Issue #2 published by the ALMANAC project, Reliable Smart Secure Internet of Things for Smart Cities - August, 2014

Collaborating with state of the art

ALMANAC has met with the SmartSantander project to share knowledge and look for possible areas of collaboration. The first result is a live traffic data connection between the first ALMANAC prototype and the Santander Platform.

One of the aims of ALMANAC is to demonstrate open and accessible public data in a city context which can be used for applications aimed at citizens and other stakeholders. To gain more knowledge about the design of such applications and best practice, ALMANAC looks at experiences from existing Smart City projects such as the SmartSantander project.

- With more than 15,000 sensors and devices already installed in the city of Santander, the SmartSantander project provides a unique testbed and knowledge base for developing Smart City applications, explains Anders Skovbo Christensen, Senior Consultant from In-JeT.

How are waste and water handled in the City of Turin today? What are the key challenges and how do you envision the future?

Knowledge of existing city structures, services and challenges is crucial when developing sustainable Smart City solutions. Drawing on both existing knowledge from other projects and new insights, partners have gained a strong sense of the Turin context and challenges when it comes to handling waste and water.

During the first year of the project, ALMANAC has held several meetings with the Municipality of Turin, the Azienda Multiservizi Igiene Ambientale Torino (AMIAT) which is the company responsible for collecting waste in Turin, and the water utility Società Metropolitana Acque Torino (SMAT). Meetings have been combined with field visits to plants and treatment facilities to experience some of the processes first hand.

Led by Partner Telecom Italia, ALMANAC has defined an initial Capillary Network infrastructure for collecting data from different devices and ensuring their collection in an ETSI M2M compliant service platform. The prototype has been demonstrated with water sensors.

The term Capillary Network refers to an infrastructure which realises a dedicated network that connects many devices like meters, actuators and sensors. It is especially deployed in areas which cannot be reached by existing telecommunication networks such as sewers and basements where meters and actuators are often installed by utilities.

By collecting data automatically, it becomes possible to automate meter readings which not only saves the cost of physical visits to the meters but also provides more accurate, near real-time consumption data.

ALMANAC exhibited and organised a session on IoT technologies for Smart Cities at the event which attracted 400 participants from more than 20 countries.

At the exhibition, the first workings of the ALMANAC platform were shown with focus on gathering data related to water consumption and waste capacity. The setting included a water network and smart bin, capillary network devices and GUIs for data management and virtualization layer.

The workshop organised by ALMANAC dealt with the uptake of IoT technologies for Smart Citiy infrastructures, moving from technological novelty and piloting to prominent business takeover. Presentations and discussions were on public-private partnerships, solutions for water utilities and reliability and security in smart city networks.