The project developed in partnership with Olivetti further increases the security of infrastructures and enables the introduction of ground-breaking services.
TIM has launched a project for digitalisation of its fixed network infrastructure aimed at further strenthening security and, at the same time, enabling innovative features within the context of the Smart City. In particular, TIM has entrusted Olivetti, the Group's digital hub, with implementation of a technological renewal programme for its approximately 150,000 street cabinets providing connectivity distribution for its fixed network, including all fibre and copper architectures.
The aim of the project, named Smart Lock, is to reinforce further the security and efficiency of infrastructures by digitalising access systems to cabinets while updating their techno-functional features. In fact, the solution adopted involves the use of electronic locks managed by a remote platform, and the introduction of IT procedures, provided by apps, for authorising access by staff responsible for infrastructure maintenance. A crucial element of the project is the possibility of expanding the range of functionalities supported by the cabinets through integration of a wide variety of devices capable of interacting remotely with the management platform. The solution, in fact, envisages installation in each cabinet of a local control unit connected to Internet of Things sensors. These can be configured ad-hoc to meet specific needs and used for collecting and aggregating data useful to local government for the delivery of services under the Smart City umbrella. Typical devices for installation are, for example, cameras, environmental parameter detectors (smog, noise, electro-smog), wi-fi hot spots, mobility sensors, panels for information points and advertising. The local control unit, designed specifically to operate also in difficult environmental conditions and in unprotected environments such as on roadsides, collects the data detected by the sensors transmitting it to the central management platform. The data is stored and, after aggregation by type, made available in the form of reports and dashboards. Deployment is highly flexible supporting, therefore, many fields of application.
"The project represents a further step in the technological evolution of the TIM network. Not only does it increase further the efficiency of operational processes for activity management but also enables the development of IoT applications and the dissemination of Smart City solutions, creating benefits for local government, businesses and the public generally. TIM's roadside cabinets represent, in fact, a unique infrastructure in Italy, with an extremely capillary distribution in terms of numbers and reflecting population and housing unit distribution over the whole of Italy", affirms Carlo Filangieri, TIM Deputy COO.
"Olivetti’s expertise in Internet of Things combined with emerging technologies such as edge computing, analytics and machine learning mean that each cabinet can be transformed into an "IoT hub". Exploitation of sensors allows new business models and specific scenarios of interest to be developed ad-hoc: from air quality detection to crowd flow counting, from video surveillance to information exchange with driver-assisted vehicles. We are particularly proud of this ground-breaking project which represents the most numerically significant, large-scale, complex, IoT solution implemented end-to-end to this day," declares Ettore Spigno, Olivetti CEO.
