Distributed-to-Centralized Data Management: A New Sense of Large-Scale ICT Management of Smart City IoT Networks

Modern cities are equipped with various information and communications technology (ICT) resources including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, computing platforms, and data storage media. Data are one of the most valuable ICT resources in smart cities. Data management strategies play a vital role in managing the requirements of user and business models in a city. Using the benefits of data makes an agile, creative, and smart city via the widespread use of appropriate city services. Centralized and distributed-to-centralized data management (D2CDM) architectures are recommended to organize the large-scale produced city data in smart city networks, including physical data resources (e.g., sensor data) and nonphysical data sources (e.g., city consumer personal databases). In this article, we explain two different ICT technology management solutions for smart city networks in which the ICT resources in a city can be managed and delivered: centralized and distributed-to-centralized. We also describe two main strategies for data management in smart cities, and the advantages of D2C-DM are discussed based on two ongoing case studies. We also mention there is much room for future works and development of this study, such as developing software services in smart cities based on edge-to-cloud orchestration and enhancing the effectiveness of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques through multilevel ICT architecture.