Cisco and ELCIA join hands to develop “IoT Innovation Hub”

 The networking giant Cisco has entered into strategic alliance with the Electronics City Industries’ Association (ELCIA) to develop Asia’s first end-to-end “Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Hub” in Bangalore. Riding on India’s fast-growing Internet penetration, this collaboration will help establish the foundation for a new ecosystem to help Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) companies and other companies of electronic city engaged in IoT product development. ELCIA has been chosen for this ambitious project as it is the only brown field ESDM cluster in the country, which has received an in principal approval for a financial grant from the Government of India to spur innovation in product design and manufacturing.

As part of this effort, Cisco will help provide network infrastructure and expertise for testing and production of electronic product prototypes for an IoT enabled smart city environment.

Through the "Living Lab", ESDM start-ups and other electronic city companies can build solutions for City Infrastructure Management (CIM), including Smart Parking, Smart CCTV Surveillance, Smart Street Lighting, Smart Water Management/Leak Detection and Community Messaging. The project will utilize the Cisco Smart+ Connected City Wi-Fi solution that will help enable community Wi-Fi services and allow access to public utility offerings. ELCIA will also embed Cisco network equipment comprising of access points, routers, switches, and other required hardware and software applications that will be connected to the smart city’s fibre-optic backbone network. The first phase of this smart city project will be rolled out in Electronics City and will serve as a replicable model for the rest of Bangalore as well as other cities in India, across the region and other emerging markets. Participating companies would gain access to boot strap funding for their ventures under Cisco’s IoT Innovation Fund, provided there is a strong idea for new IoT product / application development with a commercially viable business case, as well as a chance to participate in the global Cisco IoT Challenge.

This project is being undertaken as part of the Cisco Smart+Connected Communities concept that places technology at the heart of economic development and better quality of life in modern cities. The focus is on using the network to deploy digitally-enabled transportation, healthcare, education, utilities, energy grid and real estate in cities.