Tata Communications is planning to build the world’s largest IoT network using the Universal IoT Platform developed by HPE.

The network will be based on LoRaWAN, a low power wide area network (LPWAN) standard endorsed by Cisco, IBM, Orange and ZTE, among others. It will become the first LoRaWAN deployment in India.

Gateway of India, Mumbai
Gateway of India, Mumbai – Thinkstock / Chidanand M

Smart India

Tata Communications is the world’s largest wholesale network carrier. It owns a 500,000km submarine cable network, a 210,000km terrestrial fiber network, and over a million square feet of data center space worldwide. Now, the company wants to build a separate network for ‘things’.

The grand aim of the upcoming IoT project is to optimize resource utilization in India, amidst concerns over the population rising faster than GDP.

Such a network would enable increasing numbers of connected devices, applications and services, from monitoring industry processes to providing data to increase efficiency of smart cities.

The LoRa standard, which HPE and Tata have adopted, stipulates that any object connected to a wireless network on a machine-to-machine basis must have low energy consumption, operate at low cost and integrate power efficiency; it must support bi-directional communication and contain embedded security and encryption to protect data and privacy.

The platform will be made available to 400 million people in its first phase, deployed across smart buildings, campuses, utilities and vehicle fleets. In addition trials in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, 35 proof-of-concept trials are underway across the network.

As part of the partnership, HPE will be dealing with an array of Tata Communications’ domestic and cross border IoT connectivity and management services, running applications such as those used in connected cars and transportation services.