Increasing Interoperability Between Heterogeneous Smart City Applications

Due to the increasing need for networked systems we can observe a rapid advance of IT-solutions in various sectors. However, most of the developed systems are custom-tailored solutions for specific problems and application areas, leaving us with a set of diverse frameworks. The resulting jungle of heterogeneous systems makes it difficult to find common interfaces for interconnecting the underlying businesses with each other, especially in regard to Smart City concepts. We envision a new paradigm shift towards ``Smart City as a service'' fueled by increased interoperability between different services with an additional emphasis on privacy-preserving data processing. This would contribute to a new level of connectivity between the environment, service providers, and people, facilitating our daily activities and enhancing the level of trust of the users. In order to achieve interoperability in the context of smart, connected cities, we propose the design of a generic, platform-independent novel architecture for interconnecting heterogeneous systems, their services, and user pools.