Internet Of Things And Smart Cities: A Comprehensive Overview

The Concept of Smart City and IoT

Discuss about the Concept of internet of things in association with the key development sectors. 

There have been exceptional changes and development across the world after the invention of information technology (IT) in all sectors of life virtually. The continual researches have resulted in the remarkable development along with creating a supporting environment in terms of production, functionality and effectiveness.  The current IT development which has taken the world community by storm is the internet of things (IoT). The use of IoT has become global project in realisation of creating smart cities.  The aim of this report is to discover the usage of IoT in the framework of smart city. The first segment of this report is going to make known idea of smart city and IoT along with their explanations. There are differfent phases of IoT application which has been successful in providing solution to the modern challenges of planning and security in smart cities. The IoT has ability to change the functioning of cities for various services. The main aim of report is to inspect the current overview of cities and how IoT can be helpful in refining service qualities in the cities to transform these in smart cities.

The concept of smart city varies from one city to another and same in case of country. There is universal definition of smart city.  The geographical boundaries decide what a smart city can be. A city can be smart which uses electronic data collection sensors to manage assets and resources efficiently. The smart city is a term taken to define the perspective of prompt progress of the urban areas and challenges causing economic development, organisation of resources and impact of environment due to increased population. The term IoT is used to define association of things where substances are linked and interacted with each other over the network. It incorporates information of communication technology and several physical devices associated to the network. It results in improving quality, enactment and interactivity of urban services to reduce costs and consumption of resources. The factors contributed to city in being smart are:

• The application of a extensive range of digital and electronic technology to the community and city.
• The application of information communication technology to uplift life and working environment of cities.
• The implementation of information communication technology within the government systems.
• The practices which bring the people and information community technology together to foster innovation and enhance knowledge.

A smart city makes use of information and communication technology to intensify operation efficiency and sharing information with people. It improves both quality of government policy and welfare of citizens. The emerging trends in smart city are computerisation, machine learning and internet of things (IoT). These trends are helpful in acceptance of smart city concept. Any area of city can be integrated into a smart city initiative. For instance, smart parking meter which uses an application to help drivers can find available parking spaces without wasting much time. The smart meters facilitate digital payment so that there will be no risk of facing short of coins for the meter. The smart traffic management can be used to monitor and investigate traffic flows in the transportation dome. It improves street lights to prevent roadways from becoming too crowded. It also ensures that public transportation meets demand of users. The smart transportation companies can manage services and fulfil need of riders in a real time. It improves productivity and satisfaction of riders. The sharing of vehicle are common services in smart city. It should be noted that energy conversation and efficiency are focuses of smart cities. The smart sensor can be used to enable smart streetlights dim when there are no cars or pedestrians. The smart grid technology is useful to improve operations, maintenance and supply of power and monitor energy outages. The smart city initiative also aims to monitor environmental concerns such as climate change and pollution. The smart technology is helpful in improving sanitation. It can be internet connected garbage sacks and fleet management systems for the waste elimination. The devices can be used to measure water constraints. It also guarantees the quality of consuming water with the proper removal of wastage and drainage at the back end. The smart city concept is being used to improve public safety from checking areas of high crime to improve emergency preparation with censors. The smart city technologies bring efficiency to the urban manufacturing and farming. It includes creation of jobs, energy efficiency and space management. The report is regarding the submission of various objects in the process of becoming cities smart on the endowment of resources. IoT has huge capability in many areas like industry and transport.

Contributing Factors to Smart Cities

The concept of smart city is a traditional model for the purpose of sustainability in the planning process and practice. The sustainability has been considered the leading cause to have various solutions in the planning process of smart cities. There is petition to provide explanations for the sake of mounting pressure on resources within the cities. There has been challenge which is faced by cities now a day is all about harmonising demand and supply. The cities need to initiate plans to certify fairness to various groups. It is almost the services provided to city occupants at many levels (Cocchia, 2014). The concept of smart city aims at developing solutions which can offer facility of pliability, self-sustaining and reliability among other ideas. The sustainability concept in cities is away from just tackling the natural resources. It is the chance of applying various features of the societies. The transport sector faces challenges due to time wasted by people on the road due to obstructed roads and increasing number of vehicles. There is a challenge on road networks and services provided by city. The complications faced by smart cities are inadequate management of resources which results from the inappropriate management of resources (Monzon, 2015). There are numerous challenges which are faced by cities along with their management and administration of the resources of city such as infrastructure and security to the city residents. The report further explores the concept of IoT in offering permanent solutions to the problems in smart cities.

