Green Communication for Cognitive Cities

Introduction

The most recent World Urbanization Prospects report has revealed that 55% of the world’s population is living in urban areas and it is expected to increase up to 70% by 2050. The factors responsible are: better education and job opportunities and great access to amenities like public transportation, sports, and cultural events etc. (Cisco, 2015). These advantages result in growth, and with growth comes strain on existing public services, infrastructure, resources and public safety. The basic need for urban public safety is also one of the biggest forces driving the adoption of “cognitive city” – the ultimate solution to the urban challenges through technological means. Thus, the term cognitive city refers to a city that collects, analyze and distribute information smartly by means of technologies (Yaqoob et. al, 2017). The foundation of such cities is a contemporary smart infrastructure made up of millions of devices/sensors connected through communication networks that collect and process data from these devices. This data is leveraged by various systems and platforms to make decisions or to initiate activities, and to address the needs of users via services and applications. Thus, cognitive city need the seamless Internet connectivity not only to the computers and smart devices carried by people, but also to the “things” with embedded sensors, actuators and networking capabilities to manage environmental, social, economic, and public health issues in future (Talari et. al, 2017). Cognitive city deployment is more than refining the old existing system technologically by simply adding electronic sensors, remote surveillance, and control to enhance existing city services (Wang, Huang, and Zou, 2016). Some of the major applications of cognitive cities have been enlisted in Table 1.