Security smarts: Smart cities cellular connectivity that keeps your network safe

As cities embrace digital services — from smart lighting and environmental sensors to connected public transport and emergency response fleets — network design and security become mission-critical. Government departments deploying smart city infrastructure need connectivity that is resilient, scalable, and secure by design. Ericsson’s enterprise portfolio, consisting of our IoT cellular gateways with embedded zero-trust security, offers a practical architecture that aligns closely with governments’ operational and cost-conscious needs.

Zero-trust networking for IoT devices

Smart city deployments come with the unwanted challenge of an expanded network attack surface: thousands of distributed IoT sensors, signage, cameras, and vehicles can be entry points if a single device is compromised. Ericsson’s NetCloud Secure Connect replaces legacy virtual private networks (VPNs) and private access point names (APNs) with a policy-governed, zero-trust architecture that can be orchestrated from the WAN edge to the cloud. Key zero-trust features include:

1. Resource-definition: Connected IoT devices and private applications are dark until explicitly defined.
2. Deny-all-by-default access: Instead of starting with broad network access where every authorised user has access to all the resources on the network segment and policies are built to restrict access, zero trust starts with restricted access and policies are built to enable access.
3. Default blocking of east-west traffic: Unlike traditional VPN and routed networks, Secure Connect can prevent damaging propagation of breaches by restricting all east-west traffic and blocking all incoming connections to a site, vehicle, or IoT device by default.

For government networks, these controls mean IoT devices only gain access to the services they need, lateral movement is constrained, and breaches can be contained to their origin.

Simpler policies and overlapping networks

City deployments often involve overlapping IP address spaces across agency networks, contractor equipment, or partner systems. Domain name-based routing translates complex IP addresses into intuitive names, reducing configuration errors and shrinking the visible attack surface. With domain-based routing in place, overlapping IPs are accommodated without complicated network readdressing. This is especially useful when integrating legacy systems, rapidly onboarding vendor equipment, or coordinating multi-agency response networks.

Resilient connectivity for distributed IoT assets

The Ericsson Cradlepoint S400 is a semi-ruggedised 5G router that brings zero-trust connectivity with NetCloud Secure Connect to diverse IoT use cases. Compact and field-expandable, it supports additional interfaces for serial devices, GPIO controls, and extra Ethernet ports — ideal for digital signage, building automation, and light industrial sensors.

When it comes to smart cities, government IT teams may need to deploy and maintain very large numbers of devices across council areas while minimising field service visits. NetCloud Manager simplifies large-scale deployments and lifecycle operations by centralising orchestration, policy distribution, firmware management, and insertable eSIM capabilities. It also enables centralised visibility and management with advanced location services for simple asset tracking, geofencing, and AI insights. In addition, Cellular Intelligence features including Cellular Health Events Monitoring correlate signal trends with carrier tower and band changes, reducing on-site testing, accelerating time-to-repair, and helping to maintain service levels for critical applications like connected traffic signals and public safety cameras.

Compared to private APNs, which also create a secure, segregated network pathway for cellular devices, Secure Connect is both more cost-effective and a faster to deploy, self-managed option. Ericsson offers multi-year subscription for its cellular IoT routers, such as the Cradlepoint S400 router, which includes Secure Connect, compared to paying for the setup of a private APN and the monthly charges.

Key benefits of Ericsson Secure Connect

• ‘Connect and go’ zero trust security: With powerful orchestration and intuitive bulk provisioning, new sites, vehicles, and IoT devices can be securely deployed, in just a few clicks - achieving both agility and security.
• Flexible deployment options: Secure Connect can be consumed as a service or deployed on-premises by deploying a service gateway in a data centre or virtual private cloud environment.
• Higher scale and capacity: On-premises service gateway supports 10 times more tunnels and four times more capacity than Ericsson’s traditional VPN headend. The cloud delivered option offers true pay-as-you-grow scaling.
• Resources must be defined before they are accessible: Rather than new applications or IoT devices being instantly visible and accessible the moment they are network connected, in a Secure Connect network, resources must be explicitly defined before they can be accessed or seen by anyone or anything.
• AI-driven insights: AIOps detects performance anomalies, finds root causes, and recommends remediations.
   

For government departments building smart city solutions, the combination of Ericsson’s Cradlepoint S400 router with NetCloud Manager and NetCloud Secure Connect offers a security-first, operationally efficient foundation. By embedding zero-trust principles at the edge, simplifying routing and policy management, and automating cellular performance monitoring, cities can expand services with confidence — keeping citizens safer, systems more reliable, and operational costs under control.

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