IoT-based framework for crowd management

Abstract

Seasonally, a huge number of people visit public places (e.g., holy places like El-Harm El-Madini El-Harm El-Makki (KSA), railway stations like Mumbai suburban railway (India), or sports events in big stadiums). Crowd management is critical in these situations in order to avoid crowd disasters (e.g., stampede and suffocation). Therefore, there is an urgent need for a framework to manage these crowds in order to save people’s lives. This framework shall be smart and efficient in terms of crowd time management and exerted efforts. The proposed framework is based on IoT and supports mobile device interaction through smart applications with a fairly simple interface to suit all ages. The aim is to strongly support administrators controlling and distributing visitors over the given place. The framework consists of three layers: sensor, management, and interface layers. The sensor layer is responsible for crowd data acquisition. The management layer acts as a middleware between sensors and interface layers. It includes web services which are responsible for collecting and analyzing the data coming from the sensors. It then notifies administrators about overcrowded areas to take the suitable decisions. Afterwards, the suitable decision (e.g., close/open doors and roads) will be taken and transferred to the interface layer. The interface layer is formed by user-friendly applications that communicate information between the management layer and the visitors. It provides mobile applications that aim to inform visitors about (1) current opening roads and doors, (2) how to find noncrowded areas, and (3) how to locate their groups and friends. The proposed framework provides high availability, reliability, usability, and performance.