Everything you Wanted to Know about Smart Cities

This article is a single source introduction to the emerging concept of smart cities. It can be used for familiarizing researchers to the vast scope of research possible in this application domain. The smart city is primarily a concept and there is still not a clear and consistent definition of among practitioners and academia. In a simplistic explanation, a smart city is a place where traditional networks and services are made more flexible, efficient, and sustainable with the use of information, digital and telecommunication technologies, to improve its operations for the benefit of its inhabitants. Smart cities are greener, safer, faster and friendlier. The different components of a smart city include smart infrastructure, smart transportation, smart energy, smart healthcare, and smart technology. These components are what makes the cities smart and efficient. Information and communication technology (ICT) are enabling keys for transforming traditional cities to smart cities. The two closely related emerging technology frameworks Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data (BD) make smart cities efficient and responsive. The technology has matured reasonably to allow smart cities to emerge. However, there is much need in terms of physical infrastructure, renewable energy, ICT, and IoT, and BD to make the majority of cities worldwide smart.