A Survey of Smart City Assets for Future Military Usage

Abstract

The primary purpose of military anywhere around the world is to protect and serve the people. Over the years, the role of the military has diversified which has required the military to serve countries in several capabilities. Be it active wars, intelligence gathering, rescue operations, anti-terrorist operations etc., the modern military has to play a role. Since the military has to adapt to, prepare for and respond to the ever changing dynamics of people and surroundings around the world, it becomes necessary to look into what exists currently and what will form the future. Smart cities are such a phenomenon. The cities around the world are transforming to be “Smart”, to meet various future challenges such as population migration and how to manage the living of such a huge number of people in a relatively small area, improving the quality of various services delivered to citizens, saving and optimizing resource utilization and so on. In such a scenario, where the population and assets need to be protected in Smart Cities, the militaries need to get a hold of the technologies and know the emerging trends in the smart cities. This would give the defence sector a head-start in knowing what capabilities are and would be available so that they are ready to employ their services alongside the Smart City solutions and thus serve their motto optimally. This paper entails the various Smart City assets from various cities as well as involved Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies and tries to provide a picture of what the military in future can integrate with their solutions to serve the Smart Cities.