The rise of smart cities is gaining momentum as governments worldwide persist in their quest for inventive remedies to address the complexities of urbanization. The fundamental objective of a smart city is to harness digital technologies, such as private 5G networks, and data analytics, thereby augmenting the well-being of its residents, optimizing service efficiency, and fostering sustainable development.
Smart cities need to accommodate a vast array of use cases with diverse performance requirements covering throughput, latency, reliability, and mobility. Wireless video surveillance, for example, processes enormous volumes of data. By contrast, remote control of drones for inspection of city infrastructure needs low latency communications. The demands on network capacity vary with applications generating data from the Internet of Things, traffic updates, and more. Per the GSMA, smart cities are one of the leading verticals when looking at the number of deployed private 4G and 5G networks.
Smart city private networks offer several advantages over public networks, such as greater reliability and security, better network infrastructure control, more data usage flexibility, higher bandwidth for high-performance applications, programmability, modularity, and customization. They need these features to adapt to the variability of the applications, to be able to scale as demand fluctuates, and to expand coverage as adoption spans across communities. Private 4G/5G mobile networks provide the control to tailor wireless networks to meet emerging smart city needs.
Private mobile networks ensure robust security by restricting device access with automated SIM card identification and authorization. Security policies segment users by their roles and responsibilities with corresponding access to data and networks. Centralized monitoring of the citywide networks helps to enforce policies for consistent quality of service and differentiate it for the needs of users and applications.
Creating a connected fabric of citywide information system
In their early stages, city information systems and smart city networks addressed individual use cases, communities, and domains. As a result, they used diverse formats and fragmented networks, losing sight of the need for cohesive solutions for neighborhoods as well as citywide. For example, it was nearly impossible to map traffic flows visually across a city to identify choke points quickly. Increasingly, inexpensive cameras are placed at traffic junctions, and video footage flows rapidly over high-speed and high bandwidth 4G/5G cellular networks to a raft of computer vision-powered video analytics applications. These applications process video streams and other intelligence gathered from the network to correlate traffic flows with locations to identify and visualize the choke points. These video applications are also used to relieve congestion by directing drivers directly to empty parking spaces, saving the traffic generated by needlessly circling in search of them, or redirecting traffic to alternative routes.
Sensing devices keep citizens safe from adverse events
Devices interconnected for monitoring smart city grids benefit citizens as they afford instant responses to adverse events. For example, Chattanooga, sometimes called “Gig City” for its widespread, high-speed broadband, has been able to reduce the duration of outages of power supply “…by over 50% during a severe windstorm and saves the utility $1.4 million in operational costs for just one storm.” The responses to adverse events are faster because the monitoring devices detect and diagnose faults in equipment that cause breakdowns. They pinpoint the affected transformers based on devices sensing their state of health.
Increasingly, smart city utilities deploy private networks to monitor their operations. They source data from sensors to measure pressure, flow, voltage, and more, which helps with diagnostics for anticipating failures and providing early responses. The damage from the stress caused by an adverse event is minimized by quickly identifying the location of a fault and isolating it to prevent any of its ripple effects. The intelligence gathered from sensors and remote-control devices mitigates the risks of failures. In emergencies, cities also use private networks to facilitate communications among first responders better and provide real-time data on the situation.
Narrowing the digital divide with municipality networks
Municipalities are extracting more value from their existing networks by bridging the digital divide in urban areas. They achieve this by taking advantage of the expanded coverage that exists with CBRS-based private networks in underserved areas. Additionally, schools are leveraging their installed enterprise IT systems to keep costs low.
Unlike Wi-Fi, a single private network meets the needs of students in low-income communities for connectivity not only in schools but often in their homes and in school buses without adding to their personal expenses. Low-income students access remote education in their homes without suffering sub-par connections at public Wi-Fi hot spots. Schools also use private cellular networks to support e-learning platforms, online resources, and virtual classrooms, allowing students and teachers to access educational content and collaborate in real time.
Reaching out to citizens to deliver services
Smart city networks are expanding coverage by closing connectivity gaps, often including small cell networks at the edge, to provide services such as pollution and allergen monitoring, crime detection, and energy management, such as reducing street lighting costs by dimming them when pedestrian traffic is low. They are using the existing infrastructure of fiber networks and electric poles to install small cells and interconnect them with private mobile networks. Sensor data alerts law enforcement when gunshots are heard or when pollutants rise to unhealthy levels. Municipalities also receive feedback on the quality of smart city services with rich media, such as images and video footage, to inform them about problems, such as potholes on the road, which are otherwise unnoticed. Small cell networks underpin edge networks in local regions.
Private network use cases in smart cities
A few examples of private cellular networks seen in cities around the world include:
- Tampere, Finland, has implemented a wireless connectivity system to improve the quality of life for its residents. The system leverages LED lighting fixtures and wireless controls to provide more efficient energy usage and better lighting conditions throughout the city.
- In the U.S., Las Vegas is deploying the country’s largest private 5G network. The network consists of multiple layers of connectivity, including cellular, Wi-Fi, and private networks, which work together to support various innovative city applications, including traffic management, public safety, and environmental monitoring.
- Ban Chang, in Thailand, is implementing a private 5G network for a new smart city development. The system will utilize open radio access network (O-RAN) technology, allowing for greater flexibility and customization than traditional network architectures.
- Peachtree Corners, Georgia, in the U.S., is deploying a private 5G network across a 500-acre technology park. It will enable a range of applications, including IoT sensors, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.
- Bahrain is deploying a private LTE network across the kingdom’s power and water plants. The network will connect its critical infrastructure and enable various smart applications, including real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and energy management.
- Tucson, Arizona, in the U.S., deployed a private LTE network running on the CBRS band to provide reliable and secure connectivity for the city’s critical services, such as public safety and transportation. Tucson plans to optimize the management of its smart city initiatives and services, including traffic management, intelligent street lighting, and improving emergency response times.
Conclusion
The number of smart cities is accelerating rapidly, and the use cases are expanding far beyond anyone’s initial thoughts. They now include tasks such as waste management processes, with real-time data on trash bin capacity provided in real-time, and tourism initiatives, such as location-based services, which offer city guests virtual guides and augmented reality experiences. Private networks will play an increasingly important role in meeting the modern and sustainable city’s demands, helping them realize their full potential.
