Vol.:(0123456789)
Wireless Personal Communications (2021) 121:1289–1302
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-021-09069-9
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Digitalization inBuildings andSmart Cities ontheWay to6G
WalterKonhäuser1
Accepted: 28 August 2021 / Published online: 8 September 2021
© The Author(s) 2021
Abstract
The energy turnaround created a high volatility in the energy production based on renew-
able energy. To integrate renewable energy economically in buildings and smart cities an
additional concept of energy storage and energy supply based on energy management con-
cepts must be claimed. The political views have changed during the last years and energy
efficiency in buildings is seen important because 35% of greenhouse gas is produced by
the final energy consumption. The deployment of local energy production concepts is an
important step to energy turnaround. To generate and distribute energy effectively in build-
ings, digital components such as sensors, actuators, meters, and energy management sys-
tems must be installed in the buildings and the digital components must be able to com-
municate via communication networks. The paper describes systems for local energy
generation, necessary communication networks for buildings and smart cities and digi-
tization applications in industrial buildings. As an example of energy management, the
Oktett64 system is presented, which is based on Enterprise IT technology and has imple-
mented AI and blockchain technology. Digitalization with platforms such as Oktett64 are
based on technologies that are superior to today’s often commercially available Program-
mable Logic Controllers. The article also shows how the future mobile communications
standards 5G beyond and 6G can offer special solutions for the digitization of buildings in
their edge clouds.
Keywords 5G beyond· 6G· Renewable energy· Energy management· IoT· Real estate
industry· Industry 4.0· Smart cities· Edge cloud
Abbreviations
AI Artificial intelligence
CHP Combined heat and power unit
DMZ Demilitarized zone
DSO Distributed service operator
EV Electrical vehicle
EV Electrical vehicle
FTTH Fibre to the home
FPS Frames per second
* Walter Konhäuser
walter.k[email protected]
1 Oktett64 GmbH, Berlin, Germany
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HVAC Heating and air conditioning
IAV Industrie-automation vertriebs—GmbH
KNX-RF Open standard for RF-links in buildings
LoRa Long range radio technology
mMTC Massive machine-type communication
PV Photovoltaic
SNR Signal-to-noise ratio
UAV Unmanned aerial vehicle
1 Introduction
The energy transition initiated by the political policy and the increasing impact of renew-
able energy consumption in real estate require an additional effective concept of local
energy production and energy consumption. Balancing energy consumption between
energy production and purchase of energy can only be achieved by an efficient, reliable,
and cost-effective energy management system. Heat energy for heating and hot water and
electrical energy must be used to power the buildings by means of concepts with reduced
CO2 emissions. In addition, many other tasks in a modern property must be able to be
solved cost-effectively with the help of digital components. Local data generation in Smart
buildings and Smart cities from sensors, actuators and meters use suitable radio technology
as e.g., Bluetooth LE, ZigBee, EnOcean, Z-Wave, KNX-RF. Data transmission to Applica-
tion Servers and Clouds, where the applications could be deployed, should be managed by
central transmission in buildings via gateways. Local date generation can be managed by
Software platforms with fast links to different IoT radio technologies. Digitalization of real
estate is based on decentralized energy generation, energy storage [1] and energy distribu-
tion, installation of intelligent building networks and creating real added values with new
applications for residents and administrations (Fig.1).
The status of the energy supply of real estate is shown in Fig.2. Real estate is supplied
with electrical energy from central power plants that run on fossil fuels via transmission
Fig. 1 Basics for digitalization of real estate
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grids and distribution grids. At the same time, there are also central wind farms and solar
parks for the supply with green energy. Combined heat and power plants can also supply
real estate with heat via district heating networks. Today, decentralized energy supply is
mostly based on solar units on the roofs and/or CHPs in the basements. Other important
local power generation systems are heat pumps and hydrogen production combined with
fuel cells. Electrical storage systems decouple energy production from energy consump-
tion and thus increase self-sufficiency. For the control of the decentralized energy supply
in cooperation with central energy supply via the public distribution grid, energy manage-
ment systems must be used, which must also manage the energy procurement from the
public grid and energy feed-in into the public grid. Such an energy management system is
described in Sect.3.
2 Examples ofDigital Services inBuildings andSmart Cities
Digital solutions for the real estate industry concern energy, from the classic purchase of
energy sources, through technical systems, to process-optimized processes to reduce CO2.
