Dataspaces in Urban Digital Twins: a Case Study in the Photovoltaics

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) fosters the massive deployment of ubiquitous devices in geographically distributed locations, which are reaching billions in number, covering disparate domains such as smart healthcare, transportation, logistics, energy management, industrial automation, and other services. The vast amount of data generated by these devices can be used to enhance the functionality and evolution of smart environments. In addition, digital twins (and especially urban digital twins) represent another scenario benefiting from a pervasive availability of sensor data. However, traditional cloud infrastructures are not designed to manage them efficiently. Fog computing and edge computing can complement cloud computing to improve latency, reliability, as well as to achieve faster response times. In this scenario, a Dataspace stands as a technology that can support the effective management of huge volumes of data generated by digital twins, also providing FAIRness-driven policies for data exchange. In this context, this work presents a case study focusing on a smart photovoltaic cyber-physical system and the development of its digital twin.