Over the last ten years, we have witnessed a lot of hype building around the concept of smart cities, and finally the sensors, ubiquitous connectivity, cloud and data analytics capabilities and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms exist to make this pipedream a reality.
Countries around the world have been racing to get there first, testing smart city systems in areas such as building management, transport and energy to be able to call their city one of the first truly smart cities. Their approaches have differed considerably too. In emerging markets such as India, a smart city can be built practically out of nothing in greenfield sites, whereas in developed economies such as in Europe, a smart city has to be built around existing infrastructure in brownfield sites and adapted to legacy systems, which can be more challenging.
Indian smart cities – and villages
One emerging market that has recently taken the lead in smart cities development is India, where Kochi (Kerala), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Bhubaneswar (Odisha) recently unveiled their ambitions for a smarter future for the benefit of city dwellers, businesses and society as a whole. A smart city project that is already underway is in the western state of Gujarat, near Ahmedabad, called Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT). It is looking to attract trillions of dollars of investment with the aim of becoming not only the country’s first fully-fledged smart city, but also a rival for Hong Kong, London, New York City and Singapore as a major global financial services centre. The Bombay Stock Exchange has already set up an international exchange in GIFT, and the data centre and connectivity infrastructure to underpin the smart systems of the city is being deployed as we speak.
An area where smart cities could make a huge difference in a country like India is urbanisation, which manifests itself on a daily basis as electricity shortages and traffic jams, for example. Indian smart city projects aim to tackle the challenges associated with explosive urbanisation by harnessing the power of networked IT and IoT systems spanning traffic control, parking, communication, energy management and much more.
What’s particularly fascinating is that India’s smart ambitions aren’t confined to cities only: the state of Rajasthan has plans to develop more than 3,000 smart villages, with connected utility systems, including access to clean drinking water, more wide-spread Wi-Fi connectivity, e-libraries, smart street lights and e-health facilities.
The smart city race is on in Europe
In Germany, the focus for smart cities is on enhanced urban transport networks, water supply and waste disposal facilities, and more efficient lighting and heating systems for buildings. Additionally, city planners are exploring the potential of smart systems to enable more interactive and responsive city administration, the development of safer public spaces, and meeting the needs of an ageing population. And, the country is ahead of many others, having launched in 2011 the well-known Morgenstadtinitiative to support upcoming smart city projects in Cologne, Hamburg and Munich. Of these, Cologne’s smart city stands out for me – because it started in a public housing area built in the 1950s. Dewog-Siedlung and Stegerwald-Siedlung areas are now becoming equipped with interconnected e-bikes, an electric car sharing system, energy supply via the Internet, state-of-the-art photovoltaic power systems and cutting-edge communication technologies.
In the UK too, Bristol, Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Cambridge are building their own smart cities. Bristol, for example, plans to solve problems such as air pollution and assisted living for the elderly as part of the smart city agenda. Testing with machine-to-machine interaction is taking place too, with companies developing wireless links that enable driverless cars to communicate with smart city infrastructure and to even bring people new entertainment experiences with sensing and video processing capabilities.
Finally, my home town of Singapore is adopting perhaps the most ambitious data gathering and analysis effort ever seen in a smart city, using sensors and cameras spread across the city-state to monitor everything such as crowd density and traffic flows. The ultimate goal is to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and prepare emergency services in the event of natural disasters.
As more countries continue to adopt a smart city infrastructure, the hype will become a more significant reality. However, the extent of these possibilities will rely on some critical foundations.
Looking at the examples of smart cities from around the world, it became amply clear that the possibilities are boundless. However, the opportunities are dependent on some crucial elements including the connectivity underpinning the Internet of Things, and cloud infrastructure.
In India, these critical foundations are being built with the creation of the world’s largest IoT network, using LoRa Low Power WAN technology. The first phase of the roll-out targets Tier 1, 2, 3 and 4 cities in India, touching over 400 million people. Alongside successful field trials in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, there are also 35 proof-of-concept applications being trialled at present. This IoT network will have unprecedented reach and signal strength, enabling communications up to 50 metres underground. This makes it suitable for use in metro stations and car parks, and through half a dozen walls inside buildings. The network is a collaborative effort by us and our partners such as HPE, harnessing our collective connectivity and IoT platform capabilities to pave the way for new smart buildings and transport systems, utility, health and security services.
For the roll-out of new IoT services, a right type of IoT platform is crucial. Given that this is still a nascent market, a fragmented ecosystem is developing around IoT, with a broad set of requirements including devices, BSS/OSS, connectivity, analytics, applications and related services. Ultimately however, when any business chooses its own IoT platform, it is important to ensure that it has not only the technical capabilities to enable the adoption IoT with minimal CAPEX and with maximum agility and reach, but also the business capabilities that allow the generation of new revenues from IoT services. Through a cloud-based IoT platform and global ubiquitous connectivity, any business with ambitions for smart city applications can gain full control and visibility over new IoT-enabled services.
Securing a hyper-connected city
Whenever any new connected technology becomes mainstream, there are concerns around the security vulnerabilities that these devices might entail. Connecting hundreds of thousands of IoT devices in a smart city represents challenges in terms of network security, as every device is a potential vulnerability which can be used cyber criminals to stage an attack such as DDoS. This can have potentially disastrous consequences, bringing the whole city to standstill.
While DDoS protection capabilities exist to protect all IoT applications, it is also critical that any new smart city systems are built from scratch with security at the core, and updated constantly to keep up with cyber criminals’ efforts to stage attacks. Still, the more super-connected cities become, the more vulnerabilities they will have: hyper-connected systems, whereby each system is reliant on others, makes cities more susceptible to single points of failure. That is why close collaboration between governments and private sector organisations around IT and network security is paramount to safeguard hyper-connected smart cities today and in the future. This includes common procedures, such as using highly secure and reliable enterprise-grade private or hybrid networks instead of the public Internet for many IoT applications.
So, what started out as a pipedream, is finally seeing the light of day around the world, with analysts at IHS projecting that there will be at least 88 smart cities globally by 2025 – up from just 21 in 2013. Whether new greenfield developments in emerging markets, or brownfield sites in Europe, all these smart cities will be built on the foundations of state-of-the-art, superfast connectivity and cloud infrastructure. These foundations will underpin the IoT-enabled applications of a smart city, paving the way for high-tech innovation, bringing new opportunities to businesses and ultimately tremendously improving the lives of everyone.
By Anthony Bartolo, President of Mobility and Collaboration Enablement, Tata Communications