Furthermore, intelligent building networking is important as a basis for the integrated oper-
ation of immobile and downstream processes, and the use of digital components can create
real added value for residents and administration. The following selection of digital ser-
vices should be integrated in real estate [2]:
• Remote access and control of power generation, power consumption and storage (Solar,
CHP, etc.),
• Smart metering (electricity, heating, water, etc.),
• Smart home and smart building control with new operation concepts,
• Light control and sun protection,
• Device control: remote control, scene control, reduction of Standby consumption (auto
power-off)
• Maximization of self-consumption,
Fig. 2 Today’s status of energy supply of real estate and smart cities
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• HVAC control including air quality monitoring and prevention,
• Network stabilization using buffers and control of local energy production,
• Integrated metering system: deliver data for billing, rent of equipment and extra costs,
• Smoke, fire, water hazard monitoring,
• Access control and security,
• Mobility hub of a quarter: deliver billing data,
• Coordination mobility hub: calculate and regulate charging power for coordination of
available network power, generation capacity and user demand,
• Monitoring of technical equipment in buildings (e.g., CHP, DC/AC converter, …) and
• Media control (FTTH, TV, Internet, phone): deliver billing data (if available from the
operator).
Sensors, actuators, meters, communication technology and distributed real-time com-
puting platforms will be key technologies to monitor, control and meter the various elec-
tric equipment. This captured information will be used as input for many types of model
predictive algorithms (e.g., AI) whose output supports decisions to achieve the goals of
the future. For an appropriate control structure, it is essential to stabilize a grid with an
architecture based on an appropriate combination of central and decentralized control [3].
Energy Management Systems based on Enterprise IT software architecture allows con-
sumers and market players to compose new services like energy management for small
units (offices, apartments, production facilities), energy management for whole build-
ings and facilities, energy management for urban districts and industry parks with data
measurement and metering. Digital control for customer products and applications man-
ages own requirements related to energy services and products thereby also using mar-
ket interfaces and at the same time supporting the quality and security of supply of the
grid-based electricity system. Oktett64, developed on Enterprise IT technology and build
as a platform offers vendor independent turnkey solutions based on standards and open-
source frameworks including security and operation concepts like DMZ, container, virtu-
alization, optimized for excellent performance at high efficiency. Solution components can
be implemented without difficulty and in production quality inside many different systems
(including easy to distribute low-end hardware like SoC-systems in the performance range
of a Raspberry Pi).
3 Communication, Digitization inBuildings andControl ofEnergy
Systems withOKTETT64
For the digitization of buildings, it is very important that high-performance communica-
tion networks are installed too. In buildings for communication the following technologies
should be deployed:
• Different mobile communication standards and IoT networks (Fig.3) and
• Fixed networks standards (Fig.3).
The goal is to establish best suitable architecture for a common Communication Plat-
form (IoT, mobile and fixed networks best merge) to offer appropriate applications via edge
cloud servers of 5G beyond or 6G mobile networks. The sensors, actuators, meters, etc. to
be installed for digitalization need a network through which they can communicate with
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the energy management system. To store the collected data, internal as well as external
cloud systems can be used. IoT systems and LoraWAN connections are an important addi-
tion to building communication. The energy management system can also be installed at an
external server and is able to control several groups of buildings at the same time. Oktett64
can also take over the gateway function and collect all the data of the sensors and meters
and forward them to the external cloud and send the calculated data in the cloud to the
actuators. This and other communication networks opportunities are shown in Fig.3. The
Oktett64 platform is built on technologies with open connection of the individual com-
ponents, no insular solutions, solid architecture based on standards of the enterprise IT.
Oktett64 controls operational optimization by influencing consumption and generation per-
formance as well as using direct and indirect storage. Algorithms are used to interfere with
a usually continuous control system, controlled by business and demand parameters. The
algorithms are dynamically adaptable or self-learning (forecast models). The performance
is developed with state-of-the-art software architectures with container and dashboard
solutions based on open enterprise IT technologies that have already been tested thousands
of times. Oktett64 can be used as cross-vendor turnkey solutions for,
• Energy management in small units, such as offices, apartments, and workshops,
• Energy management in buildings, hotels, or plants,
• Energy management in urban districts or industrial parks,
• Energy management in airport buildings,
• Measurement data acquisition of a wide range of systems, which provide appropriate
information on the
• Digital control platform for customer-owned products, applications and for
• Further digitization tasks in real estate.
