ANALYSIS & OPINION SMART CITIES
Magic number
Ana Pesovic discusses the three core elements required in creating a smart city
F
or centuries, humanity has looked for new ways to build smarter cities; ways that improve city operations, grow the economy and create a better place for
people to work and live. From the aqueducts in Rome to the more recent technology innovations that help simplify the challenges of urban life, cities are, and have been, getting smarter throughout history. For every city, being smart can mean
something different. For instance, bigger cities need to figure out how to cope with growing populations. Today, almost 50 per cent of the global population lives in cities and every week, three million more people are moving into urban areas. Tis puts a lot of pressure on the authorities that need to find new ways to better organise the metropolitan space, deal with increasing traffic, manage employment demands and provide a smart, safe and sustainable environment for all residents. Rural towns, on the other hand, face a
different problem. Young people are moving away from these areas, choosing larger urban sprawls which offer better job opportunities and lifestyle. For these cities, the biggest challenge is to reverse the population flow and create interesting job opportunities by attracting investment. If this is not addressed, there is a risk that the city could see a population exodus and less income from taxes, all of which can lead to a faster city decline.
Three steps to smart Independent of a city’s size, challenges and ambitions, there are three core elements that any city needs: digital infrastructure, smart services and big data analytics.
34 FIBRE SYSTEMS Issue 20 • Summer 2018 Te first step for a smart city is to ensure
there is a digital infrastructure that will connect everyone to everything, everywhere. Residents, city workers, visitors, businesses, institutions, and sensors, even in places where there is typically no coverage like sewers and underground water pipes will all need to be connected. Tis also includes a robust public safety network that will ensure first responders can keep the city safe and manage situations, even if a disaster damages the telecommunication network. For instance, ensuring a portable wireless-based network solution can be rapidly established to enable first responders to communicate. To enable this massive connectivity, cities need a combination of wireless and fixed technologies that will deliver the best capacity and quality of service for each and every connection. Deploying smart city services on top of that
infrastructure is the second step. Sensors in streetlighting, for example, can offer a cheaper solution to keeping streets lit, with the lights only activated if someone walks or drives by. Traffic sensors ensure people can move comfortably around the city, redirecting drivers during congestion, and help to avoid incidents. Waste management can be more efficient by using sensors that can send a signal when the container is full. Te only limitation for smart city services is human imagination. However, the rapid increase in the number of sensors and services also brings higher complexity to operate them – especially if they come from different suppliers. Terefore, cities should consider unifying all smart services in a common operational centre to ensure simplicity and scalability. Finally, once everyone and everything is
connected, a rich pool of anonymised data will begin to form. Analyses of this huge amount of heterogenous data can further improve city services or provide upsell opportunities. For example, the network data can tell us a lot about the patterns of peoples’ movement, which can help transportation companies
For many cities, modern fibre technology will be the ideal choice for fixed networks, bringing high capacity and long-term value
identify if there is a need for a new bus stop, redirect cars in the event of traffic jams or help investors to decide the best place to build a shopping mall. Te data could also be used for advertising or for creating apps that will guide tourists to create a better experience, such as telling them which museum has the longest queueing time and propose a new attraction instead. With the advances in models to analyse anonymized big data, cities will increasingly rely on it to respond to changing city dynamics and fuel further growth in faster and more intelligent ways.
Getting the foundations right While all three elements in creating smarter, more prosperous cities are important, the first – the infrastructure, or the foundation on which a smart city can be built – is perhaps the most crucial. It is the part that requires the most investment and time to implement, but once deployed it will not be subject to frequent changes; unlike services and applications, where new versions emerge more frequently.
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