After years of anticipation, 5G networks have finally arrived, and they promise to propel us into a new era of connectivity. With a breakthrough in 4G networks, 5G offers huge improvements in speed and latency, allowing you to download HD-quality movies in seconds, while enjoying gaming and live streaming. Everything on your smartphone. . Away from your smartphones, 5G can also offer enhanced connectivity to the world around us. The Internet of Things (IoT), which brings together billions of smart connected objects, will benefit from a big boost from 5G, thus improving the connectivity of our homes, offices and cities. Imagine a city that reacts to the world around it by gathering information from its inhabitants, collecting sensor data from roads, vehicles, buildings, and more to improve the quality of life for its inhabitants. all. 5G networks should enable a whole new generation of platforms and services to move smart cities from science fiction to science; this is all you need to know.
Jumps in transport
We've all seen sci-fi movies, TV shows, and video games where flying cars fly through the air, or people whistling around pneumatic tubes paints a somewhat fantastic picture. Instead of these fancy machines, the smart city of today and the years to come is more focused on improving the lives of its inhabitants through the use of more precise sensors and data. They collect. From top to bottom, cities like Austin, Singapore, or Dubai are already deploying an interconnected network of devices and sensors to gather valuable insights about what makes them tick and gain intriguing insights along the way. Commuting is often one of the most irritating parts of our daily lives, causing stress, boredom and frustration, not to mention millions of work hours lost due to delays. Letting vehicles sit idle in traffic is also not good news for the environment, and Smart City technology is needed to solve this problem. By using data collected from sensors at crossroads and highways, cities can identify traffic jams and collisions, helping to pinpoint specific areas of pain. Traffic signals could be adjusted to accommodate more vehicles per section and additional freeway or expressway lanes could be opened during peak periods. Drivers themselves could stay informed of road conditions with real-time alerts of traffic jams or accidents directly on their dashboards, allowing them to resume their route long enough. Finally, the emergency services can determine the exact route to follow in the event of an accident or incident, then trace the way back to the hospital and thus save money. lives.
(Image: © Shutterstock) In addition to the tremendous progress made in autonomous vehicles, public transport is also getting smarter. Many cities will now be able to provide travelers with real-time network updates, as well as alerts on the busiest areas for trains or where to go to rent a bike or scooter. Existing traffic routes can be analyzed to see where spikes and dips are located, underused routes being disrupted, or new routes introduced entirely. All of this helps to make smart cities work more efficiently, to ensure workers are in the moment, and to try to reduce the environmental impact of commuting.
(Image: © Jamesteohart / Shutterstock)
Conserving energy for everyone.
Energy and utilities are another area where smart cities are making great strides. We all know that we need to be more environmentally friendly, but smart cities can help with this burden too. Using data collected on pedestrian and vehicle habits, streetlights could turn off or even extinguish in low-traffic areas, turning on only if a person is detected walking nearby. Escalators and revolving doors in office buildings could also use the same technology, helping to reduce energy consumption in these buildings. Inside buildings, office buildings and shopping malls can once again use proximity lighting that reduces waste and enables smart energy policies that turn off heating or cooling in the absence of either. , allowing them to save money and help the planet. So how will 5G connectivity help all of this? In simple terms, the ability to use the enormous number of sensors required for smart cities requires a large amount of network connectivity. 5G can provide the ability to connect many more devices than ever before, providing the foundation for efficient small cell networks that will serve as the foundation for the highly interconnected wireless infrastructure needed in a smart city. Small cell arrays are spread over a given localized area, allowing for deep use of sensors, which can be vital for gathering smart city initiatives such as air quality monitoring or traffic jams.