Future proofing smart city data communication infrastrucure

Low power 5G networks and LPWAN can be good candidates as well. In the mean time LTE-M could be used in the transition/migration period.

From a systems engineering standpoint, I would focus on the protocol and then let the technology solve the speed and volume issues.

When you implement the control network, plan to change the actual media and include node points for effective use of wireless repeaters.

Just make sure that whichever technology is used is plug and play as the technology changes.

Remember, there will never be a "Perfect" solution.  The best you can hope for is a migratable implementation.

DAB

I looked over some research and white papers. The following condenses what vendors are discussing about Smart City infrastructure:

Cisco doesn’t had clarity or a final word on the subject when it says in its “The Internet of Everything for Cities,” The communication media itself can be fairly diverse (wireless Internet connection, radio frequency, GPRS, 4G/LTE, power line communication, and IP).”

Industry researcher IDC cites in its white paper called “Smart Cities and the Internet of Everything:  The Foundation for Delivering Next-Generation Citizen Services,” a plan by the city of Barcelona for its smart city. Barcelona planned that “the backbone for this is a fiber-optic and WiFi network as the platform to improve service delivery.” This paper is 3 years old, however.

The City of San Jose uses the Starfish network, which is the Sliver Spring Network. I looked it up, Silver Spring says this: "Cellular providers like to brag about how great their coverage is today.  However, cellular is still a tower-based solution, which requires point-to-point connections from expensive cell towers. The price of monthly cellular charges has fallen over the last few years, but operators still have to pay a substantial bill every month for a cellular-only solution for millions of devices. Silver Spring provides a mesh-based solution that is backhaul agnostic.  Our Access Points support Ethernet and cellular backhaul, but network operators can also connect to Wi-Fi, satellite, WiMAX, fiber, or other backhaul methods from the Access Point.  Our Access Points can backhaul traffic from up to 5,000 devices, so monthly OPEX costs are greatly reduced. You can’t see around a corner with a tower-based solution, but you can mesh around a corner.  Our customers deploy mesh networks and dictate the coverage they need for their applications using our self-forming and self-healing mesh."

Randall

I would hope they use fibre and at the same time encourage fibre to the home. It is much healthier and has so much more scalability, but since short term costs often sway decisions it will likely end up to be a kludge of all technologies as different corporate and political interests get involved.

Thanks Randall, your comments on what is happening in Chicago provide valuable perspective.

I have noticed a recent uptick in municipal interest in smart city technology (since the start of 2016) through my work in a western Canadian smart city alliance.

I agree that IoT/Smart City technologies are in their infancy and that infancy will cause a lot of churn.  This is not what municipal leaders want to hear.  They want to know there are worked out solutions available that they can pour tax payer money into and allow them to declare their cities "smart".  The market will decide what technologies are adopted, but the market in this case is municipalities.  This is not like the consumer market that decided VHS would win out over Betamax.  The market for smart city infrastructure consists of city planners, CTOs, CIOs, and ultimately, city councils that vote on budgets.  Supply chain stability will be an important consideration in selecting vendors.

Mark

I went to an event last night with a panel discussion featuring Techstars, a startup accelerator, GE ventures, and Bosch's new ventures and the founder of Wearables start up Jiobit.. There were over 100 attending here in Chicago.

An interesting discussion that is relevant to this thread on Smart City infrastructure...

Nearly all the questions asked after the panel discussion were on Smart City. I didn't realize myself how much this was of interest to the area. I would have thought industrial IoT would be front and center. (However, they did mention that one third of all capital investment dollars are going into industrial IoT

Anyway, someone asked a question about infrastructure for Smart City's to the panel's experts. The question suggested LoRa and Sig Fox.

None on the panel would touch it. The subject was too complicated to answer.

Then the Director of Techstars offered this: "the entrepreneurs will decide." And the other panelists and concurred said it will be open source...there will be compromises...but the market will decide."

The founder of Jiobit offered one more thing that is a useful way to consider the question of any technology for smart cities: whatever technology or chipsets an entrepreneur uses, it will have to be from vendors who will be around for at least 4 to 5 years. Right now, Iot is in its infancy. Cpmpanies come and go and get rolled up and bought out. There's too much change going on. Until there is a shake-out, no one knows what will truly happen.

Randall

DAB wrote:

 

No matter which technology you choose, there is a high probability of a better technology coming out with a few years.

 

 

Oh so true.  I wonder what the ultimate impact will be of low Earth orbiting satellite networks that are about to populate our skies: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/spacex-founder-files-with-government-to-provide-internet-service-from-sp…   and   OneWeb Could Make 100% Broadband Coverage to Remote Canadian Communities Available and Affordable - SpaceRef Canada .

A potential advantage of LEO satellite networks is that the satellites deorbit on a regular basis and need to be replaced with the latest technology.  Speeds and bandwidth could increase over time as new launches replace deorbited satellites with improved technology.

Mark

Here's a brief on a smart parking system. "...sensors are laid down on the parking spots to detect car presence and RFID readers are embedded into parking gates to identify cars and help in the billing of the smart parking."

DAB,

Glad you said, "...designed a lab for a network only to have the technology change to fiber optics before we could implement the project."

That crossed my mind, but the prospect of Chicago's streets being torn up and the hassles associated with it (gridlock and parking) Mark's Blog was more on my mind.

Whatever is the optimal infrastructure, it has to take into account time, emerging technologies, cost and challenges of implementation.

Randall

This is one of those issue that there is no good answer.

I remember when we designed a lab for a network only to have the technology change to fiber optics before we could implement the project.

No matter which technology you choose, there is a high probability of a better technology coming out with a few years.

So the best you can do is make sure you do a good traffic analysis and then add 100% growth.  Then pick the best cost answer for you implementation knowing that you can always change later as long as you keep your infrastructure compliant with current standards.

Welcome to the wonderful world of engineering.

DAB