IEEE COMSOC VIRTUAL MEETING–101920-BUILD SAFE AND SMART CITIES—WITH 5G
| January 5, 2021 | Posted by Frank Gomez under COMSOC, General |
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Report IEEE COMSOC Chapter in IEEE FOOTHILL SECTION on the VIRTUAL IEEE COMSOC presentation held October 19,2020
Cognitive Approach to Building a Safe and Smart Cities/Societies
Presented by Fawzi Behmann, IEEE NAR (North America Region R1 through R7) Officer-Lead
Primary sponsor: IEEE Saint Maurice Section, located in Trois Rivieres, Province of Quebec, CANADA; Professor Pierce Mooney
Joint event sponsors were IEEE Sections in Orlando and Puerto Rico / Caribbean sections.
A current and perennial topic within the city planning arena is how to make cities safer, more efficient and sustainable for those who choose to reside there. . Developed cities around the world are actively launching “smart” solutions, that is, solutions that will use the currently available technology in their redesign and construction. In the developing world new and emerging cities are integrating “intelligent” connected systems from the start. The opportunities are immense—across infrastructure, people mobility, energy availability coupled with energy usage, integrated healthcare solutions, and the food production and distribution cycle. Developing innovative technology applications, from all the technical engineering and scientific fields and integrating these together in city/ urban planning is the challenge in the coming decades. It is a certainty that electronic communication systems will have a critical part of this effort.
Our presenter today, Fawzi Behmann from the IEEE COMSOC Houston and Galveston Section, shared his insights in many of the areas that will be part of the “Smart City” of the Future. As he showed, it includes many, many other areas than electronic communications (4G. 5G. and Beyond). However, 5G still appears that it will be a significant part in integrating the many other urban development areas.
FIGURE 1—-Our speaker started here. Even if the Smart Cities will be transformative, note that the design of work places, design of water and waste systems, and functioning transportation systems (with a goal of eventual autonomous transportation systems) ; all current planning considerations, will still be on the agenda. In fact, our IEEE COMSOC members need to view their contribution as part of integrated systems engineering effort.
FIGURE 2. Better, highly reliable telecommunication. Including wireless as it is needed, will be an integral part of the future economy. We know that it has inroads in all these areas now.
Many other “concepts” such as machine learning, neural networks, “artificial intelligence”, etc., were noted (in passing)as areas that will be included in the “new industries”, depending on their respective progress.
FIGURE 3—–Part of the list of the initiatives that are part of the global planning for Smart cities is cited in this chart. Note that many of these as community and support goals for a prosperous and functioning society. Fauzi Behmann pointed out these important facts to out IEEE COMSOC engineers. It takes all the people in a city to make it a working and livable city. Just read this list; a COMSOC engineer has to broaden his / her horizons.
FIGURE 4—Now we have a look at what is the deployment status of 5G around the world. As we know from other sources, it is strictly limited to a handful of urban areas in the USA at this time. (The joke is that you have to have a 5G mobile phone and be located in the near shadow of a 5G base-station. Fawzi Behmann did not get to this level of current technical field engineering detail.)
FIGURE 5—-Beware the 5G hyperbole and euphoria of the immense and well paid marketing and PR community. We are living (and surviving quite well) in the 4G and 4g-LTE wireless deployed community. Notice the red line on this chart showing the projected 5G deployed units. Right now we are in low single digits. Lots of work needs to be done to achieve the 5G BW specifications at the higher frequencies (greater than 6 Ghz). Why? So that the urban planners and the broader economy players see the utility in 5G investments
As supplied by our presenter today, some key examples where this 5G technology needs to be technically and cost ROI demonstrated include these area : smart homes, public safety, autonomous driving, healthcare, and smart energy.
It must be carefully noted that this REPORT represents the attendee’s (Frank G Freyne) notes and interpretation of the most important points of this excellent presentation. As noted earlier, the important message is that the IEEE COMSOC engineer should broaden his/ her horizons to see where telecommunications (4G , 4G LTE, 5G and whatever is beyond) fits into public planning for a growing advanced society.
Our thanks to Fawzi Behmann for an excellent presentation.