The Hidden Infrastructure Gap: Why Hybrid Networks Are Key to Smart City Success

In the race to build smart cities, the spotlight typically shines on cutting-edge applications – autonomous vehicles, intelligent traffic systems, and environmental monitoring networks. But beneath these innovations lies a critical challenge: how to connect it all securely and affordably.

Tuvia Barlev, Chairman and CEO of Actelis Networks, has spent over a decade working on what he calls “the invisible infrastructure revolution” – developing technology that transforms existing wiring into high-speed digital highways while protecting them from sophisticated threats.

“Everyone focuses on the ‘smart’ part of smart cities, but few talk about the ‘connective tissue’ that makes it all work,” Barlev explains. “Cities are expected to deploy thousands of IoT devices virtually overnight, but traditional approaches require them to choose between waiting years for new fiber installations, settling for wireless/cellular connectivity with low performance and recurring costs, or continuing with inadequate existing infrastructure that leaves them vulnerable to attack.”

The Hybrid Approach to Connectivity – Intelligently Utilizing Existing Infrastructure

Billions of copper and coax lines currently run slow, vulnerable, and often analog communication across cities worldwide, alongside limited new fiber deployments. This existing infrastructure presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

Actelis offers a solution beyond fiber and cellular – a Hybrid-Fiber approach that maximizes any existing wireline infrastructure, elevating legacy copper and coax lines to fiber-grade, cyber-hardened performance overnight. This enables cities to modernize without construction delays or traffic disruption, and at dramatic cost savings – often 10 times less expensive than traditional fiber deployments. With Actelis’ solutions, any existing fiber, copper or coax becomes part of a city’s high-performing, secure network without requiring infrastructure overhauls.

This approach has gained traction with hundreds of cities globally, including Washington D.C., Seattle, Sacramento, New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Frankfurt, London and many others.

“When we started developing this technology, the premise was simple,” says Barlev. “Why wait months for permits, then tear up streets and spend hundreds of thousands per mile on new fiber when copper and coaxial cables already reach virtually every location?”

The company’s patented MetaLIGHT technology boosts copper performance, security, and resilience to fiber-grade levels. By utilizing optical fiber where available and enhancing existing copper/coax elsewhere, cities can rapidly modernize their infrastructure at a fraction of the cost.

“A typical city has fiber to some locations and can easily connect others, but faces many hard-to-reach locations where installing fiber requires boring or trenching at costs from $70,000 to $400,000 per mile, plus months of delays,” Barlev explains. “Installing Actelis’ equipment on existing infrastructure provides the required performance and security instantly.”

Additionally, Actelis’ solutions support remote powering of devices over existing copper/coax wires – a significant advantage over fiber installations which require separate power lines at additional cost. Their equipment is also designed to accommodate future upgrades without replacement.

For Washington D.C.’s Department of Transportation, which recently implemented Actelis’ solution as part of a $2.3 million project, the impact was immediate. “Selecting Actelis allowed the city to go from a multi-year modernization timeline to deploying connectivity across hundreds of intersections instantly,” Barlev says.

The Edge Security Challenge

As connectivity improves, another critical issue emerges: security. The proliferation of IoT devices has created a vast attack surface extending beyond traditional network boundaries.

“The further you move from the core network, the less protection typically exists,” Barlev explains. “Most organizations focus on protecting data centers and corporate networks, but IoT edge devices are often left vulnerable in unsupervised locations, becoming potential penetration points for bad actors.”

Recent years have seen increased attacks on critical infrastructure. According to Barlev, these incidents highlight a fundamental flaw in traditional security approaches, which treat security as a separate layer added centrally after network deployment.

Cyber Aware Networking

This realization led Actelis to introduce “Cyber Aware Networking” – integrating security directly into the connectivity infrastructure. Their MetaShield system is an AI-powered cybersecurity solution designed specifically to protect edge devices.

“MetaShield represents a fundamental shift in infrastructure security,” Barlev explains. “The network itself becomes both the security sensor and the enforcement point.”

The system continuously monitors device behavior at the edge, identifying malfunctions and anomalies that could indicate compromise, while enabling immediate network responses to threats before they spread.

Actelis’ security includes “Triple-Shield Data Protection” – combining data scrambling, coding, and 256-bit encryption. Originally developed for defense applications, this military-grade technology has received U.S. Department of Defense certification for the FIPS 140 cryptographic standard, providing cities with the same level of protection deployed across military bases worldwide.

As smart city initiatives accelerate worldwide, Actelis continues expanding into utilities, energy, transportation, and residential applications. The company’s GigaLine 900 series, delivering gigabit connectivity over existing copper and coaxial cables with ultra-low power consumption, further extends their reach.

“Our mission remains consistent,” Barlev emphasizes. “We’re enabling secure, immediate connectivity regardless of underlying infrastructure. Whether it’s a traffic signal in Seattle, a security camera at a U.S. Airforce base, a rail system in Japan, or an apartment building in New York, the principles of rapid deployment and integrated security apply everywhere.”