Swiss technology company Paradox Engineering is enhancing its PE Smart Urban Network platform for interoperable open cities by integrating blockchain technology to increase cyber security and enable the monetisation of urban device-generated data.
 
Components for smart lighting and smart parking have also been announced.
 
All the features were disclosed at last month’s Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
 
“It’s time to change the game for smart cities,” said Gianni Minetti, CEO at Paradox Engineering. “Over the edge cyber security is in order, as is turning cost saving into revenue generation and boosting new economies. The internet of things is not only about connecting devices into an open and interoperable network, it is about information becoming tangible value for the benefit of all, citizens, businesses and city managers. Since the very inception of PE Smart Urban Network, back in 2011, and now as part of Minebea Mitsumi Group and the uCIFI Alliance, we have always envisioned openness and security by design. Today, we are moving one step forward by integrating blockchain for cyber security and data tokenisation.”
 
PE Smart Urban Network integrates blockchain technology and makes commissioning and operational procedures of smart urban infrastructures intrinsically secure. The combination of blockchain, dedicated hardware security modules on devices, reliable encryption and other features is said to put PE Smart Urban Network at the forefront of cyber security, and allows cities to move away from the conventional bastion defence paradigm to benefit from security-by-design network systems.
 
Blockchain technology integrated in Paradox’s platform also allows monetisation of device-related data from streetlights, parking lots, waste bins, environmental sensors and other urban objects. Such data can be transformed into tradable tokens: for instance, the information a parking sensor generates about the car lot being vacant or busy can become a token and traded to offer smart parking services.
 
In so doing, parking operators buy info-tokens from the city, fuelling their service business; travellers save time and consume less; cities turn their parking sensor investment into revenues, while benefitting from lower traffic and pollution, and higher quality of life.
 
Info-tokens can stem from virtually any sensors in the city. For example, environmental data such as density of PM10 e PM2.5 particulates, carbon monoxide and so on can be used for traffic-mitigation applications to manage restricted traffic zones dynamically upon the improvement or worsening of air quality. Universities, start-ups and any local organisation can design applications and services by mashing-up different data streams.
 
 
PE Smart Urban Network can be enriched by the Minebea Mitsumi’s dual smart parking sensor, which uses a coupled magnetic field sensor and radar sensor for vehicle detection, and Minebea Mitsumi’s smart LED streetlight, an energy-efficient LED lamp.
 
These components seamlessly integrate the hardware and software portfolio of PE Smart Urban Network’s open IPv6 and 6LowPan infrastructure, with its extensible PE Smart CMS, smart nodes and gateways. PE Smart Urban Network is a single, interoperable infrastructure managing multi-sensor wireless IoT applications such as smart lighting, smart parking and smart waste, and wireless high-speed IoT services such as pervasive wifi, video surveillance and other high-bandwidth applications.
 
Established in 2005 and headquartered in Switzerland, Paradox is part of the Minebea Mitsumi group.