Innovations

Internet of Things

Code

PT4.18

Title

Internet of Things

Case study/reference

COSMOS Research Project (2016). COSMOS: Cultivate resilient smart Objects for Sustainable city pplications, European Commission, FP7. Available: http://iot-cosmos.eu/

Foell, S., Kortuem, G., Rawassizadeh, R., Handte, M., Iqbal, U., & Marron, P. (2014). ‘Micro-navigation for urban bus passengers: using the internet of things to improve the public transport experience’, First International Conference on IoT in Urban Space, Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

Intel (2014), Building an Intelligent Transportation System with the Internet of Things (IoT). Available: http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/program/embedded/internet-of-things/blueprints/iot-building-intelligent-transport-system-blueprint.pdf

Marr, B. (2015) ‘How Big Data And The Internet Of Things Improve Public Transport In London’, Forbes. Available : http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/05/27/how-big-data-and-the-internet-of-things-improve-public-transport-in-london/#479bb3e83ab3

Proximus (2015) ‘Proximus first to launch commercial offer for “Internet of Things” via new LoRa™-network’. Available : https://www.proximus.com/en/news/proximus-first-launch-commercial-offer-internet-things-new-lora-network

UITP (2015), ‘The Internet of Things is already improving Public Transport’. Available: http://www.uitpmilan2015.org/content/internet-things

Some applications are very purpose-specific, such as Transport for London’s IoT platform for the city’s Public Transport System (Marr, 2015) and the Madrid use case for Awareness for Smart Public Transport (COSMOS, 2016). Other ones are much broader and seek to develop an ecosystem of IoT applications over different sectors, such as the “LoRa” IoT network in Belgium and Luxemburg (Proximus, 2015).

Recommendations for the design

All types of stakeholders (public, private) have a potential role to play in IoT applications. In Public Transport, specifically, Public Transport Authorities and Operators have a prominent role to play, as they could be the initiators, managers and main funders of IoT applications. Private sector businesses have an essential role to play in developing and managing IoT platforms and applications, as subcontractors to the Public Sector. Users have also an important role to play, by feeding the system with their data, as well as using and developing IoT-related applications.

Recommendations for the implementation

All of the above mentioned factors are critical to IoT applications. Since the IoT refers to new technologies in new and innovative uses, there are serious issues of technological feasibility and maturity, especially when legacy infrastructure is involved. Since data collection and processing is integral in IoT applications, there are serious legal and institutional issues that will have to be addressed. Finally, large scale infrastructure developments may incur significant costs, especially since new technologies are involved.

Brief description

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the process whereby appliances and devices transmit information over the Internet. IoT applications in Public Transport concentrate around vehicle dynamics monitoring, fleet management and value-added services, providing an unprecedented opportunity for improving passenger experience, increasing service reliability and security and reducing operational costs.

Full description

CIPTEC score

3.8