Las Vegas Embraces the Edge

Las Vegas is a city on the edge of the desert, and the city is implementing edge computing projects to transform its urban infrastructure and improve public safety.

Private broadband company Cox Communications has installed a private wireless network in Downtown Las Vegas, covering eight city blocks in the famous Fremont Street area.

The initial solution powers video cameras and real-time data analytics to help improve safety and security while providing the foundation for even more smart city applications in the future.

The project follows Cox's work in 2021 for the City of Las Vegas, with a pilot project at Baker Park providing insights through parking lot management, safety detection, and trend analytics.

The new Fremont Street project seeks to improve connectivity for various city services and smart applications, from smart transportation to public safety.

The City is also collaborating with edge-computing start-up Vapor IO to leverage Vapor IO’s Kinetic Grid platform to deliver pervasive AI, private 5G, computer vision, and other internet of things (IoT) applications.

The initiative will start in the fast-growing Las Vegas Medical District, a centerpiece of the city’s Five Year Capital Improvement plan. 

The Vapor platform will harness the power of AI to process data closer to its source, reducing latency and ensuring real-time responses. This will empower Las Vegas to deploy applications that require instantaneous decision-making, from traffic management to public safety.

With the integration of computer vision, the City of Las Vegas will be able to analyze video feeds in real time, enabling applications such as crowd monitoring, predictive maintenance of public utilities, and enhanced security measures.

The Kinetic Grid platform will also feature a private 5G network, ensuring secure and high-speed connectivity for all edge applications. This will pave the way for the City of Las Vegas to introduce next-generation services and applications that demand high bandwidth and low latency.

In 2021, Vapor IO announced a partnership with the City of Las Vegas centered around its Industry 4.0 zone program. The program was launched with companies including Amazon Web Services, Lenovo, and VMware using Vapor IO's platform to deliver intelligence within microseconds of the point of use.

Image credit: iStockphoto/Meinzahn