Around the world, urbanization is growing, bringing with it new possibilities and difficulties for those who live there. People are turning to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies as things get more complicated around the city’s architecture. The Internet of Things has the ability to prevent environmental degradation, sanitation issues, transportation congestion, and urban crime. In this article, we'll share our IoT technology expertise and throw light on smart city use cases for this technology. You will quickly begin to see how powerful this technology is, and the benefits of using it on a city wide scale.
IoT use cases for smart cities
First let's discuss the use cases of the internet of Things technology for a city wide scale so that you can have an idea of how capable the technology is.
Road traffic control
IoT technologies that are designed for road traffic control employ several types of sensors as well as GPS data from drivers' smartphones to assess the number, position, and speed of cars. Simultaneously, smart traffic lights are linked to a cloud management platform via IoT and allow for the monitoring of green light timings and the automated adjustment of lights depending on actual traffic conditions to avoid congestion. Smart traffic control using IoT can also forecast where traffic will go based on past data and take steps to avoid possible bottlenecks.
Smart parking
An IoT Smart parking system identifies whether parking spaces are available or occupied in real time and provides a parking map. They do so using GPS data from users' smartphones or road-surface sensors buried in the ground on specially designated parking places. Using this system, drivers receive a message when the closest parking place becomes available, and then they can use the map on their phone to find a parking spot faster and easier.
Street lighting
Adding sensors to streetlights and linking them to a cloud managed IoT solution allows the lighting schedule to be adjusted according to many variables. These systems can be programmed to collect data on lighting, people, and vehicle movement, then integrate it with historical and contextual data (e.g., special events, public transportation schedules, time of day and year) to enhance the lighting schedule. Depending on the outside circumstances, an IoT based smart lighting system adjusts a streetlight to dim, brighten, turn on, or turn off the lights.
Garbage monitoring
Smart city systems powered by the Internet of Things can assist optimize garbage collection An IoT garbage monitoring system schedules garbage collection by measuring waste levels and offering route optimization to its location. Each garbage container is equipped with a sensor that collects information about the waste level in the container and offers operational analytics for it. The waste management system receives a sensor record, evaluates it, and sends a notification to a truck driver's mobile app when it gets near to a specified threshold.
Public safety
IoT-based smart city solutions provide real-time monitoring, analytics, and decision-making capabilities for systems that are used for improving public safety, effectively enhancing their capabilities. Public safety solutions can identify probable crime scenes easily using these systems by combining data from sound sensors and CCTV cameras installed across the city with data from social media feeds and evaluating it.
Environment analysis
Smart city solutions powered by IoT can track parameters that are important for a healthy environment and keep them at an optimal level. The whole city can construct a network of sensors across the water system and connect them to a cloud management platform to monitor water quality. pH, dissolved oxygen, and dissolved ions are all measured using sensors. A network of sensors can also be installed along major roadways and near factories to monitor air quality. The sensors will collect data on CO, nitrogen, and sulfur oxide levels this time, which are then analyzed and shown by a central cloud platform.
Other use cases
IoT solutions also have use cases in other cases, such as:
Smart meters & billing
Smart meters using IoT technology will be able to transfer data directly to a public utility through a telecommunications network, delivering accurate meter readings. Utility providers can then use this information to charge correctly for the quantity of water, energy, and gas used by each residence easily & quickly.
Remote monitoring
Remote monitoring & control services may also be provided via IoT technologies to residents of smart cities. Citizens will be able to track and regulate various parts of their homes remotely with these services. They can use their phone to do things like switching off their home's central heating. Additionally, if a problem arises, utility firms can alert homeowners and dispatch personnel to resolve the issue using the same system.
Revealing consumption patterns
Firms may acquire a better understanding of how their customers use electricity and water by using a network of smart meters using IoT technology. Things like monitoring demand in real time and diverting resources as needed, or encouraging users to use less electricity or water during times of scarcity can be done effectively by these type of systems.
Parts of a good IoT smart city solution
Even though the IoT systems are highly diverse, the construction & implementation strategies of them remain the same. Following are the steps to create an IoT based smart solution for any of the above use cases.
Basic parts of IoT
Any smart city IoT solution should start with the following basic architecture
Sensors & Actuators
A smart city, like any other IoT system, makes use of smart objects with sensors and actuators. Sensors' primary objective is to gather data and transmit it to a central cloud management platform. Actuators enable equipment to do tasks such as changing the lights, limiting the flow of water to a leaky pipe, and so on.
Gateways
A "tangible" element of IoT devices and network nodes, as well as a cloud part, make up every IoT system. Data cannot easily be transferred from one section to another. Doors - field gates – must exist. By cleaning and filtering data before sending it to the cloud, field gateways make data collection and compression easier. A smart city solution's cloud gateway guarantees safe data transfer between field gateways and the cloud.
Data lakes
The raw nature of data is preserved in data lakes. When meaningful insights require raw data, it is made available through data lakes. Data lakes are not used to store processed forms of data.
Database or a big data repository
Data is extracted, converted, and placed into the big data warehouse once its worth has been determined. It also saves contextual information about connected items, such as when sensors were installed and the commands that control programmes senIoT application development can provide various smart city solutions that are easy and convenient to use for people who live in such cities.d to device actuators.
Deep analytics
Integrated IoT augmented data analytics are used to discover patterns and hidden relationships in sensor data. Advanced techniques such as machine learning (ML) and statistical analysis are used in data analytics. In order to find patterns and construct prediction models based on them, machine learning algorithms evaluate past sensor data stored in the big data repository. Commands are then transmitted to IoT device actuators employ the models.
Automated control systems
By transmitting orders to the actuators of smart city devices, automated Control systems enable automation inside IoT systems. Essentially, this "informs" actuators what to perform in order to complete a task. These systems, also called control applications, might either be rule-based or machine learning-based. Manually specified rules are used in rule-based control applications, whereas models built by ML algorithms are used in ML-based control applications. These models are found by data analysis, and they are evaluated, authorized, and updated on a regular basis.
User application
Along with the option of automatic control, consumers should always have the ability to affect the behavior of smart city apps. User apps provide this feature to the consumers. Users can connect to the central smart city administration platform through these applications to monitor and operate IoT devices as well as get notifications and alarms. A good IoT application development team is utilized to create such apps.
Integration of multiple systems
Developing "smartness" is always an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Municipalities can consider what services they might want to add to an IoT system in the future as technologies surrounding IoT-based smart city solutions grow. This entails Integrating not just a growing number of sensors, but also the number of functionalities.
implementation strategy
The collaborative method of implementation works best in cities of all sizes. It assists bigger organizations in dealing with the scope and complexity of implementation, and it assists smaller organizations in reducing investments in smart solutions and making better use of scarce infrastructure resources. When launching a smart initiative in a medium or small city, it makes appropriate to start with initiatives that do not require large expenditures and provide a measurable return on investment, such as smart parking or trash management, and then build on the existing infrastructure to add additional services.
Conclusion
As you can see, IoT technology has a lot of potential use cases for smart cities because of its extended capabilities in diverse areas. As the technology surrounding IoT and related software and applications increases, it is natural that more people will begin adopting it. However, to create such solutions it is necessary that businessmen team up with a good IoT development company, as there are still a lot of challenges in the field that can be hard to handle for companies having little to no experience in the field. Nextbrain is one such company that has years of experience in dealing with IoT and related product requests.
Saran
May 19, 2022 Author