Smart sustainable cities need a telecommunication infrastructure that is stable [2] , secure [3], reliable [4] and interoperable [5] to support an enormous volume of ICT-based applications and services.
Recent developments in the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart grids and meters are driving and supporting the development of smart sustainable cities throughout the world.
IoT—referring to the network of rapidly growing computing devices with built-in sensors and software to connect with each other and share data—enables billions of devices and objects equipped with smart sensors to connect with each other, collect real-time information and send this data, via wireless communication, to centralized control systems. These, in turn, manage traffic, reduce energy usage and improve a wide range of urban operations and services.
AI allows extremely large data sets to be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, which are used to inform and enhance municipal decision-making.
Smart grids—referring to electricity supply networks that use digital communication technology to detect and react to local changes in usage—help to optimize energy use in cities. Smart meters and sensors, equipped with Internet Protocol addresses, can communicate information about the end-users´ energy use to the energy supplier, giving end-users more control over their consumption.
While 3G and 4G networks used by mobile phones today pose a number of problems in supporting the range of services required for smart sustainable cities applications, the development of 5G, referring to the fifth generation of mobile technologies, has the potential to reliably connect devices to the Internet and other devices, transport data much more quickly and process a high volume of data with minimal delay.
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