Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1386104
38 I ICT TODAY What is Driving the Demand? Data needs have expanded. The more data people have, the more they need and want it. Data is not only impor- tant for companies but also for cities and communities. In their jobs, people think of data as what they use to track daily activities, communicate, and record company information. However, there is a wave of data that exists for "silent" communications, which is data that is not generally seen or recorded but instead used to create solution sets and outcomes necessary for action by an application. This machine-to-machine (M2M) and nearfield communications data is comprised of relatively silent bits and bytes. Good examples are sensors in cars that sense events and create an action on that event, such as collision avoid- ance. Smartphone pay applications and smart credit cards are other examples. They do not need to communicate all of the sale information. They simply need to share the result set of the transaction. Smart homes, smart office buildings, and smart cities have many command-based communicators as well. While many of these communications do not lead to data storage, they still contribute to bandwidth used in the various frequencies in which they communicate. Autonomous operation of drones, vehicles, and agricul- tural equipment also add to the demand, and these services are not always city-centric. For autonomous transport to work, the communications for these appli- cations need to be available ubiquitously. To reiterate, ICT is simply not there yet from a communications and connectivity standpoint. These demands are where the entrance of smart cities and smart communities become increasingly important. Although the definition of smart cities/smart commu- nities varies widely from city to city, for the purpose of this article, they are defined as the collection of appli- cations and devices that use common infrastructures, data centers, and device-level repositors for the communication of critical and non-critical data. There are multiple reasons to begin planning for communities: • Improve the quality of life for residents • Money saving technologies that the city can realize for increasing profits and decreasing expenses • Decrease carbon footprint (e.g., lighting, charging, traffic) • Improve life and property safety • Improve communications in and around the city • Improve transportation • Provide interactions between systems • Smart metering and resident empowerment through data Chasing a Moving Target and the Importance of Planning One thing in life and communications is certain, change. As more services come online, the need to increase capacity increases. There certainly was no magic crystal ball to have predicted the onslaught of data transfer due to remote working and learning. Multitudes discovered that their communications lines were woefully inade- quate. This inadequacy makes smart city and community models that much more important. Indeed, in areas where there are communications deserts, the ability to utilize city services can be a lifesaver. One component of smart communities is the communications layer. Some are shared; some are consumed solely by city services. To begin planning, the principals must determine what the city/community needs and what the residents need in terms of services. Without resident buy in, the resultant costs may simply be prohibitive. That said, there have been many studies that show people will pay more to live where their services are automated and communications are fluid and unhindered by bottlenecks. Wi-Fi 6-enabled devices can work faster, last longer, and have a larger radius of coverage than previous Wi-Fi iterations.