The Second Iran Smart City Summit 2016 is scheduled for August 22-23 at Tehran's Milad Tower International Conference Hall.
"To encourage the development of smart cities, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is prepared to launch joint projects with several Iranian municipalities in the areas of Internet of Things and Big Data," said a member of the board of directors at the government's Information Technology Organization.
Khosro Saljooghi added that IoT and Big Data are relatively new in Iran, which create a great opportunity for researchers, manufacturers and knowledge-based firms to operate in these areas, IRNA reported.
The official made the remarks at a conference titled "Smart Cities: Infrastructures and Investment Opportunities" that was held on Saturday.
Smart City
A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and ICT solutions to manage a city’s assets.
The city’s assets include—but are not limited to—schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement and other community services.
IoT is a proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.
Big data is a term for extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially those related to human behavior and interactions.
"Municipalities, researchers, the private sector, knowledge-based firms and all major players in these fields must form synergies to advance the plans in this area," Saljooghi said.
Mideast's First in Tehran
In May, Iranian technology activists launched “The Things Network of Tehran,” a global open crowdsourced Internet of Things data network, which is the first of its kind in the Middle East.
Ali Rahmanpour, the project manager, told Mehr News Agency at the time that the first phase of the network has been launched in Tehran’s Narmak district and will soon cover the whole capital.
“This gateway has been launched as part of the global The Things Network and is considered the first active TTN gateway in the Middle East,” he said.
Rahmanpour noted that The Things Network has been launched in Iran with the aim of establishing an open, decentralized global network based on crowdsourcing.
According to the project manager, the structure of TTN, due to its openness, is more transparent compared to other networks and enjoys high security because of its high-level encryption.
“In the next decade, IoT will be one of the most significant areas to help mankind use innovative solutions, so it is necessary to supply creative people with what they need,” he said.
The benefit of the social WiFi is that The Things Network is set up in a decentralized way and does not have a single point of control or failure, according to its main site.
The Things Network was first launched in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and in less than four weeks, managed to spread its coverage to the whole city.
For more information on the upcoming event, enthusiasts can refer to the event's website: iransmartcity.cnf.ir.
