When we talk about Smart Cities, we preconceive them as merely an application for citizens to access information about the city. At IoE Corp, we think a smart city should be more than an app on citizens' phones to check the weather, traffic, and news about their city. We understand that the purpose of transforming a city for the future is more than this and that other deployments help build a smart city, or as we call it - an informed city.
We see the value of deploying solutions for the city's core infrastructure to provide valuable water and waste treatment and traffic and energy management. These solutions predict maintenance and target necessary actions to maintain a thriving town; this is possible through a decentralized software platform working in a sustainable and compute-efficient way - autonomously and in real-time on a 24/7 basis.
So what are the benefits? Informed Infrastructure helps to solve pipeline leakage that can result in water waste or, even worse, sinkholes. Potential potholes are mitigated through traffic density and weather controls, and our air and water quality monitoring enables targeted treatment by discovering pollution. All these solutions that Informed Infrastructure provides boost city planning, result in cost-efficiency for the city, provide efficient city maintenance, reduce healthcare costs, and ignite accident prevention, ultimately saving lives. Building a city with Informed Infrastructure transforms it into a safer, more efficient, and sustainable place for citizens to live and thrive.
Internet of Everything Corporation's (IoE Corp) Informed Infrastructure approach provides a product adaptable to all massive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. Therefore, cities are not the only projects that can benefit from IoE Informed Infrastructure, water treatment plants, supply management chains in all industry verticals, and government can also take advantage.
Informed Infrastructure resides on the invisible level that end-users don't see. Currently, the solution applied is cloud service providers. But connecting millions of sensors to a centralized cloud at an undefined location is an unviable option. The real-time nature of a Smart system depends on predictable computational returns, and cloud service providers can't assure this.
Intelligent solutions for massive embedded system deployments need to transform data into information using computing to make decisions, and these decisions need to be made in real-time. Current cloud infrastructure creates a lag and might not handle the data streams, so findings come too late or can not be trusted.
There are two alternatives to using the cloud; the first solution is to construct colossal server farms at each installation, localized clouds. The other answer is to cluster the city's sensor-device hardware into Edge computing units. The latter is possible as most sensor pack devices currently contain strong ARM processors that can be equipped with AI coprocessors.
Having local compute clusters will keep the data at the source, so information processing is guaranteed in real-time. For example, let's take an intersection that generates terabytes of data per day. With today's solutions, all the data is sent to a cloud server farm that produces extra costs for no reason as the data to information computing, with device clustering can happen at the intersection.
In this way, Informed Infrastructure can extract from the intersection relevant data to information, like congestions, accidents, and traffic violations. Additionally, data lakes can be included in the cluster so that each pool of devices contains a Data Lake. This approach reduces costs, is more efficient, and assures decision-makers that the information received is on time and trustable.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an excellent tool for data processing and analysis, providing automation, predictable maintenance, and efficiency. But it also requires enormous amounts of computing power to offer the results and long periods of learning time. Our technological advancements provide ways to decrease the vast costs that AI processing via the cloud involves, overcoming these issues.
By having embedded AI at the source, inside the devices, the data generation isn't done on all the data but using floating windows. In this way, we can have pattern mining in data streams, and as a pattern is identified, computing kicks in. A solution that provides data to information refinement in tiers, generating useful AI processed information at the source. That is exceptionally efficient in massive IoT deployments as the data developed that needs to be refined into information is not constant but bursting.
This technological innovation allows for AI to be sustainable and efficient, which is a significant game-changer considering large IoT installations produce immense amounts of data. And as indicated earlier, this raw data, in a high percentage, is of no use to decision-makers, as most of it has no critical events occurring. Therefore, IoT projects use embedded AI IoE informed infrastructure to offer decision-makers accurate information when required, reducing the AI learning curve.
Another vital aspect of massive IoT installations is keeping data generation secure and private. To this end, IoE Informed Infrastructure's data generation is moved to quantum-safe tunnels using polymorphic encryption keys. It uses a blockchain with consensus to verify the data transferred between the nodes over the tunnels, thus creating trusted data within Online Private Gardens, achieving data trust in Zero-Trust environments.
Decentralization keeps the system safe from cyberattacks; because they are mitigated with blockchain technology. Blockchain consensus, logic, and rules alert the other nodes about a device deviating from its assigned task. When this occurs, that device is isolated, and if infected by malicious malware, it cannot spread the virus throughout the system.
Another benefit of decentralization is it empowers the system with the possibility for other nodes to take on the tasks assigned to the infected node. A procedure triggered when the hardware inputs erroneous data due to malfunctioning opens a window for the infected or malfunctioning node to be physically examined to be fixed or replaced.
