Enhancing Smart City Infrastructure : Leveraging IR4.0
By Faizal Ali Co-founder and CEO Vectolabs Technologies Sdn Bhd
Rapid urbanisation trends around the world have caused disruption and challenges . 74 % of Malaysians live in cities today and it is projected to grow to 80 % by 2025 ( Ministry of Land , 2022 ). Our cities have traffic congestion , and environmental and security challenges . The way we currently operate our cities is not sustainable and we must find a better way to manage them .
The definition of smart cities varies , but for this article , we will borrow the definition from ASEAN Smart Cities Network ( ASCN ) which defines a smart city as “ a city that leverages digital infrastructure across business areas , to address the urban challenges ”.
In Malaysia , we have observed that cities adopt smart city technologies with the following motivations :
Reduction of operating costs : Despite the public perception of Government bloat , cities need to operate efficiently to provide wide-ranging services on a relatively small budget . This is exacerbated by rapid population growth outpacing the city ’ s revenue growth .
Improved city branding : Cities are like businesses in the sense that they need to attract the right kinds of businesses and people , who will further drive the economic prosperity of the city . Smart cities are more competitive .
Enhanced Service Delivery : Cities optimise the delivery of services , maintenance , and infrastructure by integrating sensors and automation to provide higher quality service and reducing downtime , e . g . reducing street lights downtime with automatic failure detection , real- time monitoring of air quality using sensors , reducing traffic by directing the public to where parking is available .
Cities , like corporations , compete with each other for businesses and residents select them over others . Smart cities improve their appeal while reducing their operational costs .
Building Smart City Digital Infrastructure with IoT Devices
Traditional city infrastructure is associated with roads , utilities , and sewage systems . These are structures and services that act as a basis for the economy and quality of life in a city . As the world adopts digital technologies , cities must recognise the importance of the digital infrastructure as an enabling smart city technology and give it the priority it needs .
It is important to acknowledge that one technology cannot serve all of the potential use cases for smart cities . As an example , an infrastructure built for parking sensors will not be able to serve CCTVs .
In this article , we are focused on sensors and devices that are numerous but do not need high bandwidth . The network infrastructure that we are focused on is the infrastructure that enables use cases such as smart street lights , smart parking , smart metering , flood sensing and smart waste technologies . Think kbps rather than Gbps .
There has been a lot of discussion on 5G technologies with their multi-Gbps and ultra-low latency capabilities . This technology has its appeal
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