Many cities and utility providers are just beginning to build their IoT infrastructure. However, underestimated requirements, rapidly increasing data flows, and constantly emerging stakeholder use cases can quickly overwhelm systems and drive up costs. Without forward-thinking planning, operations risk coming to a standstill. Fortunately, there are solutions already in use by other organizations that combine scalability, security, and efficiency.
Key Metrics and Proven Success
- ✅ Process 100 million messages per second
- ✅ Save 40% on hardware infrastructure
- ✅ 40+ native integrations
- ✅ Reduce need for large internal IT teams (20–40 people)
Your smart city infrastructure is at its limit — what now?
Are you responsible for expanding your IoT infrastructure to implement initial use cases — while also preparing to support many more use cases in the future? You’re not alone. Numerous digitalization leads from our network and clients of our partner EMQ are tackling exactly this challenge.
Digitalization leaders in municipalities, utility companies, and mobility providers face growing demands to deliver smart services to citizens — from intelligent traffic management systems and EV charging infrastructure to digital signage and waste management. As data volumes continue to rise, IT infrastructure must keep pace. A wide range of stakeholders — including grid operators, water and waste management, energy suppliers, and mobility platforms — must be integrated and require seamless, secure communication between legacy systems and new IoT components. Digital teams are tasked with building the IoT infrastructure, implementing initial use cases, and managing projects in both IoT and data environments.
Often, internal IT resources and capacity are insufficient to manage these heterogeneous systems independently. Especially for large platforms that are constantly expanding and incorporating more IoT use cases and stakeholders, many organizations quickly reach their operational limits. Running such platforms demands deep expertise in security, monitoring, development, and ongoing maintenance. Today, many organizations rely on internal teams of 20 to 40 people to handle everything themselves — from rollouts and system maintenance to risk management, frequently within complex on-premise environments.
The complexity grows further as various data sources and protocols (Modbus, OPC UA, MQTT) must be integrated. At the same time, organizations must ensure their infrastructure remains scalable — the larger the deployment, the more devices, data streams, and integrations must be managed reliably. Platforms need the flexibility to grow with demand. Optimizing existing infrastructure is essential, as poorly optimized systems can cause hardware needs and costs to rise disproportionately in large deployments.
Licensing and integration also present challenges: Organizations must develop and maintain interfaces for a wide array of applications and systems — a significant time and personnel investment.
Moreover, resource and risk planning is critical: Without external support, organizations are forced to manage platform operations and monitoring entirely on their own, as well as handle updates and rollouts independently. This ties up internal capacity and increases the risk of errors, downtime, or security gaps — especially when multiple use cases are being rolled out and operated simultaneously.
👉 So how can all these challenges be tackled efficiently?
EMQ’s MQTT Broker as a Solution for Modern Transportation Infrastructures
EMQ’s MQTT broker serves as the central data delivery platform for building future-proof IoT infrastructures, enabling seamless IT/OT integration. This is also illustrated in the architecture diagram: the broker connects a wide range of systems such as SCADA, ERP, MES, and cloud platforms (e.g. Azure, AWS, IBM) with OT components like sensors, devices, PLCs, and RTUs via Neuron gateways or custom gateways. This allows for the reliable and secure processing of high-frequency data streams — from traffic monitoring and ticketing/payment apps to real-time passenger information.
Thanks to its implementation in the C programming language, the broker delivers exceptionally high performance and can connect millions of devices simultaneously. For existing infrastructures and legacy systems, the powerful NeuronEX Smart City Edge Data Hub is available. NeuronEX enables real-time integration and processing of data from machines and systems still using protocols such as Modbus, OPC UA, or other industrial standards. Other protocols relevant to smart city environments can also be integrated: MQTT and MQTT-SN (for lightweight, efficient machine-to-machine communication, e.g. between devices and machinery in water treatment facilities or public swimming pools), Modbus (for industrial automation and communication with legacy control systems), OPC UA (for standardized, platform-independent communication), SparkplugB (for structured MQTT messaging), BACnet (for building automation), DNP3 (for energy distribution networks), IEC 60870-5-104 (for energy and grid control systems), CAN Bus (for vehicle and traffic control systems), as well as LoRaWAN, mioty®, and NB-IoT (for wireless communication in smart city scenarios).
Which cities or companies are already using this solution successfully? Are there concrete use cases or references? 👉 See references
Thanks to its support for a wide range of protocols, low latency, lightweight and flexible deployment options (including Docker and Kubernetes), and integrated stream processing and analytics features, retrofit scenarios can be implemented efficiently. NeuronEX also enables the extension of platforms with AI and ML analyses via custom functions and supports data connectivity to local data centers, IoT platforms, and cloud services through protocols like MQTT, SparkplugB, and HTTP.
The broker is designed as a central management instance and supports over 40 integrations into common backend systems, databases, and analytics platforms. This broad compatibility saves time and simplifies complex integration efforts. International operators also benefit from geolinking functions, which enable data exchange across regions and ensure consistent transparency over distributed infrastructures.
Security is a top priority: EMQ’s MQTT broker supports TLS/SSL encryption, X.509 certificates, and meets key security certifications such as ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 Type II — ensuring secure data exchange even in sensitive public or critical infrastructure applications. Er unterstützt TLS/SSL-Verschlüsselungen, X.509-Zertifikate und entspricht Sicherheitszertifizierungen wie ISO/IEC 27001 und SOC 2 Type II. Dies ermöglicht einen sicheren Datenaustausch, auch bei sensiblen Anwendungen in öffentlichen oder kritischen Infrastrukturen.
The broker can be deployed on-premises, in a private cloud, or as a managed service. In the managed service model, EMQ handles operations, maintenance, and continuous monitoring — while full data sovereignty remains with the municipality or enterprise. Licensing is flexible and usage-based, enabling scalable platforms to be built economically and with minimal risk.
Organizations and municipalities also benefit from the option to switch between self-managed and managed service models as needed. This ensures long-term protection of investments and allows the solution to adapt dynamically to growing demands. The broker’s efficient architecture can reduce hardware costs by up to 40%.
Your Smart City Infrastructure – Flexible, Secure, and Future-Proof
With EMQ’s MQTT broker, cities and utility providers can confidently manage growing data volumes and rising demands. Thanks to high performance, seamless IT/OT integration, flexible deployment options, and a managed service offering, you save time, resources, and up to 40% in hardware costs. More than 100,000 companies and over 50 countries worldwide trust this solution.
👉 Learn how you too can future-proof your infrastructure — contact Stefano Marmonti directly: Get in touch now
👉 Want to hear how others are tackling this first? Join our community today to take part in the next exchange of experiences: Join the community now