Looking in more detail into use cases where IoE Informed Infrastructure can be applied, cities' infrastructure is the most obvious. But the complexity of city infrastructure overlaps with other industry verticals, like construction, real estate, energy and utilities, transport, and ports. IoE Informed Infrastructure provides an ample array of city infrastructure solutions that citizens can appreciate and act on tangible solutions like predictive maintenance. In this sense, the impact it gives to city dwellers is observed in their pockets and optimization of their time.
Implementing IoE Informed Infrastructure in buildings' plumbing systems ignites cost-effective and efficient maintenance. For example, learning about a potential pipeline leak can mitigate future budget-breaking fixtures. This type of solution for homeowners and real estate agencies demonstrates the tremendous potential digitalization can offer directly to them. Thus, the initial investments required for the digital transformation of city buildings can be easier to approve by stakeholders.
To make it even more precise, let's look at some water damage statistics within the U.S. that our informed infrastructure can help to mitigate:
· Approximately $11,000 is the average insurance claim per home.
· The percentage of U.S. basements that experience water damage rises to +90%.
· Flooding risks reach over 14M U.S. homes.
· Around 14,000 people are affected by a water damage emergency on any given day.
· The annual nationwide water damage costs reach $20 billion.
The possibility of pothole prediction also positively affects commuters' pockets, as vehicles are less vulnerable to breakdowns. Vehicle repairs due to potholes can range from hundreds to a thousand dollars; if we can eliminate these expenses, you keep city drivers happy. Another benefit is the time loss, as potholes need to be repaired, streets can be closed for roadworks, creating long queues or even traffic jams. As a result, the time spent on the road can be exponentially higher.
What are the costs of potholes in the U.S.?
· Overall, potholes cost a staggering $3 billion to U.S. drivers annually.
· Impacting a deep pothole can be compared to a 35-mph accident.
· In 2021, Missouri saw over 500,000 potholes patched, costing taxpayers $18M.
In other industry verticals like critical infrastructure, i.e., energy and utilities, a huge problem that can be life-threatening and costly are gas or petrol pipeline leakages or cracks. If these are not promptly located and fixed, the potential dangers can cause economic and social havoc. As just one accident can have terrible consequences:
· 2010 a pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Michigan - Released an estimated 19,500 barrels of crude oil into a creek, wetlands, and the Kalamazoo River. It was not until 2014 that the institutions approved the cleaning complete, although there are remains on the river bed of the spill that will never be clean.
Another crucial aspect that needs to be considered when discussing energy and utilities is cybersecurity, as state-sponsored and organized groups constantly target critical infrastructure. A recent example of these risks that have exponentially grown due to digital transformation, i.e., IoT systems:
· Colonial Oil Pipeline - On May 7th, 2021, it was hit by a ransomware attack, stealing over 100 GB of data and costing Colonia $5 million in cryptocurrency. And collateral damage rose the average US cost of gas per gallon nationally to the highest cost in over six years.
Actioning IoE's informed infrastructure within healthcare systems and buildings also provides a set of advantages. In many cases, hospitals' air quality can be compromised due to the high level of illnesses that circulate within them, a situation that can spread disease inside these healthcare buildings. We don't have to go back in time too much to look at the consequences of air quality in healthcare:
· Covid-19 pandemic - The Coronavirus pandemic hit the world in early 2020, and a good deal of healthcare staff was infected by the virus inside hospitals, known as HAIs (Healthcare-Associated Infections).
IoE Informed Infrastructure solves all the above situations. It can provide a flowing stream of data to information refinement on a 24/7 basis, delivered to the exact professional or machine at the precise time. And it is securing the data generation and keeping it private inside Online Private Gardens via the capacity of the blockchain's immutability.
From the viewpoint of corporations, governments, institutions, and the healthcare system, applying IoE's informed infrastructure to their massive IoT installations means cost-efficiency. Acquiring this technology benefits them because it permits them to act on potentially disastrous situations before they happen. Giving corporations a quick ROI, governments the capacity to lower taxes, institutions to divert budgets to other assets, and healthcare systems lower hospital risks for their patients and visitors. A situation that is also acknowledged by:
· End-consumers (better customer experience)
· Citizens (tax decrease combined with better living standards)
· Institution affiliates (receiving better services)
· Patients (quicker time of recovery)
The potential that digital transformation can sow into society, business, and our ecosystem is exponential, but it needs well-thought-after planning to reach it. Otherwise, the promise of tech becoming a real asset for the well-being of humanity and our planet will never be achieved, as we have seen in the past five years that have brought no real change to cities' infrastructure.
The informed infrastructure that IoE provides is processed through a decentralized virtual, autonomous knowledge-based AI software. Learn more about the technology that processes, analyzes, stores, and delivers securely, cost-efficiently, and sustainably onsite the data to information refinement produced by IoE Informed Infrastructure; Eden System.
