Design aspects for a reference M2M communication platform for smart cities

For the last decades, we have witnessed new technological evolutions in the Internet, wireless networks, and sensors fields. Currently, we are able to build smart systems that improve quality of life and enhance environment management. However, most available smart systems are implemented based on proprietary hardware/software solutions, restricting interoperation, which is required for large-scale Smart City solutions. To enable the implementation of a general Smart City solution, a platform is needed to fulfill the communication requirements between heterogeneous access technologies. In this paper, we address the requirements and design aspects of a reference Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication platform as an enabler for Smart Cities.