sensors and smart city solutions by developing an application to control the complete lighting model. The aim was to have a system comprising of 4 parts:
- 1. Nodes (hardware) which was installed at every street lightening unit
- 2. Sub master for a group of nodes
- 3. Masters for a group of sub-masters
- 4. Back-Office system
Key challenges faced while developing this smart system
- Complexity in understanding the existing system developed using Delphi.
- Unable to manage/communicate with all street lighting units because the client wanted to understand the nitty-gritty of the applications such as set their on/off timings based on geographical locations, increase/decrease the brightness level of every unit/street light based on the necessity of the area and time duration, etc. without traveling and with the ease of managing it from the back office.
- Unable to build an easy interface to access the lighting network devices (nodes and sub-masters) and to perform operations like sending switch level.
- Make the system completely automated so that it does not require any human intervention. At the same time, the system should have the ability to perform many of the operations manually.
- Ability to specify a schedule for switching and the ability to add overrides for a specific duration. The system should automatically operate by following the schedules and operate the ON and OFF switches.
- Seamless connections for smart city solutions including but not limited to photosensors, motion sensors. Smart city residents should have control over switching based on their need.
- Inability to synchronize data with third party inventories and easily pluggable interface for various inventory systems.
- Advanced reporting and dashboards.
- Third-party systems should be able to access the CMS system functionality.
- Make the fault-finding process easier for operatives when they go to the site for fixing the faulty nodes. Also helping them to perform real-time operations i.e. switch to level, requesting measurements to ensure the fault is fixed.
- The system developed should keep a track of the performance of the operatives and their efficiency and accuracy of fixing the problems.
- Make a robust CMS system such that the third party CMS and lighting networks could easily be integrated with CMS or outdoor lighting networks.
- Security is the primary requirement and should not be compromised at any point of communication.
- Unable to provide data instantly when something happens in the CMS system i.e. device creation, data collection, lamp failures.
- Unable to save Cost in hosting infrastructure.
Expertise
ASP .NET MVC • C# • WCF • Web API • IIS • SSRS reporting • Crystal Reports • Entity Framework • Microsoft SQL Server • Google maps • Open Street Maps • DevExpress dashboard • Azure MqTT • Azure SignalR • Azure App service • Azure AD and ADB2C Authentication • Azure App services
Solution
With the help of our .NET software development team we developed a smart web-application namely “Outdoor Lights Management System” which provides easy accessibility of the applications via the internet from anywhere and at any point in time. Microsoft products like Azure cloud services along with .NET(C#), Google Maps were perfect fit for our project. Our solution offers multiple industry-first features which includes but not limited to:
- Facility to view every node data and manage the same data on Google Map and OpenStreetMap with an ability to perform commands.
- Manage Inventory of all types of lighting units purchased/received from multiple vendors.
- Various background tasks to perform some operations to make the system completely automated i.e. collecting and analyzing measurements and raising faults. Ability to run automated background actions manually using web applications.
- Manage Time zones, Schedules, Switching Regimes, Switch Groups, masters, Sub Masters, Nodes & authorization requests with an easy interface.
- Access to dynamic reports for faults, Network report, Missing Measurement data, Equivalent Data Meter Analysis, Missing Measurement Details, Node Authorization Request Statistics, and Switching Regimes per Street Report.
- Configurable rich dashboard with a graphical representation of the various statistics.
- Make CMS and OLN as TALQ compliant so that they could easily be accessible by other CMS systems or OLN networks.
- Creating switching groups for accepting commands from sensors or smart city user’s manual commands.
- Ability to Configure System Settings, Email Notifications, and Fault codes, CRUD operations for all the network and inventory entities, background services settings, etc.
- Creating a Web API to provide an interface for third parties to access the CMS system functionalities in a secure manner.
- Creating mobile applications for helping operatives in the fault-finding process and ensuring things are working after fixing the problem.
- Measuring the efficiency and accuracy of operatives in the fault fixing process.
- Message level security while communicating with WCF services and rights-based WCF method access.
- Strong authentication and Authorization methods used.
- Report data events to third parties i.e. lamp failures.
- Cloud hosting.
Result
As a leading software development service provider, Dobe developed a complete Lighting Control System. This solution represents a digitally advanced stature of the organization for managing street lights and associated illuminated equipment. With this solution, users can dynamically control each individual lighting unit from the comfort of their homes or offices.
Dobe developed this multi-purpose application with compelling business benefits such as:
Dobe developed this multi-purpose application with compelling business benefits such as:
- Monitor and control switching and dimming
- Manage energy consumption and billing
- Report faults automatically
- GPRS and Soap service-based communication with the devices
- Configuration of 200,000+ street poles getting managed by the software
- Extensive functionalities with Google map and open street map and easy interface for lighting network
representation - Switching regimes which functions based on photosensors (sunlight) or predefined time
- Support for accepting switching commands from motion sensors or smart city user group
- Integrations with inventory systems for street light management companies
- Graphical view of implemented lights, current status, faultiness, etc.
- Generate and clear faults automatically by analyzing measurement data
- Generate consumption data automatically based on switching history
- Rich dashboard helps in understanding the behavior of various areas of the system
- Started making the CMS system as TALQ compliant
- Mobile application helps operatives make the fault fixing process easier and provide testing tools after
fixing the fault. - System provides stats for administrators to measure the efficiency and accuracy of operatives.
- System provides various utilities that help perform some administrative operations that will help correct
the system if something goes wrong on the production server. - Posting payloads to MqTT and SignalR clients to report data when a device is created or deleted or measurement data is collected or lamp failure is reported.
- Started hosting on cloud services like Azure App services.
