OTS in collaboration with OTE Group (the largest telecommunications provider in the Greek market), Cisco and Kafkas, is actively participating in the implementation of the first Greek Smart Cities pilot, in the Municipality of Chalkida. The project is comprised of a smart parking and a smart lighting solution, which are supported by a single smart city platform and is estimated to be completed on the first quarter of 2017. The aim of the project is to demonstrate in practice, to city authorities and residents, the benefits from the adoption of smart technologies in everyday living.

With Regards to Smart Parking, a series of sensors will be installed in the city center, in designated parking spaces. The drivers, with the utilization of a mobile application developed by OTS will be informed in real time, not only on the number of available parking spaces in a chosen area, but also on the fastest available route in order to arrive in a pre-defined parking space. In case the selected parking slot is occupied by another vehicle upon arrival, the driver will be automatically redirected to the nearest available space. Sensors will be also utilized in certain areas of the city, to prevent unauthorized parking. The municipal authority, through a management tool will effectively monitor the entire infrastructure, all the designated parking spaces and all the areas that sensors are used to prevent parking violations. The application of the smart parking solution is expected to significantly reduce the time of finding a parking space, to contribute in traffic decongestion and consequently reduce the emission of pollutants from vehicles in the city center.

In the Smart Lighting solution implemented by Kafkas, LED intelligent lighting systems will be installed, having the capability to adapt in real time at different illumination intensities, depending on season and time of day. Through a software platform the municipal authority will be able to manage the lighting system, monitor the status of luminaires and intervene when necessary. A significant reduction of power consumption is expected, since it is estimated that LED lighting technology bodies lead to more than 60% in power savings.

The data produced by both smart city applications will be handled by the network infrastructure set up by OTE Group and will be forwarded to OTE’s cloud infrastructure. Through that environment, Cisco’s Smart & Connected Digital management platform will utilize the data to offer interaction of applied solutions, consolidated display of results and joint management of generated data.