The cities are economic centre of activities for people in many region or nations. It is the environment which can result expansion of greater opportunities for the citizens (Cocchia, 2014). However, the cities faces extensive and complex challenges which are problematic to solve have been formed. The difficulties in the form of number and grouping of population composite more on the trouble of users (Nam & Pardo, 2011). The cities have significant form inequalities. If the problems associated with cities are not directed properly then it can result in negative impacts than the positive aspects (Neirotti et al., 2014). The urban areas deal with the expansion of clients and supports economic activities and effectiveness of the lie. The technology expansion has stemmed in model of having a city which is ‘smart’. So ‘smart city’ concept is given importance for the sustainability of cities. This concept has advanced since it’s commencement from dealing specific and particular projects to the global strategy (Monzon, 2015). It has been also used as an instrument to implement solutions for addressing problems which are faced by cities. It is essential to acquire the complete assessment of the users so that smart cities can achieve with the incorporation of IoT.

Challenges Faced by Smart Cities

There is common understanding of smart cities term. The innovation within the city in terms of management, administration, services and infrastructure do not have general or particular definition. There are terms which can be used to describe term of smart cities (Neirotti et al. 2014). The concept of smart cities can be discovered by two concepts. The technology is used to answer the questions about smart cities. There can be vital aspects such as innovative way of management of city. The key terms used to describe cities are improving quality of ecosystem and functioning of cities. Various researchers have focussed more on the aspects of interconnection of city (Petrolo, Loscri & Mitton, 2014). It is essential to solve the problem by using technology which is associated with infrastructure, community and institutional phases of city. The smart city means that they have new approach to guide and tackle underlying challenges and issues. It affects quality of the delivery of service and wellbeing of key sectors that includes IT.

Figure1: The markets and stakeholders of Internet of Things (IoT)

The idea of smart city have been discovered by many writers and discussed in literature. There are various explanations given to define the term of ‘Smart cities’. The other term which have been used at the place of ‘Smart cities’ is ‘Digital city’.it can be seen from the figure 1 mentioned above, the concept of IoT is applicable to various sectors of production in the society as well as economy. As per Wanrmure and Dhanwade (2016), the Indian cities and cities around the globe are progressively moving to digital area. According to scholars, smart city is a term which is implemented for a city that is properly intended and has influence in carrying out tasks which are organised by information technology. The world is focussing on the internet of things which is an evolving technology in information technology. It is not enough to build a city in a planned manner. It is required to extend services through the IoT to achieve the smart cities. Wantmure and Dhanawade (2016), states that there are various challenges which are faced by the smart cities in India. The challenges can be explicit and implicit which acts as barriers to the implementation project of smart cities.  Unique model is used to build up a smart system comprising unique features. The logical design is a type of example required to offer results for the overall goals of project.

The Concept of Sustainability in Smart City Planning

Other than the Wantmure and Dhanawade (2016), other researchers like Chong and Sung (2015) concentrated on the aspects of smart city and discovered prediction of technology on the transportation system by having smart road observing scheme. It conducts research in the concern of welfare of roads in the world. They discovered the system for the managing roads with devices which can collect data on road about status. As per Jaradata and colleagues (2015), the internet of things has products like smart sensors which can be used to improve smart networks. The smart networks are home plans for the smart homes which preserves energy to a level to produce extra power in homes and provide it with national network (Jaradata et al., 2015). The commercial disposition of computer systems and devices to attain data on smart networks is expected to increase just because of the improved profits offered by information technology.

