Smart Cities Look to the Edge for Next Level Urban Planning
Source: RT insights Published: July 2, 2020
If edge computing capabilities can be woven into the very fabric of our cities, this might come to revolutionize the way we interact with them.
Over the past decade, many cities have launched huge (and hugely expensive) “smart city” initiatives. In the early years of this shift, the focus was on the collection and centralization of data. However, in recent years a new model has emerged – de-centralized data processing performed “at the edge.” As edge computing has become more common, data engineers working for city governments and industry have become more adept at equipping existing systems with IoT and edge processing functionality, and at using AI and ML to extract actionable insights.
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However, there remains another challenge when it comes to drawing on the power of edge computing in smart cities: building edge capabilities into city systems at the design stage. Doing this requires that urban planners be aware of the way in which de-centralized edge computing works.
In this article, we’ll look at the potential advantages of edge computing for urban planners working in smart cities, some of the challenges they will face in realizing these benefits, and then look to the future of the smart city.