Page 15 - Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

Figure 1: The Gridwise 8-layer interoperability stack

Each of these layers needs to be addressed when committing to interoperability.

Comprehensive city management using a smart city platform requires a complex architecture
based on smart enabling components that are safe and interoperable by default. The wide variety
of situations in which cities currently find themselves points to the need to employ a set of modular
minimal interoperability mechanisms such as the MIMs as key building blocks within the creation
and governance of such architecture.

2.3 New technologies

Cities and communities aim to gain value from many new technologies that are coming to maturity.

Increasingly, the Internet of Things (IoT) is being used to gather different types of information
about the performance of many aspects of city life. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and decision-making
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algorithms are being used to support the provision of city services, making them better targeted
and more efficiently delivered. The use of blockchain is being explored in many areas of city life
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to support smart contracts and provide greater transparency in transactions.

These blockchains depend on the collection and use of large amounts of reliable data and require
city administrations to have the ability to manage these data effectively.

Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms 5