According to Ianuale et al (2015), defines smart city in the study conducted by them. They introduced a feature which diminishes several dimensions such as economic, political and technical among others and continued to change. It provides chances to modify the term smart city. Vilajosana et al (2013), claims that maximum businesses in the smart city are not able to maximise efficiency as they found it tough to take off and affect forecasts of the growth of smart city. The manipulation of big data by API has been associated to the deprived practice of corporations and businesses in the smart cities. The capability of smart city relies on the approval of ICT. The technology used by business enables the development and actualisation of smart cities (Vilajosana et al 2013). The IoT is an emerging technology trend which must be utilised in smart cities. The author explored that regulation of traffic systems is essential part of smart city. The smart cities have control on the energy network and waste management which depends on technology. This technology is stated as smart technology when it is used to improve collect and use data in an organisation. There is need to implement deploying technologies to understand needs of city. As the project discovers smart cities, there are explanations and concepts which are required to be extended on the topic of smart cities (Monzon, 2015).

Ahmed Banafa has reviewed the idea of internet of things in an attempt to address challenges in mainly three areas, technology, business and society. In the case of technological challenges there can be different forms by which concept can be challenged. These concepts are safety, compatibility, durability, connectivity, principles, actions and intelligent actions. The idea of IoT is realised from the technology when the smart city is considering the actualisation of IoT initiative. The performance level of the technology in internet of things cannot be underestimated for the smart cities. It is a standalone initiative in the project to address the executive, innovative and managerial aspects in any smart city. In the above-mentioned challenges the terms of technology should be properly addressed (Banafa, 2014).

The Importance of IoT in Smart City Development

The section segment to be addressed by Ahmed Banafa is the business which is based on technology should specify the use of internet of things. A new business needs an elaborate plan to invest in the business activities for the internet of things to thrive. It should be able to address the need and requirements of e-commerce and types of markets such as vertical, horizontal and consumers market (Banafa, 2014).

The methodology is used to define means by which researchers can conduct exercise. The methods used to analyse data and enable study comes along with the findings of study. In this study, two types of methodologies are applied which are mode of observation and questionnaires.

Observation

This method considers the physical observation by users, reviews of stakeholders and surveys taken into consideration in order to come up with the applicable data. The method assists the investigator to look at the way users interact with devices or substances in the smart city (Khan, et al.2012).

Questionnaires

The research has used questionnaires to describe designing a set of questions which are customised to meet requirement and expectations of study. The questionnaires are methods by which researchers and respondent gathers information for the analysis and presentation of the relevant information in the sector.

The methods mentioned above can be further analysed for the various components such as simplicity, proficiency, connectivity, extension to other applications, time saving, feasibility and commercialisation issues of study.

The researcher is likely to be present at object under investigation at the time of using observation method. The method requires physical presence and it results in limited chances of errors in filling forms and applications. The method is competent as compared to the questionnaires in terms of efficiency. The data collected in the method is of high reliability and first hand. There are minimum chances of errors because the researches carry out study by themselves. The reason of using observation method in the studies is it’s simple study requirements. The demands are simple and researcher is present during specific events such as traffic control in an urban centre is the process of designing a smart city concept compared to the questionnaires. It is prone to designing, selection of defendants and delivery of research questionnaires (Khan, et al.2012).

The method allows researcher to gather information which is relevant to study and even though it’s miss in the design of study. The collective information is permitted by the presence of researchers thus has ability to extend other applications unlike questionnaires. The respondents are guided by the customised questions in the questionnaires.

The observation method is considered to be better than the questionnaire in terms of saving time and cost. It is because of the preparation and detailed plans could involve interruption of work flow at the respondents. It also involves the costs that are associated in the planning phase. It is in contrary to questionnaires where the templates are availed to the respondents, filling of questionnaire are left with respondents only in the stipulated time. It saves costs which are related with travelling and spends time on the disruption of respondents’ work.

The most applicable technology is the use of observation in which the researchers are entrusted with the physical presence in various stages of field. It is because in the designing of IoT model in a smart city, the researcher first experience challenges for the first time which are to be addressed. It helps in designing of internet of things model (Khan, et. al. 2012).