The Oktett64 architecture and the container structure are shown in Fig.4. Radio net-
works, Bus adapters and IoT adapters can be connected via the hardware container. The
architecture distinguishes between logical hardware and virtual functions. Connections to
other systems, process flow and user interfaces such as dashboards can be established. In
the middleware container there are internal databases, if for security reasons no external
Fig. 3 Mobile, fixed and IoT communication standards for communication in buildings [5]
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cloud solutions should be used to store the data from the sensors and meters. Figure 5
shows the data of a monitoring system in use displayed in a dashboard solution with
monitoring of the recorded data. If deviations occur, the system informs the maintenance
service.
A holistic solution for an apartment house is shown in Fig.6. The PV-System on the
roof of the building and the CHP in the cellar produce for the Tenants electrical current,
warm water-supply and heating-supply. Broadband communication is linked via FTTB
Fig. 4 Oktett64—architecture from bus to application and architecture in container and associations
Fig. 5 Oktett64 real time measurement and metering including time-chart analysis
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access, and the E-Vehicles can be charged with a charging station in front of the build-
ing and supplied from the public grid, local energy production or out of the battery. The
business application gateway based on Oktett64 platform transmit all information’s of the
building to the Edge Clouds of 5G beyond networks or future 6G networks.
The following requirements by using Application Server and Clouds in the building or
at 5G beyond or 6G networks for managing Smart buildings and smart cities are requested:
• High network coverage in residential areas,
• High number of subscribers,
• Long-range, low-rate, low-power, low-cost managed services,
• High transfer speed 50Mbit/s (4K compressed) for entertainment services,
• Fast Handover (< 2ms),
• Low latency (< 2ms) for the radio link to transmit entertainment services,
• High data security,
• Deploy of own 5G beyond or 6G private networks (campus network),
• Robust network with less sensitivity contra interference like walls, cellars, halls, high
buildings, trees, and weather conditions.
The goal is to establish best suitable architecture for a common Communication Plat-
form (IoT, mobile and fixed networks best merge) to offer appropriate applications via
edge cloud server. A smart urban district can be developed to enable interoperability
among devices or applications in an urban district environment. Massive IoT data, energy,
and equipment monitoring, decentralized efficient energy generation, consumption and
distribution are the basis for optimizing the use of different energy resources. Financial
energy auditing and grid communication are employed under this framework. The level
of complexity of this architecture is increased significantly by considering in the equation
demand-side management approaches, different types of renewable energy sources, battery
storage systems, electric vehicles, demand response and dynamic pricing. The high density
of metering nodes and the amount of data that must be transmitted via low-cost endpoints
Fig. 6 Holistic solutions: energy supply for tenants with current- and heating-supply in apartment houses,
charging systems for EV’s, broadband communication supply and gateway to 5G beyond or 6G edge-clouds
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can be easily transported via business application gateway for digitalization in buildings
which collects the amount of data from the IoT devices to cloud server in the building or
5G beyond and 6G Edge Cloud as use case. Direct links to 5G networks are possible as
well.
At the business application layer deployed in the edge cloud server choice of services
can be made. Optimization of operation by steering consumption- and production-power
and using direct or implicit storage systems. By means of using algorithms taking place
non-linear operations steered by business- and demand-parameters. The algorithms are
dynamic tailorable or self-learning (prognosis-model). Remote Maintenance for local
energy production (CHP, PV, …) and local energy storage, smart metering for energy pro-
duction and consumption (current, heating and cooling, water, …) can be managed remote
via 5G beyond or 6G networks and new operating concept for heating and cooling control,
light control, and shutter control just as. Monitoring of different equipment e.g., heating
and cooling, light, shutter, indoor climate, air quality, mould avoidance, smoke and fire
detection, water detection, admission control and security is basis of a digitalization con-
cept. Further applications are tenant electricity for using the decentralized produced energy
and integrated accounted system for generating data for accounting. Connection to balanc-
ing power supply from battery system and local energy production can be organized with
the DSO and TSO. Mobility hub at urban districts for renting EV’s, calculation and control
of the electrical power of the charging stations to coordinate power supply of energy pro-
duction and generating data for accounting should be deployed too (Fig.7).
4 Digitalisation andControl ofIndustry Systems withOktett64
For Industry 4.0 applications available 5G beyond and 6G networks can be used just like
in the real estate industry. Local data generation and distribution processes in industry
areas is realized from sensors with suitable radio technology as e.g., Mesh, LoRa, SigFox
and use of existing sensors like field busses as e.g., OPC- UA, Profinet/Profibus, Modbus
Fig. 7 Mass IoT data collected by gateway and linked to 5G beyond or 6G edge cloud server
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Ether CAT. Data transmission to 5G beyond Edge cloud where the applications should
be deployed can be managed by central transmission due to costs from much local data
via 5G beyond or 6G Gateway (e.g., by Oktett64) or optional direct transmission from the
machines via 5G beyond or 6G radios. Applications are deployed in the Edge Cloud based
on AI Technology as (see Fig.8).
