OpenCity: An Open Architecture Testbed for Smart Cities
Nasibeh Zohrabi, Patrick Martin, Murat Kuzlu, Lauren Linkous, Roja Eini, Adam Morrissett, Mostafa Zaman, Ashraf Tantawy, Oezguer Gueler, Maher Al Islam, Nathan Puryear, Halil Kalkavan, Jonathan Lundquist, Erwin Karincic, Sherif Abdelwahed
Abstract
This paper presents an open architecture testbed for smart cities, called OpenCity, which is hosted at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The OpenCity platform consists of data collection and processing units, database management, distributed performance management algorithms, and real-time data visualization. This smart city testbed aims to support various educational and research activities related to smart city development. The testbed provides a near-real-life platform to allow students to learn about the unique features of smart cities and explore supporting technologies. In addition, it allows researchers to develop, deploy, and validate new techniques, tools, and technologies to support future smart city developments. The OpenCity platform will support various ongoing important research directions in smart cities, including smart homes and buildings, urban mobility, smart grid, and water management. In addition, it will be extendable to include other potential applications and components as needed. The testbed will be validated by developing and deploying a management system that focuses on users’ experience and resource efficiency. The management system incorporates learning techniques and model-based predictive control approaches to take into account the current and future information of uncertain parameters as well as the subjective data (e.g., user-related data) in the design. The OpenCity management structure enables real-time control and monitoring of complex components in the testbed.