The recognition of initiative efforts requires the intensive efforts in the particular region by the stakeholders. There are various issues which are required to be addressed in order to successfully implement project. The issues identified are explained below:

Security:

The manipulation is easier in today’s date. Having a data secured by intelligent device is always a good idea. As the initiative of things collect momentum, these issues will always linked with safety of data alike any type of IT feature. The important data which is stored by the devices on cloud is a matter of concern for all who has internet of things as the next information technology plan. When the data is handled over to company or individuals then it is realised that it is exchange of value. But the organisation gets to learn more about an individual. The data security is an issue as well. If the data is not secured than it can be hacked and cause some serious damage. The internet of things works to confirm that gadgets can be mended if security is revealed. The communicators can use smart city technology to alter settings such as convince local authority bins need to empty when they do not. There can be different classes in terms of security for being consumers and companies sceptical about the privacy, reliability and accessibility of data and information. It is through the use of internet of things where some issues affect the scalability and absorption. There are three categories of internet of things:

• It helps in connecting IP devices. It includes wide range of services such as firewalls, switchers, routers and mobile devices.
• The operational technology automates controls and processes a network. It includes hardware such as processing information systems and supervisory control.
• The last category is of smart objects. It reports information and receives commands. It includes sensors and actuators. It can also include everything from smart thermostats to smart refrigerators.

The concept of internet of things is based on a multi layered approach which is according to the architectural structure given below in the figure 2.

The initiative of making smart cities, continued uptake and internet of things increased matter by provincial and government administrations. The concern shows interconnection or network which can be reason of foreign attacks on the government setups and companies within the state.  The concern is eventually going to result into the government legislations which aim to address apparent threats by using smart city initiatives and internet of things. The regulations can be in the practice of isolating interests of administration or companies thus hamper the growth. It approvals the feature lead to have a protective policy on national and described regional scale creating a confined off internet in the particular state. The security issues can be in the procedure of economic protection, governing difference or threats to the government consultant by the online based corporations. The examples of policy considered in internet of things are cyber security, communications, investment in infrastructure and the employment and training. The cyber security balances the privacy rights and the requirements off data security. The communication assures competition prevailing in the market. It encourages innovation from new entrants and meets social goals such as public safety. The investment in internet of things for the sake of infrastructure identifies the public sector and commercial strategies to encourage investment in the long term projects with the distributed benefits. The government policies can be updated time to time. It can also consider foreign policies for the smart city project. The employment and training anticipates to new skills which are required to IoT and preparing for the potential jobs losses. It can be progressive shift in the need of employment.

The designing, set up and operation require a well alleged method in a new project to guide issues of essential infrastructure projects. It could upkeep the project. The required infrastructure varies from networking and links to the various ends within the state. The infrastructure concern needs a energetic approach as it is going to empower the interconnections of significant offices, connections, trade entities within the state and thus it will practice the basis for a regional link. The infrastructure is base for the development of country. The infrastructure has great role in the smart cities.

The internet of things is not about just adding to the IT infrastructure but it also impacts the existing It infrastructure. It affects the overall background of technologies and solutions. There are technological aspects regarding information technology and new technological possibilities. The internet of things impacts to the generated data in a positive way. The data stored on cloud can be accessed easily by producers, consumers and service providers in the real time. The internet of thing impacts individuals and professionals. The industries can reap huge benefits from the possibility of embedded systems and sensors. The irrigation system functions on the basis of multitude of inputs in the agriculture process. It also includes weather forecasts and data collected from humidity detecting sensors.

The internet of things is fully captivated by customers in order to use and uptake. There is deficiency of information and understanding on the related threats such as security of data as stored on cloud by the providers of cloud service. It can be evidenced from the report of Gemalto company in a report entitled “State of IoT Security Research Report”. In this report it was evidenced that 96% of companies and 90% of consumers believes that there should be IoT for the security conventions. It was also proved that 54% of consumers possess an average of four IoT empowered devices. 14% out of 54% are knowledgeable and understands the features linked with the internet of thing features (Kumar, 2014). The internet of things has been need from decades to improve. It examines and compares the level of awareness and attitude of users. The internet of things settles a large number of inventions. It enhances participation of people and increases awareness. It has capacity to exchange information through a system without even the human to human or human to computer interaction. It connects devices to the internet and interconnects devices to each other via internet. The active participation of people has great scope in making a city smart.

