Digital Systems in Smart City and Infrastructure: Digital as a Service

Abstract

Digitalization has enabled infrastructure and cities to be “smarter”; the use of physical space and energy, the transmission of information, the management of users, assets and processes, the operation of businesses and companies have been progressively digitalized. The main challenges of a Smart City is its definition, scope and interconnections; there are different approaches to Smart City implementations that vary from collaborative multidisciplinary environments, the addition of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) within its physical fabric to the use of Big Data for higher abstraction decisions. This paper presents the concept of Digital as a Service (DaaS), where any complete digitalization can be implemented independently of its associated physical infrastructure in a Cloud environment; DasS would enable an interoperable Virtual Digital Infrastructure (VDI). In addition, this paper reviews the current Digital Systems, Transmission Networks, Servers and Management Systems. The next Industrial Revolution will be founded on Artificial Intelligence that will entirely replace humans by taking production and management decisions based on the Internet of Things (IoT), the Cloud, BlockChain, Big Data, Virtual Reality and the combination of digital and real infrastructure or city. Digital as a Service would be its enabler by providing the entire interconnection, integration and virtualization of its Space, Services and Structure (3S).

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Smart City Strategies and Planned Smart Development

“…However, rather than functioning as merely home appliances do, according to [20], it is anticipated that AI and robotics would entirely replace humans where production and management decisions are concerned, causing a "disappearance of labor" or "end of labor" due to the automation process in production as part of intelligent capitalism [21]. Romania, for instance, plans to boost production using cyber-physical systems in its smart factory vision as part of the fourth industrial revolution involving AI [22].…”

Wicked Problems of Smart Cities

“…The SC-framework is often launched as a participatory planning tool, due to its dual role of participatory sensing, in which citizen's big data and advice are used in the design of a city [8,37,38]. Big data analytics have a huge potential to enhance smart city services; however, the combination of the IoT and Big Data is still an immature, unexplored research avenue, with new challenges for achieving the goal of the smart city [39]. For example, recent advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Web 2.0 technologies, and augmented reality technology have the potential to improve public participation [40,41].…”

People-Centric Service Intelligence for Smart Cities

“…Smart cities have been studied by a broad of disciplines, such as urban planning, transportation, civil engineering, information science, surveying and mapping, commercial and logistics, energy, atmosphere and environment, society, tourists, governance, and industry. Many researchers have reviewed the literature related to smart cities [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. It could be summarized as three important aspects, namely, infrastructure, service, and culture.…”

“…The magnificent goals of smart cities include quality of life, sustainability, and development [1], which have already attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in an array of disciplines, such as urban planning [2][3][4], transportation [5][6][7], civil engineering [8], information science [9][10][11][12][13], surveying and mapping [14,15], commercial and logistics [16], energy [17,18], atmosphere and environment [19], society [20,21], tourists [22], governance [2,23], and industry in recent years. Although the proper definition of smart cities are still lacking [2], smart cities' goals are consistent to include smart living, smart people, smart environment, smart mobility, smart economy, smart governance [24], smart services, and smart infrastructure [25].…”