A time and energy efficient parking system using ZigBee communication protocol

Abstract

A major problem in large and busy traffic areas is parking vehicles by searching for empty (and available) spaces. In the recent days, some parking lot systems are equipped with sensors and microcontrollers to automatically count the cars parked in the lot. However, such a parking system may not indicate any empty spots. In addition, existing systems are very expensive and suffer due to long processing time and large energy consumption. Recently introduced ZigBee technology is a low-cost and low-power wireless communication protocol targeted towards automation and remote control applications. In this work, we propose a smart parking system for heavy traffic environments using ZigBee wireless transmission module. The proposed system is suitable for multi-floor buildings and able to send a message to vehicles about the status of parking spaces. The parking monitoring system continuously collects the data from parking slot detectors and then it intimates the vehicle section. We simulate the proposed system using ZigBee and two other popular wireless technologies: Bluetooth and WiFi. Experimental results show that ZigBee provides transition time and power advantages over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.