SCC-PG: Low-cost Smart Cities: Designing Affordable Smart Cities for All Communities

智能城市通过将智能技术整合到建筑环境中，提供了改善公众健康、安全和福利的潜力。例如，部署在整个城市的物联网(IoT)设备可以用于实时犯罪检测和监控，或者以一种能够更智能地决定如何设计建筑环境本身的方式来收集人员流动的数据。然而，智能城市项目的部署和管理成本可能非常高。圣地亚哥、新奥尔良、伦敦和松岛等城市已经提出或投资了耗资3000万至400亿美元的智能城市项目。除了物联网设备本身的部署和维护成本外，很大一部分费用是通过5G或WiFi向这些设备提供互联网连接的结果。这些成本是智能城市技术广泛部署以及该技术可能带来的社会效益的主要障碍。为了降低成本，本项目建议使用延迟容忍网络(DTN)作为智能城市通信的主干。DTN在基础设施很少或没有基础设施的地区提供机会网络连接。消息的传递有一定的延迟，这与网络中节点的布局、密度和移动性直接相关。认识到一些数据是实时需要的，该项目寻求调查边缘计算的进步，同时优化网络中连接互联网的节点的放置和使用。对于可以容忍延迟的数据，该项目提出利用人和车辆在城市中的自然移动来在节点之间传输数据。通过这种方式，市民成为智慧城市网络本身不可或缺的一部分。其目标是使发展中的社区能够以一小部分的成本成为智能城市，同时使发达城市能够将成本降至最低，并使效率最大化。肯塔基州的路易斯维尔市是这项研究的合作城市。为了确保路易斯维尔作为一座智慧城市为市民服务，该项目采取了“以人为本的设计”，并结合了“以活动为中心的设计”的方法。目标是确保智慧城市系统的设计考虑到社区成员的需求和关切，并对他们有用。例如，成功的设计必须敏感于对数据隐私的担忧，以及数据将如何用于改善城市内的生活质量。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Smart cities offer the potential to improve the public health, safety and welfare by integrating intelligent technology into the built environment. For example, Internet-of-things (IoT) devices deployed throughout a city can be used for real-time crime detection and monitoring, or to collect data on the movement of people in a way that enables more intelligent decisions about how to design the built environment itself. However, smart city projects can be extremely expensive to deploy and manage. Cities such as San Diego, New Orleans, London, and Songdo have either proposed or invested in smart city projects that cost between $30 Million and $40 Billion. In addition to the cost of deploying and maintaining the IoT devices themselves, a significant portion of the expense is a result of providing Internet connectivity via 5G or WiFi to those devices. These costs are a major barrier to the widespread deployment of smart city technology and the social benefits that may ensue from that technology. To alleviate the costs, this project proposes use of delay tolerant networks (DTNs) as a backbone for smart city communication. DTNs provide opportunistic networking connections in areas with little to no infrastructure. Messages are delivered with some delay which is directly correlated with the layout, density, and mobility of nodes in the network. Recognizing that some data are needed in real-time, this project seeks to investigate advancements in edge-computing, while optimizing the placement and use of internet-connected nodes in the network. For data that can tolerate delays, this project proposes to use the natural movement of people and vehicles through a city to transfer data between nodes. In this way, the citizens become an integral part of the smart city network itself. The goal is to enable developing communities to become smart cities at a fraction of the cost along with enabling developed cities to minimize cost and maximize efficiency. The City of Louisville, Kentucky, is the partnered city for this research. To ensure that Louisville as a smart city serves its citizens, the project takes a “human centered design,” combined with “activity centered design” approach. The goal is to ensure that the design of the smart city system takes into account the needs and concerns of community members and is useful to them. For example, a successful design must be sensitive to concerns about data privacy, and to how the data will be used to improve quality of life within the city.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.