CONCEPT

The concept of the SCENE is to leverage public transportation as an inexpensive way of ensuring cheap connectivity for city-wide sensors. SCENE equips a vehicle network (buses, trams, etc.) with Intelligent Gateways which collect data from sensors  (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LPWAN as LoRa or 6LowPAN) installed around the city. The data is then pre-processed locally and sent to a Central Service Platform for further processing and visualisation. SCENE’s Intelligent Gateways can be used as well by transport companies to offer content (videos, music, touristic information) to passengers.

The main benefits of SCENE are:

  • SCENE allows small and medium sized cities to reap the benefits of smart city services without big investments in coverage or infrastructure.
  • Cheap connectivity for sensors (incl. Heavy duty sensors like video and images), which would have otherwise used expensive 3G/4G connection or needed cabling. By having a vehicle pass by the sensor, the data can be cheaply collected via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LPWAN, etc.
  • SCENE is a smart city platform, which means a municipality can host multiple applications on the same infrastructure installed on the transport network.
  • Fast prototyping of services for local start-ups – Any new service can be launched with loading an application on the Intelligent Gateways.
  • 2-in-1 solution for municipalities and transport companies – smart city platform and content delivery solution reutilising existing infrastructure.

SCENE is designed to be marketed as a solution which can invigorate local SME innovation and allow the customers (municipalities and transport companies) to re-sell the solution in B2B and B2C model towards content and smart city service providers, advertisers, etc.

COMPONENTS

SCENE Intelligent Gateway

 

 

An on-board unit that implements caching and processing capabilities and provides network access tools for sensors. It also implements a framework/installer that enables the installation of basic logic modules for smart city services (following the principles of edge computing) e.g. to handle lack of Internet connectivity scenarios or to allow local processing and consumption of information. The intelligent gateway will be responsible for the communication with content service providers, using standard interfaces such as Web access and Web services.

SCENE dashboard

A web user interface where operators of SCENE can manage and monitor the service. The dashboard will include management controls and monitoring information for the intelligent gateways and entities within the service platform (sensors/intelligent gateways registration, software/firmware upgrade, applications deployment, connectivity status, traffic metrics, etc.). Additionally, it will also show other metrics inferred (by the Analytics module) e.g. related to citizens’ behaviour. SCENE dashboard will consume APIs and interfaces exposed by the service platform.

SCENE Service Platform

The main module for managing the SCENE Platform. It implements all the business logic of the central system, managing the persistence of all the data received by the Intelligent Gateways. It centralizes all the management functionalities for inventory, configurations and status monitoring for IOT sensors, Intelligent Gateways and communication networks. Identity, Access Management and provisioning regarding users, devices and sensors are core functionalities inside the Service Platform. An Analytics module is included, which gathers data to produce reports and statistics about sensors and measures ingested into the data lake. Data analytics will be performed on various statistical and machine learning operations. An API Manager service will be in charge for managing interactions with external smart city services and with the Dashboard. The Service Platform is also responsible for the deployment of smart city applications into the Intelligent Gateways.

SCENE security framework

Based on a distributed set of security components comprising orchestration (implemented at the SCENE Service Platform) and secure access / security detection & reaction nodes (implemented at the SCENE Intelligent Gateways). The service platform allows, by means of a extended SDN API, to monitor and control security entities running on the intelligent gateways. In turn, these latter are both enabled with the capability to perform secure access to locally serviced IoT networks and that of passively monitoring (intrusion detection) these constrained networks. Intelligent gateways also feature advanced self-protection security mechanisms.

MARKET APPLICATIONS

SCENE addresses customer needs in a way no other competitor has done so far by combining technological elements in a new value proposition and addressing the emergent market of smart city initiatives. We target an underserved market niche of cities under 1M inhabitants, who could benefit from smart services, but at the same time cannot afford it due to budget restrictions.

Example types of non-timely sensitive applications where SCENE can bring considerable benefits:

Sensors installed around the city, covering even the most remote areas, collecting relatively small amounts of data (Trash collection, Air pollution, Monitoring of urban infrastructure, etc.). Yet, the collection of this data in a cost effective way over large areas could be very expensive. With SCENE this cost can be significantly lowered.

Collecting heavy content (images, video) with sensors installed in specific areas (Evidence collection) could also become quite expensive due to lack of appropriate connectivity where needed. Considering that LPWAN cannot answer such needs, using 3G/4G to transfer that content to main cloud services could make such applications too expensive to consider.

Processing of data from on-board sensors is another class of market applications of SCENE. In the example of Road quality detection by video processing, a video camera installed on the bottom of a bus creates a continuous video feed about the state of the road. The Intelligent Gateways pre-process the data locally and send to a Central Cloud System only a summary when the bus enters a cheap connectivity area (ex. Wifi in garage).

The SCENE project is testing during the project pilots Monitoring of historic monuments (Catania, Italy), Evidence collection for double parking (Porto, Portugal) and Air quality detection (Rennes, France). In case you would like to discuss your ideas for other applications, you can contact us here.

CUSTOMER BENEFITS

SCENE smart city platform is targeting small and medium cities below 1M inhabitants. It is designed to allow multiple applications to be run at the same time. It is a low-cost way for budget restraint municipalities to offer smart city services.

Municipalities:

Needs:

  • Cost effective and secure ways to enable smart city services
  • Synergies between projects and reusing of infrastructure

Benefits:

  • 2-in-1 solution – Secure Smart city platform and Web content delivery solution in public transport
  • Cost effective way to test and launch smart city services
  • Possibility to resell the solution towards smart city service providers or content providers
  • A testbed to empower local innovation

Smart city service providers:

Needs:

  • To lower the Total Cost of Ownership of smart city services
  • To propose added value services to public and private institutions
  • Rapid testing and piloting

Benefits:

  • Ability to design smart city services by overcoming typical constraints of network coverage – ex. choosing Wi-Fi connection for heavy content sensors
  • Subscription to SCENE – adhering to the platform can be done as simply as installing an app on the Intelligent Gateways and linking to the Central Service Platform
  • Fast testing and prototyping of city-wide services

Transport companies

Needs:

  • To raise the quality of the offered service for passengers
  • To enable smart transport applications in affordable manner

Benefits:

  • Web content delivery (music, videos, tourist information) to passengers and Wi-Fi for the fraction of the price of a network upgrade
  • Ability to host smart transport applications on the platform

“This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and   innovation program under grant agreement n° 831138”