Characteristics of Narrowband IoT (nb-ioT) technology that supports smart city management, based on

Literature review

In order to identify a research gap and systematise available knowledge, the author conducted an analysis of available scientific publications in the thematic area of this article, particularly in Scopus database owing to its global recognisability and prestige. There are surprisingly few publications on the topic discussed. In Scopus, taking into consideration a range from 2016, when the technology was standardised, up to now, there were found 20 results in total, mainly conference proceedings or lectures. They broadly covered the subject of NB-IoT use cases in the smart city space. In particular, the above topics concerned the smart lights (Wang & Yang, 2020), quality of life issues, including waste management (Qi et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2019) or transport (Satyakrishna & Sagar, 2018).
Going further, there could be found publications devoted to NB-IoT technology specification in the reference to IoT itself (Begishev et al., 2017; Cao & Li, 2018; S. Chen et al., 2019; Kabalci & Ali, 2019; Kalfus & Hégr, 2016).
Due to the limited publications and based on the above analysis, it could be concluded that the subject of NB-IoT technology usage in the context of managing smart city has a research potential, what was noticed and used by the author of the article.

3. Narrowband IoT technology use cases in smart city management

The demand for more efficient city management solutions is growing rapidly. More cities are implementing smart city projects, with investment in smart city solutions expected, before the COVID-19 crisis, to increase to 224.5 USD billion in 2021 (Jones, 2020).
Cities leverage smart technologies to improve sustainability, governance, environmen- tal management, and transportation. Some of the main benefits cities derive from implementing smart technologies are:

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  Effective decision-making. City officials can address issues quickly, by getting the data processed in real-time. For example, cities can predict the crime rate in high-risk areas and distribute police officers using big data applications.
  
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  Improved transportation. Cities use traffic management solutions to optimise public transit and manage traffic flow, through intelligent traffic signals. Other technologies such as mobile applications enable citizens to track public transport options in real time and even to pay fares online.
  
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  Efficient utilities. Cities use smart sensors to conserve water and electricity in order to track water usage and alert authorities to leaks and damage, reducing waste. Smart street lighting helps cities avoid energy waste by adjusting the light intensity according to usage.
  
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  Economic growth. The implementation of smart city projects attracts talent, gener- ating a fertile environment for the growth of tech companies. In addition, investment in smart city technologies is associated with an increase in economic growth. A report from ESI Thought Lab, covering 136 cities, found that due to the smart city initiatives it is possible to increase economic growth as much as 21% (Smart Cities 2025, 2018).
  

NB-IoT, described below, being a part of Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology, is one of the crucial tools, that supports decision-making processes related to city management.

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