Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Apr 23;20(8):2402.
doi: 10.3390/s20082402.

Interoperable Open Specifications Framework for the Implementation of Standardized Urban Platforms

José L Hernández  1 , Rubén García  1 , Joachim Schonowski  2 , Daniel Atlan  3 , Guillaume Chanson  4 , Timo Ruohomäki  5
Affiliations

Interoperable Open Specifications Framework for the Implementation of Standardized Urban Platforms

José L Hernández et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

The current cities' urban challenges go through digitalization and integration of new technologies under the perspective of actual and future ecological, as well as socio-economic commitments. This process is translated into the Open Standardized Urban Data Platform, which plays a pivotal role. Within its main functionalities, data ingestion, analytics and services as vertical domains become necessary to create more environmentally friendly cities. However, there still exist some deficits. Among them, openness and interoperability are outlined. On the one hand, there is a lack of open data initiatives for increasing the smart services stock. On the other hand, interoperability depends upon vendors and integrators, reducing the possibilities of Smart City growth. In this context, under the mySMARTLife project (GA #731297) umbrella, an Open Specifications Framework has been developed in order to address four main issues: (1) data interoperability; (2) services or verticals interoperability; (3) openness; and (4) replicability. It enlightens the implementation and integration of multiple city domains (like infrastructures, mobility, energy, buildings) for smart management and big-data analytics. Its applicability is demonstrated in the three lighthouse cities of the project, Nantes (France), Hamburg (Germany) and Helsinki (Finland).

Keywords: interoperability; open data; open specifications framework; open standards; smart city; smart services; urban data platform.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union) reference architecture for Smart City Urban Platforms.
Figure 2
Figure 2
ESPRESSO project reference architecture.
Figure 3
Figure 3
mySMARTLife proposed Open Specifications Framework.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Data management procedure defined within mySMARTLife.
Figure 5
Figure 5
SensorThingsAPI (application programming interface) entity-relationship schema [29].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Nantes urban platform reference architecture.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Adapted graphic of DIN Spec 91357 towards an Open Standard-based Urban Platform of Hamburg in mySMARTLife. It follows a “system of systems” according EIP SCC (European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities) ensuring full interoperability using standardized APIs and connectors from OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) and oneM2M.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Helsinki urban platform reference architecture under the City-as-a-Platform concept.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nations: Social Affairs. [(accessed on 15 January 2019)]; Available online: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-....
    1. Romualdo-Suzuki L. Requirements Specification for Urban Platforms. European Commission; Brussels, Belgium: 2016. [(accessed on 22 April 2020)]. European Commission EIP SCC (Integrated Infrastructures Action Cluster-Urban Platform). Technical Report v2.2. Available online: https://eu-smartcities.eu/sites/default/files/2017-09/EIP_RequirementsSp....
    1. Heuser L. Reference Architecture & Design Principles. European Commission; Brussels, Belgium: 2017. [(accessed on 22 April 2020)]. European Commission EIP SCC Work Stream 2. Technical Report v1.0. Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?docu....
    1. Facchin I., De Lathouwer B. D4.3: Products and Best Practices for Smart City Implementations. ESPRESSO Project; Brussels, Belgium: 2017. [(accessed on 22 April 2020)]. ESPRESSO Project—Technical Report v1.4. Available online: http://espresso.espresso-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/D4-86666.....
    1. Ghasempour A. Optimum number of aggregators based on power consumption, cost, and network lifetime in advanced metering infrastructure architecture for Smart Grid Internet of Things; Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference; Las Vegas, NV, USA. 9–12 January 2016.

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources