Page 42 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

A city consists of countless physical structures, layered by multiple infrastructures. It is expected
that the information that a city can generate at any moment is massive. As discussed previously, ICT
infrastructures are the key layer capable of managing such massive amount of data and of delivering
any crucial information to any relevant actors or departments at any given moment. Furthermore,
ICT infrastructures, which consist of multiple Internet of things, are not only capable of transmitting
data to actors but also to buildings. By allowing communication between buildings, it is expected
that efficiency would be maximized particularly in the field of energy consumption and harmful gas
emissions.
By 2020, 30 billion things will be interconnected, with each item having a unique Internet protocol
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(IP) address, thanks to Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) . Despite of this seemingly large number,
it is still very much possible to attach sensors or radio frequency identification device (RFID) tags in
every single one of these items, and connecting them through a central platform, thus creating a
network similar to the one between Internet and a server. These networks churn out huge volumes
of data that is used for analytical modelling. Another revolution is that these physical information
systems are now being deployed and function automatically.
Along with technological advancements, the adoption of Internet of things is growing rapidly. The
data from sensors is collected, processed and analyzed in real time, and lowering costs is expected
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to speed their adoption. Corporations should consider the impacts and opportunities arising from
the Internet of things. IoT can be viewed as a global infrastructure for the information society, the
technology that connects not just humans with things but also things with every other thing. The
Internet of things (IoT) is a vision that connects technological and societal implications.

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Recommendation ITU‐T Y.2060 provides an overview of the Internet of things (IoT). This protocol
adds more clarity to the concept and scope of IoT, classifies the fundamental characteristics and
high‐level requirements of IoT and also describes the IoT reference model.
Mobile broadband

Mobile broadband is a mainstay of information and data communication. The GSMA (GSM
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Association) states that as of Q1 2013, there are over 1.6 billion mobile broadband users. Mobile
broadband now accounts for a quarter of global connections at over 1.6 billion (as of Q1 2013).
There are over 350 million users in Europe, almost 800 million users in Asia, 525 million in the
Americas and even 60 million in Africa. High speed packet access (HSPA) makes up most of the
mobile broadband connectivity and has been the fastest growing wireless technology with a rate of
adoption (since its introduction six years ago) ten times faster than the uptake of the global system
for mobile communication (GSM) phones when they were introduced in the mid‐1990s. With the
advent of 4G and long‐term evolution (LTE), there is an ever bigger push towards higher speed,
secure data connectivity on the go.

Full hypertext mark‐up language (HTML) (soon to be HTML5) browsers on smart phones has made
ubiquitous access to the web commonplace. Access to e‐mail – anywhere, anytime has had a
tremendous impact on productivity and is now an integral part of both personal and working lives.
The proliferation of applications or "apps" offers convenient access to services through a rich user

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56 https://www.abiresearch.com/research/service/internet‐of‐everything/
57 https://www.abiresearch.com/research/service/internet‐of‐everything/
58 http://www.itu.int/rec/T‐REC‐Y.2060‐201206‐I
59 https://gsmaintelligence.com/analysis/2013/01/dashboard‐mobile‐broadband/364/

32 ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications