13th September, 2018

Limerick Municipal Data Network

Share

Limerick Municipal Data Network

Limerick

Digital and online services and communications are impossible to enable without the infrastructure in place to make it fast and efficient. Limerick City and County council has developed a fibre network that acts as a high-speed, high-capacity communication backbone between various districts in Limerick City. It connects council offices, traffic controllers, variable messaging systems, public displays, public WiFi access points, CCTV, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices like smart metres and sensors.

The project used existing city assets i.e. ducts, street cabinets to develop and expand the network as well as upgrading older analogue technology and installing a dedicated substructure for Wi-Fi and IoT pilots in key areas.

The impact is substantial. Works increased speed and reliability of city communications infrastructure and created opportunities for useful IoT devices like pedestrian counters, CCTV and traffic monitoring sensors. It enables cost sharing of communications so more devices and locations can connect up and reduces potential loss of information through improved backup capacity.

Thankfully, the only challenge was identifying and maintaining a register of city assets which required interviews with engineers, technicians and contractors to obtain and aggregate information. The Digital Strategy Department worked closely with other council departments including ICT, Traffic Management and Community Support Services to develop a proposal to other agencies for co-creating this network and sharing costs.

It is anticipated that this network will expand further as more streets are upgraded i.e. the main artery of O’Connell Street, and that governance and operational processes will be streamlined and improved in time.

The establishment and ongoing development of the Municipal Data Network demonstrates how to maximise the untapped potential of the city’s existing infrastructure assets in order to create new data communications capabilities for Limerick.

Share

Filter by:

Related Projects

Cork City Council Retrofitting for Sustainable Smart Social Housing

Cork

Cork City Council’s Housing Directorate is implementing a number of smart retrofitting projects across a portion of its 10,500 social houses. These projects a...

Smart ‘City Trees’ installed to help tackle pollution

Cork

Five striking high-tech ‘CityTrees’ have been installed in Cork city centre as part of Cork City Council's Air Quality Strategy and as a site-specific solut...

Cork City Council Launches Innovative Air Quality Strategy

Cork

Cork City Council is the first local authority in Ireland to produce an Air Quality Strategy. This strategy follows on from the delivery of a high-level air qua...