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3 Physical infrastructure and its intelligent upgrading

ICT infrastructure allows to improve appreciably and intelligently, the rest of major infrastructure of
a city. This infrastructure also serves to deploy ICT networks and systems and it is organized in
groups located in Layer 2 (non ICT‐based Hard Infrastructure) and Layer 3 (ICT‐based Hard
Infrastructure) of SSC ICT Meta‐Architecture (Figure 2)

The infrastructure concerns the following aspects:
- Water supply utilities, enhanced by smart water infrastructure;
- Energy supply utilities, upgraded with smart grids;
- Transportation networks, supported by intelligent transportation systems (ITS);
- Facilities for Health and care, supported by smart health systems;
- Safety and emergency infrastructure, accompanied by ICT for emergency management;
- Education and tourism facilities (i.e., schools and hotels), enhanced by corresponding ICT
solutions;

- Buildings and smart buildings systems;
- Government infrastructure, upgraded by e‐government solutions;
- Business facilities, streamlined and enhanced by e‐business systems.

In fact, in addition to the traditional telecommunications networks deployed in cities, road
infrastructure (rail and road), electrical lines, pipelines for hydrocarbons, gas distribution networks
and water ducts can serve as support for greater deployment of such telecom networks.
Road networks often favor long distance telecom network deployments, as they facilitate the laying
of fiber optic cables. There is greater diversity of deployments in urban areas, because operators
use roads, as well as poles, sanitation ducts, etc. They usually use the streets as a guide to the
communication networks.

3.1 Energy and water

3.1.1 Smart energy
Smart grids are one of the main smart energy concepts that are developed to ensure: i) reliability,
ii) self‐healing, iii) interactivity, iv) compatibility, v) energy saving, vi) optimal use of energy from
renewable sources, vii) safety, and viii) minimum carbon footprint.

Concerns about legacy ICT infrastructure for energy management
The operation of an electrical grid is a complex task driven by different needs: balancing the
production and consumption of energy, maintaining the stability of frequency and voltage,
protecting the electrical equipment against overcurrent and short circuits, assuring system reliability,
restoring from disturbances (shunt faults, equipment failure with subsequent isolation, switching
surges and lightning strikes, mechanical damages), etc.
Current electrical grids show quite a hierarchical structure. The energy is mainly flowing from the
(few) generation sites, through the electrical transport and distribution infrastructure, to the users.
Legacy communication architectures for electricity grids are thus hierarchical architectures that
reflect the classical structure of the power grid: measurements and data flow up from bottom
(equipment and metering infrastructures) to higher levels (management centers), while control
information is transmitted in the opposite direction. However, communication infrastructures have

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 287