Network Communications News (NCN) October 2017 | Page 26

SMART CITIES
Cross Town Traffic!
NCN spoke with Chris Meering, regional vice chair (EMEA) of oneM2M MARCOMs committee,
to find out how networks in urban areas can build the smart cities of the future.
O
neM2M is an
organisation set up
to develop technical
specifications which
address the need for
a common M2M service layer that
can be embedded within hardware
and software and then relied on
to connect the huge number of
devices needed to create larger
smarter networks.
Chris says that the main
messages oneM2M would like
to get across is the need for a
horizontal platform strategy rather
than a multiple vertical ‘siloed’
application, that any system
should be citizen centric in design,
driven by a problem not a solution
and match the connectivity to
the use case. Chris argues it’s
not a one size fits all approach,
choices need to be made as to
when to use Low Power Wide Area
Networks such as LoRa, NB IoT
Etc. rather than Wi-Fi or traditional
26 | October 2017
cellular. Security also must be
built-in rather than added as a
sperate module.
So, what are the advantages of
a smart city? Chris says, “Delivering
better services, more efficiencies,
less cost to service, potential new
revenue streams for the cities,
better infrastructure and attracting
new employers and industry.
“ T h e y c a n a l so d e l i ve r a
b et te r q u a l i t y of l i fe /exp e r i e n c e .
Fo r exa m p l e , l e ss CO2 a n d
co n ge s t io n through the use of
smart parking, traffic management
and waste management.”
Solutions such as these are
a huge part of the future as the
planet continues to urbanise, a
white paper by Chris’ employer,
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE),
where he works as CMS WW IoT go
to market lead, predicted that by
2050, 70% of the global population
will live in urban areas. IoT is
already delivering benefits to cities
like Los Angeles and Oslo, which
have experienced energy savings
of more than 60% by moving to
smart street lighting. Other cities
have seen similar significant
savings by deploying smart waste
management solutions, reducing
CO2 emissions and increasing
citizen satisfaction through smart
parking and traffic management.
Chris explains, “In many cases,
however, these are only isolated
point solutions. To truly exploit the
benefits of IoT within a smart city,
a holistic approach is required
such that the infrastructure
deployed is flexible enough to
support multiple use cases rather
than building multiple silos.
“As such, a thorough study
of setting up IoT networks and
solutions is needed to respond
adequately to specific smart
city project requirements. Policy
makers must fully comprehend
and organise the interaction