At a glance

In a smart city, everything should be designed to make everyday life as efficient and comfortable as possible. This includes the quality of life and safety of the residents as well as the attractiveness for companies and organizations. The concept also focuses on the responsible use of energy, environment and resources.

Smart City and the Internet of Things

Networked devices and systems are essential for many areas of the Smart City: they provide constantly updated information about the situation in the city (e.g. traffic situation) and help to respond flexibly to the needs of the city. For this to work, communication between countless devices and sensors must be stable and efficient. NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) technology is often used for wireless communication between devices. NB-IoT can significantly improve the network coverage for mobile communications and thus help to reliably implement networking between devices, cloud and users.

Core aspects and goals of a smart city

At the heart of the intelligent city are sustainability and the optimal use of all resources. This approach should permeate all areas of living and working in a city.

Mobility
Mobility within the city is to be optimized so that residents, commuters and tourists can move around easily and comfortably. To this end, modern services such as car sharing or bicycle and e-scooter rental systems should be promoted and made available to as many people as possible. This also includes all kinds of concepts for intelligent transport systems such as intelligent roads with integrated additional functions, intelligent traffic control such as traffic lights that recognize the current traffic flow and adjust their switching accordingly, or the expansion and promotion of electromobility. Apps which enable citizens to find a parking space or tickets and connections for public transport are also part of the concept.

Further aspects

• Sustainability
• Economy
• Administration
• Living
• Infrastructure
• Security

Examples of smart cities

Internationally, there are several model projects in which attempts have been made to implement the principles of a Smart City. One example of a smart model city is Songdo in South Korea. Here, countless sensors and cameras have been installed to monitor and intelligently control the public space. Among other things, the sensors measure air pollution and traffic flow. Special cameras record thermal images so that fires can be detected earlier. All measured values and recordings are collected in a control centre. Another model city is Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. And there is also interest in smart cities in Germany, for example with the "Smart City Berlin" project.