ASEAN countries need smart city technologies desperately to bring a semblance of order to the menagerie of their booming cities. So, unsurprisingly, they are investing aggressively in smart city technologies.
According to estimates of the investment bank, UBS, ASEAN countries will invest USD 800bn by 2025, about 40% of global smart city spending. China will contribute the majority of the investment at USD 320bn. PwC estimated that of the 88 smart cities expected to thrive by 2025, 32 would be in Asia-Pacific compared to 31 in Europe and the Middle East.
Leading in smart city innovation
Singapore ranks as the top smart city in the world according to the smart city index created by IMD and allocated a billion dollars in the SMART NATION city-state. Additionally, it provides leadership for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-wide initiative, ASCN (ASEAN Smart Cities Network), for developing 26 pilots in smart cities across the region and shares its expertise with others aspiring to go the same path.
Regional needs for smart cities
Asian countries have compelling reasons to innovate for smart city development and have in several cases. In a region with 50% of the world’s population with only 30 percent of its landmass, it has more than its share of typical metropolis problems. Pollution (99 of the most polluted cities), energy usage (smart buildings consume 90 percent of the energy compared to 40 percent elsewhere), garbage disposal, and natural disaster risk (40 percent plus) are severe in Asia.
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is widespread across the region, with generational mass migration from rural areas to urban areas: it has six of the ten most congested cities globally. Alibaba’s City Brain, an AI-powered intelligent traffic management system in Asia, is already deployed in 23 cities in China and Malaysia to relieve the congestion. The platform coordinates more than 1,000 road signals around an urban area to prevent or ease gridlock. For example, Hangzhou, a metropolis of 7 million people, was once ranked fifth among China’s most congested cities but has now dropped to 57th on the list.
Autonomous cars are another way Asian smart cities are looking to reduce vehicle traffic in their cities. Sejong, a Korean city and an early pioneer of private networks, is spearheading autonomous vehicle development. Security is one of the first concerns with autonomous vehicles given the volume of data; Sejong has created a city-wide blockchain that securely transfers V2X data.
Emergency response
For emergency response, Nokia has built a private mobile network, with a drone alert system, for the Sendai coastal areas in Japan, which was devastated by a tsunami. Speakers mounted on the drone deliver recorded and real-time voice messages to sound alerts and guide evacuees to a safe area–customizing notifications for those at risk in specific neighborhoods by classifying data from sensors by location.
Deployments of ASEAN smart cities and private networks
Singapore
Singtel collaborates with Surbana Jurong to develop smart cities and intelligent buildings with 5G NSA and an increasingly 5G SA network. Singtel’s 5G Multi-access Edge Compute will boost applications development. Surbana Jurong’s P24K suite of facility management systems will bring a 5G-powered data aggregation and management platform for monitoring and tracking space, water, energy utilization, and indoor air quality from sensors to manage multiple operations. It will also include building surveillance to respond promptly to security events. In addition, Singtel provides a private network with its IoT Connect for the secure movement of data traffic.
Thailand
Ban Cbang in Thailand is collaborating with Mavenir to develop a 5G Open RAN network for both city applications and manufacturing, as is typical of most of Asia. Smart poles are affixed with ultra-high-definition cameras and digital signage to inform the public about public safety risks. They also have sensors to monitor for pollution and alert the Government for action.
The solution includes open APIs technology for integrating real-time diagnostics of traffic, public safety, digital signage, and environmental conditions. In addition, mmWave technology for multi-gigabit speeds, low latency, and reliability will serve the needs of thousands of IoT sensors, smart poles, drones, and other connected devices for real-time analysis and city management.
Japan
A greenfield deployment is Toyota’s factory town near Mount Fuji, Woven City, collaborating with Samsung, looking to commercialize a connected-car system to reduce congestion, using 5G communications. The city will have a lane for autonomous cars, guided by data from the IoT, that will run errands for citizens, such as picking garbage and reminding them about doctors’ appointments.
The autonomous car lane will draw on data from sensors and cameras scattered throughout roads, traffic lights and buildings, pedestrian traffic to create a digital “twin,” or mirror image, of the living city to help cars navigate safely. NTT will build the network; it recently launched a private network-as-a-service.
Malaysia
Malaysian city Petaling Jaya collaborates with Celcom Axiata, the largest private mobile network in the country, to use its 5G Intelligent City and Public Safety solution as part of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform. It will connect UHD (ultra high definition) cameras, including the city’s cameras deployed in high traffic and crowd areas. The videos are streamed live to Petaling Jaya Smart Centre over Celcom 5G network utilizing mmWave spectrum for traffic management with real-time monitoring such as traffic violations and vehicle identification.
South Korea
Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, relies on a network of intelligent poles to create services. These poles hear sounds in their vicinity, and an unusual one is an occasion for a CCTV camera to capture video footage to learn more to avoid a false alarm. In addition, during an abnormal event, the poles emit warning lights for people in the neighborhood to take action or receive help.
Flood prevention is another use case critical in the historical district, Cheonggyecheon, to reverse the population decline in the downtown area. Sensors monitor the water level when it rains to prevent a flood.
The South Korean Government is encouraging the growth of private networks to promote 5G and innovation in 55 of its cities. As a result, around 20 software developers and IT firms have expressed a desire to build 5G private networks.
Conclusions
Innovation in the cities of ASEAN certainly proves the adage that necessity is the mother of invention. Congested traffic, high population density, severe weather, and a desire for a better quality of life are motives for advancing innovation in the ASEAN region. Their experimentation with a wide range of use cases and network architectures will provide pointers to cities worldwide.
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