One of the biggest technological challenges of the modern world is to make cities safer, smarter, more citizen-friendly, and more energy-efficient. In order to achieve those goals, city planners and investors need tools to collect and analyze enormous amounts of data. Digital Twin technology allows them to do just that.
Together with our Finnish partner, SITOWISE, a member of the LuxTurrim5G consortium, we were responsible for developing a technical platform and creating a precise Digital Twin of the Nokia Campus in Espoo, Finland. The project results confirm the immense potential of the tool in terms of Smart City planning and development.
LuxTurrim5G is a cutting-edge project that aims to utilize 5G technology as the backbone for smart city development. The testing ground for the project is the Nokia Campus, a business district in the Finnish city of Espoo. The project aims to show how fast connectivity and extensive data collection can help us build sustainable smart cities and find solutions to issues such as climate change. We elaborate more on the 5G aspect of the project here. In this article, we’ll focus on the role of Digital Twin technology.
A Digital Twin is a digital representation of a part of reality that is updated in real-time in the system. It could be an item, vehicle, or in our case, an entire area. Depending on the designated usage, a Digital Twin may include many different types of data such as temperature, humidity, traffic, pollution, and much more.
In the case of the Nokia Campus, our Digital Twin works hand-in-hand with a network of 19 smart poles (street lamps with smart features), two smart bus stops, and a rich network of sensors with over 250 IoT devices. In addition to that, the environment includes autonomous vehicles and drones. The network of those elements, including strategic placements of smart poles and IoT sensors, couldn’t be planned efficiently without a Digital Twin in the first place.
Devices like smart poles have many functionalities, such as telecommunications and surveillance, so they require an entirely new approach to the planning process. The answer lies within the virtual environment of a Digital Twin that allows planners to test different scenarios to find one that is sufficient for all of the required functionalities. Additionally, many of those new devices operate using an ultra-fast, millimeter-wave 5G network, which has a shorter range and is highly susceptible to environmental factors like snow, rain, or traffic. The Digital Twin that we created allows planners to simulate all such effects without any fieldwork required. This helps them find the perfect configuration of devices much cheaper and faster than without a Digital Twin, which would be a virtually impossible task. You can see the tool in action here:
The results of the project were very optimistic. The Digital Twin of Nokia Campus became an incredible source of information that can be analyzed and visualized. Many LuxTurrim5G project partners are already using the platform to develop new solutions for increasing public safety and energy efficiency, enabling autonomous driving and sustainable logistics, or creating healthy environments. We’ve already seen some stunning ideas based on the information gathered from the Nokia Campus Digital Twin. You can read more about the project on the official LuxTurrim5G website.
On a larger scale, we can expect this solution to be a fundamental piece in modern urban planning. Such a comprehensive set of live-updated data about the environment will allow city planners to make much more well-informed decisions, optimize costs, and predict or manage crises. On its own, Digital Twin technology has already been utilized in various cities around the World. However, with the boost of ultra-fast 5G, we’re able to bring it to an entirely new level.
Now that we’ve seen the potential of the technology, we can’t wait to put it to actual use and help solve the most significant issues in different cities all around the World. If you’re interested in our solution, we’d be happy to discuss it further. You can contact us by using the form below.
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