This week’s Smart City roundup features a fresh initiative to connect infrastructures to the Internet, new opportunities for the energy sector and smart parking for truck drivers expands to Tennessee.

Aclara’s Metrum LTE

Aclara Technologies LLC recently unveiled Metrum LTE, the company’s latest addition to a line of products designed to bring cellular connectivity to infrastructures such as meters and other utility devices. The technology is built on 4G LTE that leverages existing infrastructure investments to supply high-speed, secure and private networks using their own public key infrastructures.

Metrum LTE also allows direct communication between residential and commercial meters, aside from SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) devices.

“The launch of Metrum LTE continues our introduction of technology advancements to enable a true smart infrastructure environment for utilities around the country, and allows our customers to extend the value of their infrastructure investments,” said Aclara President and CEO Allan Connolly.

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AT&T and GE team up for IIoT

AT&T Corp. and GE Co. are expanding their global partnership as the two tech behemoths are creating the next generation smart energy solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This effort is expected to help improve how the energy industry works.

“Our innovations are resulting in a host of new applications, from smart grid solutions to machine-to-machine communications,” said John Lavelle, vice president, GE Digital Energy. “By aligning GE’s leadership in secure wireless technology and utility software solutions with AT&T’s extensive connectivity, we’re propelling our shared vision for a more cohesive energy network. In short, we are connecting brilliant machines to the Industrial internet.”

The two companies aim to simply asset connectivity for the grid by combining advanced solutions such as AT&T’s IoT infrastructure and GE’s Grid IQ or Predix.

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Truck drivers get reprieve with SmartPark in Tennessee

SmartPark is expanding its operations to Interstate 75 in Tennessee to provide truck drivers an easy way of knowing which rest stops have free parking spaces.

In Massachusetts, home of the original SmartPark system, the service depends on video imaging and magnetometer readings to give truck drivers information about free parking spaces. But in Tennessee, SmartPark is testing new technologies to give more accurate and real-time readings such as Doppler radar and laser scanning technologies. SmartPark will also be testing and adding new features in the next few months.