IoT in Smart Cities

IOT IN SMART CITIES IOT IN SMART CITIES 8 8 IOT IN SMART CITIES IOT IN SMART CITIES (SMART TRAFFIC / SMART PARKING) Name of the University Name of the student Author note IoT is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to create smart cities with the use of smart devices and big data analytics to address various social and technical problems. With the involvement of IoT technology, businesses, society and individuals get the opportunity to access new services and applications as well as

Running head: IOT IN SMART CITIES
IOT IN SMART CITIES (SMART TRAFFIC / SMART PARKING)
Name of the University
Name of the student
Author note

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IoT is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to create smart cities with the
use of smart devices and big data analytics to address various social and technical problems.
With the increase in usage in IoT devise the interoperability among various devices is crucial.
At present, cities around the world face a lot of challenges which are related to social
resilience, environmental sustainability, economic growth, parking and traffic and job
creation. Pollution is a common factor in major cities due to the emissions from various
vehicles and this issue is aggravated with the increasing traffic congestion [15]. With the
involvement of IoT technology, businesses, society and individuals get the opportunity to
access new services and applications as well as volumes of data to improve the efficiency of
the society, reduce power consumption and develop a cleaner environment.
Among the broad concept of smart cities, one of the fastest adopted and growing
concept is smart parking or smart traffic. The benefits of automated smart parking has
been realized by a number of entities like city garages, shopping centres, universities and
airports [12]. This technology is only possible due to the internet of things which gives the
ability of automating, analysing and collecting data from various sensors of the devices.
Smart parking involves technologies that monitors unavailable and available parking
spots with the help of real time applications and data and low cost sensors. The main reason
for adopting this technology is to reduce the time in searching for a proper parking spot
manually. Some smart parking solutions apply other technologies such as car searching
functionalities, notifications for parking time and online payments.
There are several benefits of using this technology. The technology will allow
optimized parking solutions. The smart parking allows users to find a proper parking spot for
the car, thus reducing effort, resources and time. As the parking lots get filled up efficiently,
the corporate and commercial entities can utilize the free space properly [14]. The smart

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parking also helps to reduce traffic congestion. As fewer cars have to drive around for finding
a proper parking spot, with the integration of the new technology the traffic flow will increase
considerably with lesser cars on road. The third benefit of using this technology is the
reduction in pollution [14]. Research has shown that every day, over a million barrels of oil
are exhausted due to parking problems. With the advent of smart parking technology, the cars
would not need to drive for long hours, thus saving on emissions and contributing to reduced
carbon footprint for the environment.
Smart parking also helps to enhance the user experience. The smart parking should
be able to integrate various experiences of the user in unified hub. The arrival process of the
destination integrates several informations such as time notifications, location search, spot
identification and driver’s payment. It will also allow to create a new revenue stream by
allowing users to create a new tiered payment system which is dependent on the location of
the parking space. The existing models can be integrated with other reward programs to
encourage more users to avail the technology [13]. It additionally allows for integrated POS
and Payment systems. By availing application payment and accounting invoicing from
mobiles, users can negate the usage of manual cash for parking payment. The system can also
integrate customer feedback system and have customer loyalty programs. Smart parking also
provides the benefit of increased safety. Suspicious activity and parking violations can be
prevented with the help of real time data that is collected from IoT devices present around the
parking location. Pertinent footage can be gathered from cameras that recognizes license
plates [7].
Moreover, due to reduced searching for a proper parking place, the chances of
accidents due to distraction is lowered considerably. The smart parking involves the usage of
user data that can be used for finding trends and correlations. These data can be used for
analysis to improve certain adjustments for certain drivers. The smart parking technology will

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help to decrease the management costs due to less resource exhaustion and labour costs and
more automation [9]. This advanced technology can also help to increase the brand image of
a particular entity such as corporate offices, airports and retail stores which attracts a lot of
customers.
The smart traffic light will help the users to cut the travel time. These lights will
change for emergency vehicles and will adjust itself according to the rush hours in the
implemented region. Moreover, the advanced processors and sensors on the road will help the
lights to adjust automatically in real time [10]. Traffic delays will be reduced which will have
a major implication economically and environmentally.
There are several vulnerability and security concerns that are related to this
technology. As the smart parking technology is based on information technology and internet
of things, it is prone to hacking. Moreover, as the data is collected and processed through the
sensors present in the IoT devices, the online payment methods related to the smart parking
technology can be compromised by unscrupulous attackers [8]. According to a report
produced by the NCC, the applications that are used for smart parking have several security
vulnerabilities as inadequate cryptographic implementations have been made to them. The
security concern regarding this is serious as an attacker who has control over the parking
mechanism of a car can direct the car to an unknown area where the attackers can face the
users face to face for malicious purposes. The users can face issues due to harassment, assault
and theft. Institutions which promote smart parking should understand the importance of
parking security as it can directly affect their insurance rates and business reputation.
According to a survey (National Crime Victimization) carried out by Bureau of Justice
Statistics, between the year 2004 and 2008, over 2 million cries have been conducted in
parking garages. This number is surely going to increase with automation and the reduction
in physical labour [11]. With the rise in terrorist attacks and bombings from 2001, this

