Smart Cities: How 5G is helping to make the urban connection

The advent of 5G has meant that the pipedream of the so-called “smart city” is slowly becoming a reality. Given the global march towards urbanisation (according to the UN, 68 per cent of the world’s population will inhabit cities by 2050), the promise of smoother and safer living on our city streets is a tempting one.

Following the launch of 5G in Ireland earlier this year, excitement began to build about its potential for transforming the management of our cities. Transport, healthcare and retail may all look remarkably different as 5G enables the Internet of Things (IoT). But realistically, how close are we to Ireland’s first smart city?

Globally, managing the resources and operations of large cities can only be cost-effective and efficient if they are automated and connected. This is the basic premise of smart cities, says Shane McHugh, global product manager of IoT with Three.

Imagine that the car is designed for you as a passenger rather than a driver, so there is space for you to work

“A gradual digital transformation is already beginning in some world cities, allowing for some changes to how these cities operate, but it does not end there,” he explains. Streets, buildings, public and personal devices need to be interconnected, and sensors must be placed everywhere to collect data. The massive amount of data generated by these sensors must then be communicated back, analysed and insights derived to effect changes in the operation of smart cities.

“5G is an enabling technology for IoT, and as smart cities essentially rely on IoT to function, 5G and smart cities are inextricably linked,” says McHugh.

Autonomous vehicles

Applications include autonomous vehicles, remote healthcare, traffic safety control and electric grid control. “As you can see, these services are very much aligned with the vision of digitally automating cities,” says McHugh.

While there are lots of individual elements of smart cities under way, no one has yet managed to bring it all together into an interconnected environment.

Certainly, Ireland's first smart city is not imminent. Debbie Power, Vodafone's IoT country manager, says that Vodafone will complete its rollout of 5G in late 2020, but, from a global perspective, 5G will only hit maturity around 2025.

Power explains that the concept of the smart city has changed as the technology has evolved.

“We accept now that there are so many different verticals that feed into it, such as healthcare, transport and retail. As models evolve, we aren’t seeing the smart city spoken about so much as standalone topics, but there is a lot of overlap,” she says.

Decentralising healthcare could be one of the biggest achievements of 5G, which has immediate knock-on effects for smart cities, Power explains.

“By taking healthcare out of the city and putting it in a rural environment, this gives the consumer a better experience on the healthcare side, but it also stops them going into cities and creating the type of gridlock we have become used to.”

Healthcare

Indeed, the delivery of healthcare could be completely transformed, adds McHugh. “Remote surgery will allow specialised operations take place with the main surgeon being at a different location, while key medical actions could be taken while the person is still in the ambulance. This is in addition to more efficient processes inside of hospitals.”

Music and sport venues in a 5G world will support massive numbers of connected users and devices, meaning the ticketholder’s experience will be completely transformed, he adds.

“Customers during events will finally be able to use fast internet and will also get new tools to improve experience, to be virtually closer to the action, enhanced with additional data on their smartphone, like real time stats of players, lyrics for music being played, real-time language translation of stand-up comedy, etc.”

Imagine that the car is designed for you as a passenger rather than a driver, so there is space for you to work

But by far the most excitement around smart cities centres on logistics and transport. The hope is that autonomous self-driving public transport and private vehicles could avert commuting hell and reduce congestion in our traffic-choked urban centres.

Increased connectivity can go a long way towards improving things like transportation within a city, says Prof Marco Ruffini at the CONNECT Telecommunications Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin.

Personalised

He says smart transportation could provide a cost-effective solution for a more personalised way of public transportation, and paints an evocative picture of the future of commuting.

“Let’s say you normally cycle to work, but decide to go by car instead one morning. A driverless car, which you don’t own, is there waiting for you. The car is owned by a company and you pay a monthly fee plus a usage charge. Imagine that the car is designed for you as a passenger rather than a driver, so there is space for you to work.”

For hassled commuters on packed trains, this sounds like heaven. In order for this to happen, we will need high capacity and high-speed connectivity, Prof Ruffini explains.

“Autonomous cars can drive without the need for connectivity, but if you add connectivity you suddenly get a much more efficient use of road infrastructure, as you can remove traffic lights, and automatically optimise routes. This is supported by what we call low latency connectivity, and this technology is already here. We have autonomous vehicles being tested everywhere.”

When people saw 5G coming a few years ago, the natural default was the driverless or autonomous vehicle, says Power, but she believes Irish roads will stay as is for now.

“When we look at autonomous vehicles becoming interoperable with traffic solutions, that is probably a bit further away because of the sheer size of such a project. It involves so many stakeholders such as Government, city managers, industry regulation – all of these things start to impact.”

Uptake of that type of technology and solutions in the automotive space will be more likely seen in specific corridors; for example, somewhere like Dublin Port, Power says.

“This would be a locked-down environment where they would have a vehicle just going continuously from A to B and back, transporting people from the ferry further up the port, or perhaps on a hospital campus with automated vehicles driving a specific route, or in the airport.”

Realistic

However, the commonplace use of drones is a more realistic – and imminent – prospect, Power says.

“That’s an area I think we will see major uptake in. If you think of an incident or an accident occurring, it would be very quick and easy to send a drone to do surveillance and report back to emergency services. That’s where you will really see 5G coming into use for good – it’s one of the wow factors.”

Ultimately, people’s lives will become easier, says McHugh.

Government is very supportive, as is industry, and the consumer is becoming more and more sophisticated

“Logistics will see a boost of improvements, with drones delivering packages, and enhanced customer tracking of their deliveries, while electricity smart metering will enable optimisation of the electricity grid, with quicker reaction to outages,” he says.

So far, so positive. But beyond the technology, how on board is everyone with the concept of the smart city? According to Power, buy-in from stakeholders has not been a problem.

“We are already seeing groups of different people and stakeholders coming together to drive that agenda. Government is very supportive, as is industry, and obviously the consumer is becoming more and more sophisticated and more demanding. People are interested and companies are invested.”

Although Dublin or Cork won’t be gaining smart city status any time soon, Ireland is ahead of the curve when it comes to laying the foundation, Power acknowledges.

“I think Ireland is doing quite well – we have been one of the first to market with 5G. In a global perspective we are not far behind and this means the smart city is not as far away as we might think.”