The City of Ulm runs its smart city work through the Digitale Agenda team and the Ulm4CleverCity model project. Parking is one strand of it. In 2023 the city piloted Fleximodo in-ground sensors on its own LoRaWAN network and, in parallel, tested whether Permit Cards could check permit zones without cameras. In 2025 it moved on to a production installation with NB-IoT sensors and CityPortal.
At a glance
| Location | Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Sector | Municipal on-street parking, bought and run directly by the city |
| Products | IoT Parking Sensor Standard (in-ground), IoT Permit Card, IoT-HUB, CityPortal |
| Connectivity | LoRaWAN on the city's own network (pilot), BLE (Permit Cards), NB-IoT (production) |
| Scale | LoRaWAN pilot plus a 5-sensor, 5-card permit test (2023), NB-IoT production installation (2025) |
Why pilot on the city's own LoRaWAN network?
Because Ulm already had one. The city has run a municipal LoRaWAN network since 2016, used for flood monitoring, environmental sensing and tree moisture sensors. Adding parking sensors meant no new gateways and no third-party network. Data stayed on infrastructure the city controls, which matters for German public-sector data rules. IoT-HUB processed the sensor data and exposed it through an API.
Why test Permit Cards instead of cameras?
Ulm wanted to know not just whether a bay was occupied, but whether the car in it was allowed to be there: residents' zones, accessible bays, time-limited spaces. The usual answers are wardens checking windscreens or licence-plate cameras. Cameras in residential streets bring privacy impact assessments and public concern.
The city tested a camera-free route instead. Five in-ground sensors were paired one to one with five Permit Cards. Each card broadcasts a short-range Bluetooth Low Energy identity that the sensor in the bay reads. No images are captured, and each card can carry city branding such as the coat of arms. See parking enforcement for how this is used in practice.
Why NB-IoT for the production phase?
The production sensors, installed in 2025, use NB-IoT on a public cellular network instead of the city's LoRaWAN. The detection hardware stayed the same: magnetometer plus radar with automatic temperature compensation, which keeps readings stable through Ulm's cold winters and hot summers. CityPortal handles sensor mapping, the occupancy dashboard and API access, so the city keeps one platform view across both radio technologies.
For another German municipality on LoRaWAN, see Aalen.