Smart Cities, Smart People, Smart Networks

Creating Next Generation Access with Transformational Digital Infrastructures

Manchester and the Connected Smart Cities Network

Dave Carter, Head, Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA), Manchester City Council Chair, European Connected Smart Cities Network

20100930 www.fireball4smartcities.eu

Smart City Agendas• Smart, inclusive & sustainable growth• Green & Digital• Transformational services• Open innovation, open data, open networks

Future Internet enabled services in Smart Cities• Internet of Things + Cloud + Open Data + 3D printing +

nano...• mapping current experience & knowledge• identifying challenges and opportunities• creating open networks for Smart City collaboration

Urban Open Systems• Smart Cities:

– Smart: innovation, invention & entrepreneurship– Inclusive: multiple deprivation & scale of social exclusion in

urban areas– Sustainable: cities generate 75%+ of emissions = problem &

solution

• Cities as engines of regional growth = Smart Regions– Manchester City Region – MCR = 5% of national economy, 40%

of regional economy– City Region = larger economic unit than Wales, Northern

Ireland or North East of England

• Urban Open Systems = People + Open Data + Co-production

– “From Human Factors to Human Actors” Bannon, J Liam. 1991. “The Role of Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction Studies in System

Design”.

Global connectivity

• UK less than 1% (not actually ‘on the map’)

• Domestic broadband is cheap, widely accessible but slow (20 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up)

• High speed connectivity (100 Mbps+) is very expensive, often more than €500 per month

• Difficult for new businesses to enter the market

Critical Infrastructures• Green, Mobile & Digital• Digital as the new real estate of the 21st century• UK as world leader in creativity and content – way behind in connectivity• MCR is 2nd largest digital & creative sector in UK• Only globally connected Internet Exchange

outside of London• Digital Hub Network: connecting key sites via the Metrolink tram network• Creating transformational digital infrastructure

• open access networks – fibre + wireless• digital hubs – where networks interconnect• backbone networks – build your own networks

• Infinite Bandwidth, Zero Latency (IBZL)

Fibre to the People – key attributes• Fully point-to-point• Fully open to the passive layer• Fully open co-location• Direct connection to carrier neutral Internet Exchange• Living Lab approach:

– User driven open innovation test-bed for new applications: 12 initial sites, 500 businesses, 1,000 residential users

– maximum technical flexibility for property owners and developers to build their own networks and connect

– trialling new business models including shared passive infrastructure and local patchwork on network interconnects

– Potential to scale up re-using public assets, especially the roll-out of the tram network and other transport corridors

Open access: raw material for economic development

Key Characteristics:• Multi-service: open access and competition at all layers• Quality of service: from gigabit to terabit Ethernet and beyond• Symmetry• Speed/cost ratio• Server dispersal and proximity

Key Principles:• P2P dark fibre and duct network• Open access distribution points where SPs & operators can co-locate• Distributed open access hosting locations• Innovative ownership and governance models

Challenges and market distortions:

• Fibre, fibre everywhere but not a drop to light• Creating a free market in dark fibre• “Free enterprise, not privileged enterprise”• Creating new hosting capacity and

competition• Risk averse investors due to recession• FTTC and FTTC+ seen as the only game or even

end-game

Opportunities:

• Testing new ideas, new models and new applications• Next generation public service networks• Media (Content) Distribution Networks and Hubs• Low latency Cloud• Infinite Bandwidth, Low Latency (IBZL)• Foresight: towards Quantum• New IP production environments• Internet of Things, 3D printing, nano and much more• Horizontal unbundling and ‘free trade fibre’• Multi-stakeholder structures – co-investment

Future Internet Research & Experimentation By Adopting Living Labs

Thank You!d.carter@manchesterdda.com