As aforesaid, the safety of internet of thing devices are centralised to the challenges which are faced by the project worldwide. In an attempt to address security concerns for the administrations and consumers, the data should be stored and synchronised on the cloud service provider. It should be improved and updated on a regular basis so that attacks and fears posed by the use of internet of things can be avoided. It is discovered in the practice of integrating the use of artificial intelligence which can improve and raise device, data and internet of things. It can even empower the security encryption and enhanced situation to provide data, document and system locking by the usage of smart circulated data (Kumar, 2014).

The next suggestion is personalisation of devices in internet of things. A majority of users of internet of thing devices dearth required information for the personalisation of devices such as laptops, printers, computer etc. In such circumstances the user is more disposed to superfluous entry into the system and data lost or ruined. It leaves the operator with irreversible loss.

There are several ways which can enhance internet of things by enabling SSL-Secure Socket Layer. It enables parties to communicate confidentially and tenuously without spying for instance, emails, banking information and data among others. It can be possible through the public internet without data and information being compromised (Kumar, 2014).

The internet of things service provider can use the measures which enable the authentication of devices to the servers. It will help to individuals and companies to reduce possibility of being victims of ransom worm attacks.

The safety of data and devices can be improved by the TLS (Transport Layer Security). It embeds the devices and their IPv6 which have the capacity to validate ender user of devices on a network system. It also validates the occasional requests by the use of passwords and keys in the system.

The assured and enhanced internet of thing devices helps in increasing confidence level of customers and stakeholders. It results in the success of the project of internet of things. The increased confidence level results in ripple effect as it will cause increase in the demand for devices with the internet of thing capabilities such as TV, microwaves, printers, desktops and laptops. It will result in the appropriate management of resources where devices are connected to the end users. It will offer essential sites and source with accurate data for processing. Once the improved security guarantees the confidentially of devices for the customers it will lead to growth in other segments of production and administration. Thus the companies can develop economy in a sure way for the welfare of society. It can only be realised from the usage of improved and certain security factors to attain the anticipated results of using internet of things. It makes a single virtual area universal (Chahid, 2017).

Conclusion

The usage of internet of things whose period has come to lead and there is no way this provision can be reduced. The advantage from using IoT required to be improved and the observed weaknesses should be tackled. It will upturn the level of confidence in the market. As the world has shifted into the digital area, the advantages of internet of things can only be enormous. Thus it is required to raise fund in resources to permit more inspections and enhance relevance of internet of things in the information technology sector.

The players in industry should work with leaders to design and implement relevant regulations which focused at restructuring the internet of things in the smart cities. It will promote the use of gadgets and devices in homes, companies and government institutions.

It should be noted that more resources are requisite to carry out more research on the several connection of devices and the use of internet of things. It will help in supporting the devices and the various needs and requirements of the smart cities and regions. The adequate funding for research will have role in the future of internet of things. It can only enhance and permit the realisation of smart city concept.

References

Banafa, A. (2014). IoT Standardization and Implementation Challenges. IEEE. Org          Newsletter.

Chahid, Y., Benabdellah, M., & Azizi, A. (2017, April). Internet of things security. In       Wireless Technologies, Embedded and Intelligent Systems (WITS),     2017International        Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE

Cocchia, A. (2014). Smart and digital city: A systematic literature review. In Smart           city (pp. 13-43). Springer, Cham.

 Kumar, J. S., & Patel, D. R. (2014). A survey on internet of things: Security and   privacy issues. International Journal of Computer Applications, 90(11).

Monzon, A. (2015). Smart cities concept and challenges: Bases for the assessment of smart city projects. In Smart cities, green technologies, and intelligent transport systems(pp. 17-31). Springer, Cham.

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Neirotti, P., De Marco, A., Cagliano, A. C., Mangano, G., & Scorrano, F. (2014). Current trends in Smart City initiatives: Some stylised facts. Cities, 38, 25-36.

Petrolo, R., Loscri, V., & Mitton, N. (2014). Towards a smart city based on cloud of things. In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM international workshop on Wireless and mobile technologies for smart cities (pp. 61-66). ACM.

Khan, R., Khan, S. U., Zaheer, R., & Khan, S. (2012, December). Future internet: the internet of things architecture, possible applications and key challenges. In Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT), 2012 10th International Conference on (pp. 257-260). IEEE.