INGENIEUR
There are no magic silver bullets . Cities must make conscious and deliberate tradeoffs that best fit their needs .
However , the infrastructure costs are higher as geographical coverage is not as wide as LoRaWAN gateways , which means more routers are needed . Devices also have higher latency as packets hop from one device to another before making their way to the router . It is more complex to deploy as cities need to consider “ Path Diversity ”, in that one or two device failures should not take down the whole network .
There are no magic silver bullets . Cities must make conscious and deliberate trade-offs that best fit their needs .
Challenges in deploying Smart City Infrastructure
Siloed approach IoT network infrastructure is an enabling technology that enables multiple applications , and this network should be designed as such . Unfortunately , the budget for the network is typically funded from a particular use case e . g ., smart street lights . This results in a network that is sized too small for other applications and not actively shared with other departments within the city itself . Enabling infrastructure should be built holistically .
Proprietary systems There are companies with short-term thinking , advocating proprietary technology as opposed to using standard , open technology like LoRaWAN and 6LoWPAN . We see duplicated implementation of networks , impossible or expensive integration with other systems and risks of obsolescence . It is against the interest of city stakeholders to adopt a closed proprietary technology .
Lack of standards Cities need to adopt standards to encourage investment and innovations from private stakeholders and to ensure the risks of vendor lock-in are adequately addressed . There are many haphazard and duplicative projects where there are no standards .
Summary
The way we currently implement smart city solutions is not sustainable and we risk falling behind . Vectolabs , Perbadanan Putrajaya and UPM Wireless and Photonic Networks Research Centre of Excellence collaborated to develop a framework and guidelines to establish a fair and neutral LoRa network for smart cities and communities . Readers can find a working copy at https :// www . vectolabs . com / docs / Frameworkto-Establish-a-Fair-Neutral-LoRa-Network _ First- Release-2001 . pdf
Perbadanan Putrajaya recognised the need for a low-cost , city-operated IoT network as a key enabler to realise its smart city ambitions . The network needs to be reliable and low-cost to maintain and facilitates interoperability and intervendor compatibility . The first pilot deployment was in the central business district of Precinct 15 in Putrajaya .
REFERENCE
Gianni Minetti . ( n . d .). Creating a truly open cities : why interoperability and 6lowpan matter .
Hwan , H . J . ( 2017 ). Proposal of Seamless Communication Method in Shadow Area Using LoRaWAN .
Leki Chom , N . A . ( 2021 ). A lightweight Authentication and Key-Exchange Mechanism for 6lowpan based Internet of Things . Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies .
Ministry of Land , I . T . ( 2022 ). ASEAN Smart City Planning Guidebook . 8 .
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