Getting Smarter About Smart Cities Date:   Thursday , December 04, 2014 Ruckus Wireless (NYSE: RKUS) is a global Wi-Fi technology company headquartered in California. Founded in 2004, the company has a current market cap of $964.67 million. It has been predicted that by 2050, the world\'s urban population will double � which means the population equivalent to five cities the size of Delhi are being added to the planet every single year. To handle this large-scale urbanization, we will need to find new ways to manage complexity, increase efficiency, reduce costs, reduce carbon footprints, and yet improve quality of life. As a result, our cities need to get smarter in many ways. The Asia Pacific region (APAC) is one of the largest and fastest growing urban regions in the world and it has been estimated that annual investments in Asia Pacific Smart city technology will quadruple to reach $ 11.3 billion annually. The Indian Government has also announced its intention to build 100 Smart city infrastructures across the country, which will require, besides the financial investments, a prudent plan to deal with the challenges of larger and faster management of municipal operations. With this rapid growth ahead of us, imagine if our cities could talk�if they could give us live status updates on traffic patterns, pollution, available parking spaces, water, power and light. Imagine how that kind of information could improve the economic and environmental health of a city for its residents, merchants, and visitors. Imagine how it could improve working conditions and productivity for the people who maintain the quality of life of each city. According to a draft concept paper for the proposal released by the Urban Development ministry, round-the-clock power and water supply, Wi-Fi connectivity and telemedicine facilities would be some of the highlights of the 100 Smart cities which the government has decided to develop across the country. Smart cities promise better and healthier urban environments through the adoption of city-based applications enabled by low-power, ruggedized environmental sensors and wireless connectivity. A Smart city can be run more efficiently than a traditional city as municipal authorities will be able to monitor more aspects of the city on a real-time basis and respond accordingly. These include sensors that are able to send real-time alerts when traffic or crowds are building up, or if there are malfunctions in the water or the electricity supply, and ensure that information services about city facilities are always up-to-date. These capabilities will require excellent Wi-Fi for smart mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, sensors, video equipment, and for the data collection and analytics necessary for enabling critical infrastructure management. Wi-Fi is an ideal method for conveying such information, especially over mobile devices in high-density, urban areas such as large cities, and would also support operational needs such as points-of-sale, shipping and logistics, digital signage and video security. Wi-Fi could also provide a platform for new revenue generating services. With cellular networks like 3G and 4G reaching peak capacities when it comes to data, Wi-Fi is selected by many telecom operators as an effective alternative for facilitating mobile data traffic throughout for a variety of data-intensive applications, both from end users and for Smart cities. And besides revenue generation through Wi-Fi access and mobile offload, associated Wi-Fi technologies could also bring about new revenue streams. Location-based technologies are now widely used for monitoring user footfall in conjunction with Big Data engines. That has provided immense interest to many verticals such as retail, public transportation hubs, public venue operators and the like. They could gain valuable insights into their patrons\' visiting patterns and provide services with high business value, such as location-based advertisements. Supporting Wi-Fi in an existing environment can be very challenging from a wireless performance perspective. One problem is that there is typically little or no existing networking infrastructure to build on, especially in structures that are decades old. Additionally, traditional Wi-Fi technology does not function properly in many indoor situations, where thousands of people gather and access the Wi-Fi networks simultaneously. Wi-Fi run on unlicensed spectrum can be adversely affected by the interference of neighbouring Wi-Fi networks. Third, big fluctuations in user volumes or cargo density can occur over the course of the day, dramatically impacting network performance. In the worst case scenario, Wi-Fi exists but connections are unstable, leading to low user satisfaction and the inability to support critical applications. Despite these challenges, governments, municipal authorities and service providers looking to build wireless networks in a bid to create Smart cities can now consider the latest wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure that can effectively handle dense public environments. For example, they can consider Wi-Fi access points with intelligent capabilities to connect a high density of smart devices, such as band steering technology, which can ensure optimum connections in high-interference environments. Smart city initiatives present an enormous opportunity to achieve social, economic and environmental benefits. However, choosing the right network infrastructure technology platform to connect millions of clients is not an easy task. Only the right platforms and thoughtful execution will drive mass market adoption for the benefit of millions of consumers, in order to make the Smart city concept work and become a reality in cities around the world in the years to come.