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technology can be used as a vector for performing these criminal attacks [16]. Blind spots
are another security concern for smart parking where inadequate access controls, surveillance
and lighting conditions in a parking lot can be used for performing heinous crimes. Other
vulnerabilities of this technology is the conflict between procedures and policies, failure to
respond to incidents, improper personnel training and lack of security presence. Another
security threat can come from man in the middle attack. The attacker can gain control over
the network through an infected device. Often, the smart parking applications are connected
to mobile data instead of public Wi-Fi networks. This makes it difficult for the hacker to gain
the network control of the device but the security threat is not eliminated entirely as the
attacker can easily create a base station with fake GSMs [12]. Often, users save their
passwords and PINs in the application that is used for smart parking. These personal
information along with credit card information can be accessed by the attacker by
decompiling the app.
Wellington CBD is a renowned tourist destination in New Zealand. Till 2016, the
people has to pay parking sessions through parking meters where the users have to show the
ticket and make sure that they return back in time before the ticket validity runs out.
Traditional methods were used in the parking areas such as infringement notices, chalking
method and patrolling of time restricted areas by officers. From mid-2016, Wellington
decided to adopt the SmartPark solution along with the PaymyPark application [1]. Around
4000 vehicle detection sensors which are RFID equipped were deployed which showed real
time data with the PaymyPark application. The app helped to guide the car to the destined
location and allowed the remote online payment system for the parked cars [4]. The data was
then analysed with the cloud based tool of smart parking to decipher the behavioural patterns
of the drivers on how they use the parked spaces which would help Wellington in improving
their parking services.

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The solution helped Wellington to improve their smart capital approach to the
transport choices and the real time analysis of the parking information helped Wellington to
improve their usage of parking space, occupancy and turnover rates. The users had to stop
worrying about returning back to the car for displaying the parking tickets and allowed it to
check the historic data from the SmartRep for implementing proper ways to park in the
destination.
The smart cities will be delivered primarily by the governments and the companies
and the individuals have to work hard to sustain those developments by indulging in the
smart city technologies.
To handle the huge amount of data that are created from smart cities, big data
platform will be used. The huge amounts of data needs to be processed and analysed for
determining efficient trends and patterns that will be used by big data.
The role of wireless in implementing smart cities can be differentiated into three
categories. The first category is Applications. In smart cities, there are several places where
applications are used such as smart buildings, smart education, smart transport and smart
energy [5]. The wireless technologies are used here in operation centres, citizen portals,
enterprise portals and city dashboards.
Next comes the backend systems, where the wireless technologies such as Zigbee and
low energy Bluetooth are used for billing, AAA, BSS, OSS and integration and analytics [6].
Wireless technologies such as SnMP and MQTT are used in Tablets, phones, motes and
nodes, controllers and gateways.
Wireless technologies such as 3G, 4G, 5G, Bluetooth low energy, DASH 7,
Enocean, ETSI LAN, LoRa, WAvenis, Wifi and Zigbee are used in smart cities. These are
used as the sensors in the IoT devices consume low battery power which is essential for

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powering up a smart city infrastructure. Moreover, these technologies are used because of
their low cost in implementation. The combination of cost restraints and low requirement of
power are the main reason for implementing the wireless technologies and a bunch of
protocols are used to function them properly.
There are several challenges that needs to be addressed by IoT in smart cities
especially smart parking. Presently over 50% people live in cities. This number is likely
going to increase in the coming years which will decrease the quality of life. Autonomous
cars and electric vehicles are still not included in the smart parking scenario. Without human
interaction, these AI vehicles pose as a challenge for the smart parking technology [3]. To
enhance mobility, the city infrastructure needs to be improved and the public transport has to
evolve with the changing scenario. Dynamic systems should be available so that the traffic
can be guided properly to the parking destination. For the prosperity of the smart cities, the
IoT and the other vehicles should try to reach the zero carbon footprint to enhance
sustainability of the environment. Ecological and effective parking needs to be encouraged so
that the drivers can find a proper parking spot safely and quickly with the minimum
consumption of energy.
Other challenges include improper lighting of the garages and lack of smart lights for
safe parking conditions. Electric vehicle charging stations need to be implemented in the
parking garages to attract more customer base for the proposed technology [13]. Lastly, the
smart parking technology needs to take into account the increasing number of AI vehicles on
the street and needs to incorporate proper vehicle guidance system for driverless cars to park
safely.
The integration of IoT in the smart cities also enables the open sharing of data and
allows more engagement among citizens which is important for improving the life of citizens,

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decrease costs and increase productivity [2]. Implementing the smart parking would be a
major investment for the company and government. Reports state that currently for every
vehicle there are four parking spots available. This technology will enhance the ability to find
these spots and even create more available spots. With the rise in population and
urbanization, it is crucial to implement this technology effectively to provide a convenient
and well planned solution for parking that can be used all around the world.
References
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