The ambitious smart cities programme announced by the government will transform the way cities will look and function in the future. With an initial investment of Rs 70.6 billion, the government has envisaged the creation of 100 such smart cities in the country in the coming years. The programme will leverage communications and IT to bring in efficiency in the day-to-day operations of the city population and is thus being looked at as the next big opportunity in the Indian telecom space.

Through smart cities, the government intends to tap the potential of a seamlessly connected environment for the implementation of its vision of good and efficient governance. To this end, it is planning to connect the major systems running in a city through a network with facilities such as uninterrupted power supply, clean water supply, delivery of public services through online portals, and effective public transportation.

What is a smart city?

The concept of a smart city is similar to that of an automated manufacturing floor where different functions are carried on by different machines in a synchronised manner to increase productivity and reduce transitional leakages in the process. Since a city is larger in area and more complex in its structure, and involves a plethora of services ranging from waste management to transportation and energy distribution to banking services, the extent of interconnectivity required between the various applications and machines will be greater. In order to connect various functionalities in a smart city and achieve interaction amongst humans, between humans and machines, and amongst machines, telecom systems will play a crucial role in infrastructure development.

To begin with, the infrastructure required for a smart city will include a planned blueprint with the latest IT tools, keeping in mind the future population of a city and its needs. Prior planning becomes important owing to the fact that the migration of the masses from rural areas to urban centres will overburden the existing resources in these developed regions, leading to difficulty in the overall management of resources. Once the basic infrastructure has been set up, the various domains of a smart city will have to be developed and interconnected for efficient results. These include energy and water (smart grids and meters), waste (vehicle tracking), telecom (internet of things [IoT] and machine-to-machine [M2M] communications), disaster management (control rooms and early warning systems), transport (automatic traffic management), safety and law and order (surveillance cameras), health care (mHealth), and education (virtual classrooms). To achieve this, smart cities will need massive telecom infrastructure and cloud and data centre frameworks for the quick deployment of information and communications technology (ICT) components in various domains.

Telecom requirements for smart cities

Emphasising the key role played by telecom and IT in the development of a smart city, the European Parliament defines a smart city as a “city seeking to address public issues through ICT-based solutions through a multi-stakeholder, municipally based partnership”. Undoubtedly, telecom will play an indispensable role in transforming a city into a smart one as these cities would require high speed and high capacity communication networks for transportation, security and energy verticals. A well-established telecom infrastructure is needed for the development of a smart city.

Applications and technologies such as location-based services, mobility, analytics, cloud computing, advanced metering, near field communication, big data, IoT and M2M communications, microgrids and augmented reality will be essential tools for setting up an interconnected smart city...

• M2M communications: Through M2M technology, data can be automatically collected and transmitted from various sensors through a network module. With specific gateways, the data can be decoded, which can further be used by analysts for the automation of machines. However, M2M communications are vertical in nature and focus on specific business processes. Therefore, to create a smart city, various operations must be correlated to achieve higher productiv-ity and efficient outcomes.
• IoT: IoT offers a horizontal view, integrating different industry verticals into one process. It will form the basis of smart cities as the technology facilitates the interconnection of a large number of machines, devices, sensors and actuators with each other and with other higher-level systems including the cloud.
• Cloud services: With the help of the cloud, domain-specific applications and services can be scaled up without investing more in the infrastructure. Therefore, the elasticity of cloud resource provisioning can help the virtual verticals manage fluctuating user demands. A smart city will require a cloud-based service delivery platform that integrates smart devices and infrastructure, and processes data from a large amount of scattered data sources in real time.

Players in the market

With connectivity and data transmission expected to play a key role in smart cities, communication service providers are likely to invest heavily in their networks to manage the smart devices in a smart city.

By 2023, the smart city technology market is expected to be worth more than $27 billion annually and will be characterised by a diverse range of suppliers spanning multiple industry verticals. Since the announcement of the smart city initiative in India, many vendors have been showcasing their offerings to tap the market opportunity. Ericsson was among the first global vendors to explore potential opportunities for leveraging smart metering, public safety and remote health monitoring services in India. Many international telecom solution providers like Cisco and IBM have also been showcasing how connected systems of education, health care, smart buildings, transport and smart parking can transform the way communities are designed to ensure economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Among telecom operators, Airtel is currently working with three electricity boards in the country on smart metering solutions. In addition, it recently collaborated with the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation to deploy a satellite-based vehicle tracking system and fuel monitoring system for the organisation. Also, Russia-based Sistema JSFC is planning to develop smart cities in India along the lines of projects it has implemented in its home country.

International experience

In India, the concept of smart cities has come late as compared to other countries across the globe. Many global cities have either deployed some part of IoT in their working or are planning to do so in the near future. Deutsche Telekom has ann-ounced a smart city pilot project in Pisa, Italy. Under the project, the operator will integrate parking spaces in Piazza Carrara with a sensor-based parking management system. This would ensure a better flow of traffic, reduced CO2 emissions, smart mobility and ample parking space.

In Glasgow, as part of a £24 million project, the government is planning to put sensors on street lights and traffic lights and integrate them with the existing CCTV system in the city in order to know when exactly the bulbs need to be replaced. The sensors will also allow the officials to know when the streets are empty so that the lights can be turned off in order to save energy. In another project, Boston University has deployed BigBelly, a solar-powered trash receptacle and trash compactor which alerts the sanitation crew when the can is full.

Challenges and the way forward

Modernising cities into smart cities will require meticulous planning, effective capital disbursement and large investment in infrastructure. However, leveraging technology to this end will have intrinsic drawbacks, including a massive amount of data and its security.

Another challenge in the development of a smart city relates to the standardisation of various smart devices and platforms provided by different vendors. For instance in India, the transformation of old infrastructure into a smart and well-connected one with standardised components, particularly in greenfield projects, is a big challenge.

While it will take some time to develop fully smart cities in India, small segments can be implemented in a short span of time. Going forward, the development of fully smart cities will require a pragmatic approach to technological development, and ICT will play a major role as an instrument for sustainable development.