--- title: "IoT in the city: a street-light mesh and | Nexus Observatory" description: "Street-light controllers form a radio mesh that routes around a failed node to its border router, while meters and sensors report to a rooftop LoRaWAN…" url: https://observatory.global/environments/networks/iot-city/ publisher: Nexus Observatory Inc. updated: 2026-10-29 --- IoT in the city: a street-light mesh and LoRaWAN. A district of street lights, each with a radio controller, and a LoRaWAN gateway on the tallest roof. Layers Scenario A district of street lights, each with a radio controller, and a LoRaWAN gateway on the tallest roof. 01/04 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 10 GHz 20 GHz 40 GHz EU868 LoRaWAN: 863–870 MHz · λ 35 cm · LPWAN, 1 % duty cycle · LoRa Alliance RP002-1.0.4 Network scenes # IoT in the city: a street-light mesh and LoRaWAN Street-light controllers form a radio mesh that routes around a failed node to its border router, while meters and sensors report to a rooftop LoRaWAN gateway. [Radio access in a city centre](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/ran-city/) [Open RAN in a suburb](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/oran-suburb/) [AI-RAN at a stadium](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/ai-ran-stadium/) [Private 5G in an open-pit mine](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/private5g-mine/) [Private 5G at a container port](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/private5g-port/) [LoRaWAN across a farm and village](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/iot-farm/) [IoT in the city: a street-light mesh and LoRaWAN](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/iot-city/) [Industrial IoT in a process plant](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/iot-plant/) [Satellite direct to device in a mountain valley](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/ntn-d2d/) [Microwave backhaul across a river valley](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/backhaul-fresnel/) The place: [City centre](https://observatory.global/environments/city-centre/) ## In this scene **Border router on a street light**: The mesh joins the city network here: one controller with a cellular or fibre uplink for a district of lights. (IEEE 802.15.4g, Wi-SUN FAN 1.1, IETF RFC 6550 (RPL)) **Street-light controller**: A controller in each lantern: dimming, metering and fault reports, relayed hop by hop through its neighbours. (IEEE 802.15.4g, Wi-SUN FAN 1.1) Scene input: reliable hop range 125 m between poles 110 m apart **Rooftop LoRaWAN gateway**: Hears water and heat meters, parking and air-quality sensors across the district. (LoRaWAN L2 1.0.4 (TS001-1.0.4), LoRa Alliance RP002-1.0.4) ## Computed for this scenario **Gateways in service**: 1 of 1 **End devices served**: 30 of 30 **Mean spreading factor**: SF7.0 **Mean time on air, 20 B**: 57 ms **SF12 ring radius**: 6.1 km **Uplinks an hour at SF12 under 1 % duty cycle**: 27 **Mesh nodes reaching the sink**: 63 of 63 **Longest route**: 8 hops **Cut off**: 0 ## Scenarios **Normal**: Every light reaches the border router in a few hops. **Three lights fail**: Three controllers next to the border router fail; the mesh recomputes its routes around them. ## Tour transcript 1. A district of street lights, each with a radio controller, and a LoRaWAN gateway on the tallest roof. 2. The mesh: grey lines are usable links, red lines are the routes each light uses to reach the border router. 3. Three controllers next to the border router fail. The routes are recomputed around them. 4. Meters and sensors report to the rooftop gateway; the whole district sits inside its SF7 ring. ## How the numbers are computed Mesh links join controllers closer than 125 m; routes minimise the sum of 1 + (d / range)² per hop, a proxy for the expected transmission count RPL objective functions favour, recomputed with Dijkstra when nodes fail. LoRaWAN rings use urban Okumura–Hata at 868 MHz from the rooftop gateway height. © 2026 Nexus Observatory Inc. **Legal** [Privacy notice](https://observatory.global/legal/privacy/) · [Terms of use](https://observatory.global/legal/terms/) · [Cookie policy](https://observatory.global/legal/cookies/) · [Accessibility](https://observatory.global/legal/accessibility/) · [Official languages](https://observatory.global/official-languages/) · [Trademarks](https://observatory.global/trademarks/) · [Notices](https://observatory.global/notices/) **Company** [About](https://observatory.global/about/) · [Stewardship](https://observatory.global/consortium/) · [Contact](https://observatory.global/contact/)