The Impact of 5G on IoT and Smart Cities
What is a smart city?
The European Commission defines a smart city as “a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommunication technologies for the benefit of its inhabitants and business”. Diffusion and availability of new technologies are required to transform a city into a smart city, contributing to reach high level of urban sustainable development and improved quality of life for its citizens.
A smart cities use Internet of Things (IoT) to collect real time data to better understand how demand patterns are changing, and respond with faster and lower-cost solutions. Broadly speaking, digital city ecosystems are designed to run on ICT frameworks that connect several dedicated networks of mobile devices, sensors, connected cars, home appliances, communication gateways and data centers.
Smart cities, one of the key application areas of 5G and IoT technologies, have at their core the goal of improving quality of life, creating collaborative solutions, and addressing resource constraints. Examples of some of the many services integrated into the network of a typical smart city are related to smart health, smart transportation, smart buildings, smart hotels, smart industry, smart universities, etc. The new era of wireless mobile telecommunication technology and the IoT ecosystem is driving the opportunities for smart cities to not only solve existing problems but also create new services and functionalities that are out of the box and invisible to the end user. The main objective of this paper is to explore the role of 5G and IoT in smart cities. The market environment, key business developments, and trends related to the key smart cities’ enablers, IoT and 5G, are presented. An in-depth literature review followed by a discussion is substantiated with synthesized research findings on the current development, 5G coverage, use and deployment of IoT in smart cities, and forecasting the evolution of its application in smart cities.
By 2025 the IoT trends suggest the number of connected devices worldwide will rise to 75 billion. The increasing number of objects that interconnect generates an unprecedented volume of data that the city can analyze locally in order to make more informed decisions about what changes or new projects will most benefit residents. The term “Massive IoT” is an apt description of the enormous number of IoT sensors and devices that will be communicating with each other.
Conclusion:
The rollout of 5G technology is set to have a profound impact on the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities, revolutionizing the way devices connect, communicate, and operate. With 5G’s faster speeds, lower latency, and higher capacity, it enables IoT devices to transmit data at unprecedented rates, making real-time communication and automation more efficient. For smart cities, 5G paves the way for the development of advanced infrastructure, such as smart traffic systems, autonomous vehicles, and connected public services. This allows for better traffic management, reduced congestion, and optimized energy use. Additionally, 5G enhances the reliability of devices, supporting a vast number of IoT connections without network overload. It also improves remote monitoring and management capabilities, benefiting industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and urban planning. The increased bandwidth and lower latency of 5G can enable more accurate environmental monitoring, smarter resource allocation, and faster emergency response times in cities. Ultimately, 5G will not only advance the capabilities of IoT devices but also accelerate the evolution of smart cities into more connected, efficient, and sustainable ecosystems.
