Smart Cities of the Future: A Cyber Physical System Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

The Internet of Things (IoT) integrates networked sensors such as WSNs and, more in general, physical objects (i.e., things) in a ubiquitous cyberspace by interconnecting these systems to the Internet at large, making them also available over the Web. At the same time, the evolution and combination of 5G with IoT have pushed researchers and industries to be looking at the technological transformation to move towards an environment, where multiple devices will be able to connect, share information, interpret, and deliver a seamless experience for users.

The integration of the physical world with the cyber one is commonly refered to as a cyberphysical system (CPS), where cyber interactions, physical perceptions, and social connections are combined into a ubiquitous hyperspace that remarkably enriches and broadens the interactions and connections among human-to-human, human-to-object, and object-to-object. When also strenthening the focus of social interactions and humann in the loop considerations, cyberphsyical social systems (CPSS) are also emerging, as an extension of the broader class of CPSs.

Based on the significant development of high variety of rich-soured IoT sensing devices, cyberphysical–social sensing and computing technologies, together with some advanced networking and communications technologies, we can obtain an integrated set of data, information, and knowledge from the physical world, human society, as well as the virtual world.

A smart city represents an improvement of today’s cities—both functionally and structurally—that strategically utilizes many smart factors, such as Information and Communications Technology (ICT), to increase the city’s sustainable growth and strengthen city functions, while ensuring citizens’ quality of life and health. Cities can be viewed as a microcosm of “objects” with which citizens interact daily and represent an extremely interesting example of cyberphysical systems, where a continuous monitoring of a city’s status occurs through sensors and processors applied within the real-world infrastructure.

Each object in the City can be both the collector and distributor of information regarding mobility, energy consumption, air pollution, as well as potentially offering cultural and tourist information. As a consequence, cyber and real worlds are strongly linked in a smart city. New services can be deployed when needed and evaluation mechanisms are set up to assess the health and success of a smart city. In particular, the objectives of creating ICT-enabled smart city environments aim to: improve city services; optimize decision-making; create smart urban infrastructures; orchestrate cyber and physical resources; address challenging urban issues such as environmental pollution, transportation management, energy usage and public health; optimize use and benefit of next generation (5G and beyond) communication; capitalize on social networks and their analysis; support Tactile Internet applications; inspire urban citizens to improve their quality of life; etc.

However, large-scale deployment of cyberphysical–social systems will face a series of challenges and issues (e.g., energy efficiency requirements, architecture, protocol stack design, implementation, security), which requires more smart sensing and computing methods, advanced networking, and communications technologies to provide more pervasive cyberphysical–social services for people.

This Special Issue is soliciting conceptual, theoretical, and experimental contributions, discussing and treating challenges, state-of-the-art, and solutions to a set of currently unresolved key questions related to CPSs and smart cities. The authors from both academia and industry are welcome to contribute and demonstrate the latest research results with the design, implementation, deployment, operation, and evaluation of smart sensing and computing models, networking methodologies, and communications tools and platforms for CPS, as well as describe and present relevant services and applications.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Multifunctional IoT sensing devices
• Networked smart cyberphysical–social sensing system and platform
• Modeling of CPS
• Energy-efficient cyberphysical–social sensing architectures
• Green computing and sustainable computing for IoT and CPS
• Cloud computing, fog computing, and edge computing
• Routing protocols, data dissemination, and offloading algorithms
• Community detection and network evolution analysis for CPS
• Localization and node mobility models
• Construction technology of dynamics of social groups
• Methods for data collection, convergence, and storage
• Schemes of data mining, processing, and analysis
• Techniques of data visualization
• Quality of experience and quality of service in CPS
• Social network analysis and social influence analysis
• Crowdsourcing, crowdsensing, participatory sensing
• Low-power, distributed data processing in sensor applications
• Smart worlds, smart cities, and smart healthcare
• Security, privacy, and trust for the IoT
• Energy-harvesting communications and networks
• Machine learning/deep learning/artificial intelligent approaches
• Applications and testbeds of CPS

Both review articles and original research papers relating to sensors and smart cities are solicited. There is particular interest in papers with advances towards practical experiences and services overcoming the adoption barriers for sensors and smart cities.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Puliafito
Prof. Dr. Symeon Papavassiliou
Guest Editors

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