• Visualization of data,
• Condition monitoring,
• Process analysis about the whole production and
• Process automation e.g., minimize downtime, increase efficiency etc.
Applications with Blockchain technology in the Edge Cloud as
• Service data (run time, maintenance) and
• Traceability and reproducibility (e.g., individual production, used machines)
Another innovative business which can be linked to mobile communication systems
is controlling drones for different applications. The application scenarios for system-
integrated drones include building monitoring and securing industrial facilities. Wher-
ever security-critical infrastructure is available, drones systems help with monitoring
and increases security. For this purpose, a framework has been developed for which, for
example, a drone can be connected directly to an alarm system or a computer system
[4]. From external signals and information about the weather and the environment, the
machine can launch the drone independently and land it precisely again. The mission is
therefore carried out without human intervention. Object recognition, AI-based image
evaluation, perimeter monitoring and M2M control together form a strong application
and ever with a high sensitivity to aspects of data protection. Data sovereignty is all
the time in the hands of the customer. Due to the modular design of the drone, it can
be integrated into existing systems. Hardware and software are developed for system-
integrated highly automated drones with M2M interface for many applications. This
Fig. 8 Industry 4.0 applications
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one-stop solution makes it easier than ever to have vulnerable objects automatically
monitored by drones for optimal safety [4]. The requirement views for drone communi-
cation [4] are the following:
• Meshed networks with low latency (< 2ms) for high automated collaborating sys-
tems (swarm of different autonomous systems)
• Bandwidth for 4K Video transmission, 30 FPS with small or cero compression, ca.
25 Mbit warranted.
• Additional bandwidth for data transmission, ca. 5 Mbit warranted à sum 30 Mbit.
• 5–10 Mbit TCP (Warranty for lossless packet data transmission, reserved for
meter-/control data) data lost is unacceptable.
• 10–20 Mbit UDP (packet loss possible and acceptable for video transmission)
• High coverage
• Bandwidth must be warranted independent of distance to the antenna.
• Less interference due to bandwidth, latency through tress and high buildings.
A bird’s-eye view often provides the best overall perspective, and some places can
only be reached from the air anyway. Therefore, drones are currently undergoing a
boom—not only for shooting films but also as flying measurement systems with various
sensors. IAV uses well-tried approaches and tools from automotive engineering to open
new scenarios for using remote-controlled aerial vehicles. IAV experts are focusing on
controlling the UAVs by Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G and in future 5G beyond and 6G on evaluating
sensor data and on safety while they are in flight. The INCA-FLOW software defines
the task sequence, and a server relays the commands to the drones. Developed in-house,
the IAV Mara tool is used for evaluating, organizing, and analysing the data. This com-
bination of readily available drone hardware and proven IAV tools gives you a system
that is easy to use for a wide range of different activities. Here are some of the example
applications:
• Inspection windmills and solar panels,
• Surveillance of parking areas (Fig.9),
• Analysing the energy efficiency of buildings,
• Testing the performance of antennas,
• Measurement activities in automotive development,
• Supporting search and rescue activities,
• Supporting firemen with thermography analytics,
• Urban planning,
• Cartography,
• Intra-logistics for industry,
• Package delivery,
• Event and film shooting and
• Agriculture.
Drones (also Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs) equipped with sensors are ideal for
acquiring measurement data in the following situations:
• Inaccessible environments
• Dangerous areas
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Besides the actual process of acquiring data, the ability to organize and process large
data volumes is particularly relevant in this context. Therefore, IAV connects the drones
to a powerful data platform. Here are some of the analysis capabilities:
• Organization of data,
• Historical data analyses,
• Automatic extraction of metadata from measurements,
• Correlating data from other UAVs,
• Connecting UAV data with other information from the Internet,
• Possibility of using artificial intelligence,
• Automatic reporting.
The architecture of the solution [4] consists of different layers with standardized
interfaces:
• The UAVs are securely connected to remote control desk through a VPN tunnel in
an LTE, 5G, 5G beyond or a Wi-Fi context.
• Flight tasks can easily be customized through the INCA-FLOW method library.
• The drones are equipped with an onboard computer for pre-processing or filtering
sensor data (e.g., video data).
