Cities have numerous requirements and a
vast range of services, with no single company
able to provide everything. A city is much like
a human being in that it needs a brain and
nervous system to perceive, see, and think.
According to Dr Zheng Zhibin, President of
the Global Smart City Business Department,
Huawei Enterprise BG, “Huawei is committed to
becoming a Smart City enabler and promoter by
providing cities with a ‘nervous system’. Based
on its Platform + Ecosystem strategy, Huawei is
currently developing the +AI Smart City Digital
Platform.” The platform is based on Huawei’s
Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) infrastructure and, through an industry
enablement platform, integrates five main
resources: Internet of Things (IoT), big data +
AI, video cloud, Geographic Information System
(GIS), and converged communications. Huawei
has also joined forces with its partners to build
platform ecosystems.
Practical application shows that a digital
platform featuring resource co-ordination is vital
for the sustainable evolution of smart cities. A
powerful AI engine not only helps strengthen a
city’s nervous system, but also enhances its self-
learning and self-evolution capabilities.
Oleg Logvinov, the chair of IEEE P2413,
believes that technological advancement is a key
driver of urban development, with AI at the core
of smart city development. City managers have
been harnessing AI in urban planning, public
safety, transportation, and energy to help them
make scientific decisions and create new digital
economic models.
Tianjin: AI + Smart City
Spread over 2,000km 2 , Tianjin’s Binhai New Area
(BNA) has a population of approximately three
million and a GDP of around 700 billion yuan.
At the heart of BNA lies the Tianjin Economic-
Technological Development Area (TEDA).
The development of TEDA has reinforced the
fact that the merger of smart cities with big data
is inevitable. The company TEDA was founded in
2007, with the aim of building simple Government
administration platforms. But by 2017, TEDA had
developed to the point that the smart city builder
now faced a bigger challenge: building a big data
system.
TEDA’s smart city system is divided into
three layers. On top is the service system,
which includes various departments, such as
approval, public transportation and healthcare,
as well as integrated platforms, including cross-
departmental systems, which provide services and
management for enterprises and residents. Below
this is the data information layer, which comprises
data aggregation and analysis capabilities. Then
under this layer comes the support system layer.
Traditionally, this is the cloud and network, but
when it comes to building a smart city with big
data, the data platform has higher priority.
The smart city system usually originates from
the service layer and, in the past, data systems
were used to support service systems. But this
actually wastes the value of data. Data can directly
generate value through AI, and not just through
application platforms, but by providing more
direct services for Governments, enterprises, and
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