Smart cities evolutionary progress in the B5G/6G era: the 6G-PATH European paradigm

Technological solutions play a vital role in addressing urban challenges and transforming the city environment into a resilient, efficient and sustainable setup. The deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks has already laid the ground-work for futuristic smart cities but along with this, it has also triggered the rapid growth of a wide range of applications. However, continuous demands for higher throughput, lower latency and more energy efficiency have set the path towards B5G/6G, especially in the corresponding smart cities’ vertical sector. Smart cities represent one of the most dynamic and strategically prioritised verticals for 6G adoption in Europe and their further evolutionary progress can be affected by a variety of factors ranging from technology and infrastructure readiness to specific regulatory and policy enablers. Our work focuses upon the specific ecosystem created by the innovative 6G-PATH EU-funded research framework, via assessing three selected use cases relevant to: (i) connected and sensing city; (ii) automated logistics, and; (iii) security coordination. For these, we provide a closer look at sector-specific market dynamics by highlighting concrete demand drivers, strategic challenges and adoption barriers. Then we identify potential pathways for businesses by assessing strategic visions and value propositions, market commercialisation channels and related key challenges for growth. The successful transition of the 6G-PATH project’s innovations in the smart cities’ vertical, from research excellence to real market deployment, requires a comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, business opportunities and strategic commercialisation approaches within the rapidly evolving 6G telecommunications landscape.