• The “Copter Viewer” displays live sensor information during the flight.
• The measurements are stored in a standard format.
• Server-based big data analytics are performed with IAV Mara.
• The block sets of IAV Mara make it extremely easy to customize analytics.
• IAV Mara output is compatible with other standard automotive tools (e.g., MAT-
LAB, Excel, UniPlot or MDA).
Fig. 9 Drones application: surveillance of parking areas [4]
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5 Some More Proposed Requirements ontheWay to6G
For enabling new business opportunities with innovative services and new business models
the following requirements are desirable:
• Core infrastructure sharing,
• Infrastructure crowdsourcing,
• Enhanced spectrum sharing,
• Guaranteed SLA management,
• Enhanced mobile digitalization of industry 4.0
• Vehicle to anything communication,
• Mobile digitalization in real estates,
• Private managed services,
• Deploy of own private networks (campus network),
• Enable B2C, B2B and B2B2X,
• Enhanced tenant electricity concepts (produce, consume, sell),
• Operate as virtual network operator,
• Enhanced business models for contracting, operating, metering,
• Cost efficient services.
• …
To improve operations and management the following tasks should be implemented:
• Real-time operation
• Enhanced mobile broadband
• Improved network scalability
• Operational safety
• Massive machine-type communication (mMTC)
• Ultra-reliable low-latency communication
• Long-range, low-rate, low-power, low-cost managed service
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Blockchain technology
• …
6 Conclusions
The 5G standard is taking part to improve everyday life and economy. The success of a new
generation of mobile communication systems is mainly based on new technologies which
enables new applications to address new market potentials. 5G and future 5G beyond on
the way to 6G is expected to address with new services industry, energy, mobility, real
estate industry, etc. and will generate a high number of applications. The paper describes
a communication platform to generate new applications for real estate industry, industry
4.0 applications and new drone applications, which will become important in the future,
based on possible business association with future mobile networks. The new technologies
should be used for creating Green Deals too. With 5G beyond and future 6G a lot of new
applications and business opportunities are available for creating Green Deals and reduce
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CO2 emissions. With 5G beyond and 6G a lot of new applications and business opportu-
nities are envisaged, and future applications deployed in the Edge Clouds of mobile net-
works would extend business opportunities and finally a holistic communication concept
based on 6G would be challenging. The buildings and especially the existing buildings still
generate a lot of CO2s today. A special help for the digitization of the buildings and thus
local green energy generation would be special services for the properties from the mobile
networks, offered by the mobile operators. Future 5G beyond and 6G networks should be
geared towards this. Time is of the essence!
Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
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References
1. Konhäuser, W. The next mobile communication steps into new application areas; 5g outlook-innova-
tions and applications. River Publishers. ISBN 978-87-93379-77-0.
2. Kastner, T., Konhäuser, W., & Schuck, I. Energieeffizienz dank effizienter Prozesse; Die Wohnung-
swirtschaft, Ausgabe 05/2021.
3. Decentralized transactive energy; white paper WEC (World Energy Consortium).
4. IAV; support from the air; remote controlled drones as flying measurement systems.
5. Deutsche Telekom: Glasfaser-Inhouse-Verlegung.
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Prof. Dr.‑Ing. habil. Walter Konhäuser was born in Ruhpolding, South
Germany.He studied electrical engineering at the Technical University
in Berlin and finalized with PhD. In 2007 he was appointed to Profes-
sor for Mobile Communication Systems at Technical University Ber-
lin. Since joining Siemens in 1982 he has been involved in a variety of
assignments. For eighteen years he has worked in the mobile networks
business and was CTO within the mobile infrastructure business of
Siemens. In 2004 he became President for the WLAN business with
worldwide business responsibility. Since 2010 he works as independ-
ent professional as Executive Consultant with ITCcon GmbH, Potsdam
and as Senior Consultant at Xiopia GmbH, Unterföhring. In 2013 he
became Partner at Hoseit-Unternehmensberatung and 2017 associate
Partner at Management Consultant Kastner GmbH & Co.KG. Since
2019 he is co-founder and General Manager of Oktett64 GmbH. The
company is working on a decentralized energy management concept
for digitalization in different industries based on vendor independent
turnkey solutions, on standards and Open Source frameworks includ-
ing security and operation concepts. Prof. Dr. Konhäuser was PCC chairman of the European ACTS
FRAMES Project and Board Member of the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF). He is a member of
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the VDE, the German Association of Electrical Engineers and is Spokesman of the regional VDE organiza-
tion in Berlin and Brandenburg.
