Connecting smart cities the smart way

Micheal Lok

Interest in connecting venues and vehicles is growing as more countries in the Asia Pacific region, one of the largest and fastest-growing urban regions in the world, invest in creating smart cities.

According to Navigant Research, annual smart city technology investment in Asia Pacific will almost quadruple by 2023, reaching US$11.3 billion. India has recently announced that its plan to build a hundred smart cities with the Union Government of India allocation Rs 7,060 crore for the development of 100 smart cities. Among Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's pet plans, few would be more significant to India than building 100 smart cities, as the country is in the middle of a massive wave of urbanization.

India’s is urbanising at an unprecedented rate, so much that estimates suggest nearly 600 million of Indians will be living in cities by 2030, up from 290 million as reported in the 2001 census. In his budget speech, an Indian Minister cited that unless new cities are developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, the existing cities would soon become unliveable.

Smart cities promise better and healthier urban environments through the adoption of city-based applications enabled by low-power, ruggedized environmental sensors and wireless connectivity. A smart city can be run more efficiently than a traditional city as municipal authorities will be able to monitor more aspects of the city on real-time basis and respond accordingly. These include sensors that are able to send alerts when traffic or crowds are building up, or if there are malfunctions in the water or the electricity supply, and ensure that information services about city facilities that are always up-to-date.

Smart Cities do not have to rely on static sensors, either. Wi-Fi services are now increasingly common as part-free or paid services available in major venues such as airports and sports stadiums, and on public transport hubs in Asia. Ground transport operators are competing with airlines through offering Wi-Fi services, which can already be enjoyed in trains and stations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, India and Korea. Most recently, free Wi-Fi in Delhi Metro mass rapid transit stations was announced.

In many large Asian cities, millions of passengers may pass through multiple transport hubs such as airports, train and bus stations, and subway systems every day. As smart mobile device ownership grows across the region, these passengers very often demand timely access to essential information such as the weather, air quality, public transportation situation, schedules and location-related guidance as they make use of these facilities. After US and China, India is the third largest smartphone market in the world. According to a Nielsen report, the smartphone market in urban India grew by 89% in the calendar year 2013 as against the calendar year 2012. There were 51 million people using smartphones in urban India in 2013 as compared to 2012. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India touched an astounding figure of 68.83 million broadband subscribers in the month of May 2014 in all segments: wired subscribers, mobile device users (phones + dongles) and fixed wireless (wi-fi, wi-max, point-to-point radio and VSAT).

Unlike previous months, the largest change of 6.93 per cent was seen in the mobile segment, while there was a change of 2.51 per cent in the fixed wireless category and only 0.13 per cent in the wired subscribers.

Wi-Fi is an ideal method for conveying such information, and would also support operational needs such as points-of-sale, shipping and logistics, digital signage and video security. Homeland security could also receive a boost from Wi-Fi-based Smart City initiatives.

Wi-Fi could also provide a platform for new revenue generating services. With 3G and 4G networks reaching peak capacities, Wi-Fi has been by many telecom operators as an effective alternative for offloading mobile data traffic for a variety of data-intensive applications, both from end users and for Smart Cities. And besides revenue generation through Wi-Fi access and 3G/4G offload, associated Wi-Fi technologies could also bring about new revenue streams. Technology is now available for accurate indoor location positioning, for example, which could track user footfall and indirectly interest in various locations, as well as enable delivery of targeted location-based advertisements.

Supporting Wi-Fi in an existing environment can be very challenging from a wireless performance perspective, however. One problem is that there is typically little or no existing networking infrastructure to build on, especially in structures that are decades old. Additionally, traditional Wi-Fi technology does not function properly in many indoor situations, where thousands of people gather and access the Wi-Fi networks. Third, big fluctuations in user volumes or cargo density can occur over the course of the day, dramatically impacting network performance. In the worst case scenario, Wi-Fi exists but connections are unstable, leading to low user satisfaction and the inability to support critical applications.

Governments, municipal authorities and service providers looking to build wireless networks in a Smart City context can now consider wireless LAN infrastructure that can handle dense public environments. They can consider Wi-Fi access points with intelligent capabilities to connect a high denity of smart devices and band steering technology can ensure the optimum connections for challenging environments, for example. What’s more important, these smart city ready Wi-Fi networks should enable with built-in capabilities to analyse locations of the citizens, and drill time and predict citizen’s movement, so that they can plan resources accordingly.

Here is a list of questions to ask technology partners when considering Wi-Fi implementations in a Smart City setting:

·    Is the solution proven?

·    How many access points are required?

·    How consistent is the coverage over the day, especially during peak hours?

·    How good is network performance in locations prone with interference?

·    How is peak demand handled in high density locations?

·    Is the network easily managed?

·    Can accurate location based services, voice over Wi-Fi and similar revenue-generating applications be supported?

·    Can Wi-Fi location analytics deal with hundreds of thousands of devices?

·    Can the system be easily connected with third party applications and analytic platforms?

Wi-Fi infrastructure that works well in dense public environments could benefit members of the public as well as industry, service providers, municipal authorities and the government. Technology providers must offer trials or other ways to test the equipment and survive stress tests. When large numbers of citizens are involved, deploying the best technology to offer effective services creates a win-win situation for all.

The author is managing director Ruckus Wireless for  south east Asia