Towards Large-Scale IoT Deployments in Smart Cities: Requirements and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a significant role in the development and future evolution of smart cities by connecting physical devices and systems to the Internet to collect and exchange data, automate processes, and improve overall urban management and quality of life. This chapter presents the requirements and challenges to realize IoT deployments in smart cities, including sensing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), computing platforms, and enabling communication technologies such as 5G beyond networks. To highlight these challenges in practice, the chapter also presents a real-world case study of a city-scale deployment of IoT air quality monitoring within the city of Helsinki. The results demonstrate the role that IoT plays in future smart cities, illustrating how deployments of air quality monitoring devices can benefit decision-making by supporting local air pollution monitoring, traffic management, and urban planning. Lastly, the chapter discusses the role of AI and other emerging technologies on the future of smart cities.