Compal Electronics will cooperate with InSynerger Technology, a startup developer of IoT-based smart solutions, to set up a network of 5G smart poles in Asia New Bay Area 5G AIoT Innovation Park in Kaohsiung City, southern Taiwan, in a bid to boost standardization of 5G smart poles, according to deputy director Irving Fan for Compal.

Since frequencies of 5G bands are higher than those of 4G ones, the effective transfer distance for 5G is much shorter than that for 4G and therefore the number of 5G cells is 4-5 times that of 4G cells to reach the same spatial coverage in a given area, Fan said.

Street lamps are widely and densely distributed and thus the best carriers of 5G cells, Fan noted. Therefore, installation of 5G cells onto street lamps becomes the main force pushing the development of 5G smart poles, Fan indicated.

With added sensors and/or cameras, street lamps are in transition of becoming smart poles characterized by connectivity, InSynerger manager Jason Liao said. However, because various sensors and/or cameras are added onto street lamps by different users, these users' investment in connectivity and power supply is often duplicated and there are problems with maintaining sensors and/or cameras on common smart poles, Liao noted.

It is a global trend that sensor/camera-added common smart poles will be increasingly replaced with integrated modular smart poles which are the direction of Compal's development of 5G smart poles, Fan said.

As the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is expected to specify standards for 5G smart poles in 2022, 5G smart poles in the future will be of three types: a pole without a box to hold sensors and cameras, a pole integrated with such a box, a pole with a separate box, Fan noted.

Being a member of the 5G Smart Pole Standard Promotion Alliance formed in March 2021, Compal hopes to develop systematized smart poles based on industry standards jointly set by MOEA and the alliance, Fan indicated. Such smart poles are a carrier used for smart management and application of various IoT-based functions including 5G cells, micro weather stations, sensors, cameras, smart displays and emergency relief, Fan noted.

A variety of functions entail the integration of various devices across different domains and this poses challenges to management and maintenance, Fan said.

To enable an analysis of data collected from various devices for cross-domain use, there must be common standards for collecting data and connecting data with a single platform for data exchange, Liao noted. Besides, platforms for consistent management will play an important role, Liao said.

Insynerger has developed a platform that can integrate connected devices of 500 categories, Liao noted. In the future, InSynerger will use the platform to provide data for large-size value-added service providers to undertake big data analysis as well as provide on-demand solutions for users without the in-house capability of developing applications, Liao indicated.

In the innovation park, Compal will combine 5G smart poles with O-RAN (open radio access network) base stations to provide an outdoor experimental field for 5G AI+IoT solutions.