Page 14 - Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

2.2 Interoperability

Interoperability is one of the main challenges – and opportunities – in the development of smart
sustainable cities and communities, using digital technologies to become more resilient, liveable
and attractive for inhabitants and businesses.

The goal is to develop platforms that can allow key stakeholders, including governments, businesses,
knowledge institutions and inhabitants, to communicate and work together across domains. The
key to achieving this goal is in defining modular and scalable, multi-layered ICT solutions to enable
cross-domain interoperability, moving beyond existing siloed solutions that address specific
challenges such as improvement of traffic flows, surveillance, smart lighting, among others.

There are also layers of interoperability, and a key concept is that of minimal interoperability as a
practical way of dealing with the complexity and heterogeneity of IoT and data in smart cities and
communities.

ITU defines minimal interoperability as: “The minimal sufficient degree needed to meet a certain
requirement for data sharing, use and reuse”. It is an approach to establishing a set of modular
2
mechanisms across multiple application domains and geographic territories, without having to
specify everything in complete detail; and without requiring complete implementation of and
compliance to the entire framework.

Examples are the MIMs (Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms). Complementary sources of
3, 4
potential interoperability requirements include the European Interoperability Framework and
5
the European Interoperability Reference Architecture. It is also important to recognize that
6
interoperability is not just related to digital technology. The GridWise Architecture Council’s eight-
layer stack can help in understanding the context for determining interoperability requirements
and defining exchanges of information.
7

4 Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms