  Rapid urbanization burdens city infrastructure and creates the need for local
governments to maximize the usage of resources to serve its citizens. Smart
city projects aim to alleviate the urbanization problem by deploying a vast
amount of Internet-of-things (IoT) devices to monitor and manage environmental
conditions and infrastructure. However, smart city projects can be extremely
expensive to deploy and manage. A significant portion of the expense is a
result of providing Internet connectivity via 5G or WiFi to IoT devices. This
paper proposes the use of delay tolerant networks (DTNs) as a backbone for
smart city communication; enabling developing communities to become smart
cities at a fraction of the cost. A model is introduced to aid policy makers in
designing and evaluating the expected performance of such networks. Preliminary
results are presented based on a public transit network data-set from Chapel
Hill, North Carolina. Finally, innovative ways of improving network performance
in a low-cost smart city is discussed.
