A Smart Parking System based on IoT protocols and emerging enabling technologies

Enabling a sustainable mobility is one of primary goals of the so-called Smart City vision, and the development of intelligent parking systems represents a key aspect. To this purpose, this paper presents a novel Smart Parking System based on the jointly use of different technologies, such as RFID, WSN, NFC, Cloud, and mobile. It is able to collect, in real time, both environmental parameters and information about the occupancy state of parking spaces, and to direct drivers to the nearest vacant parking spot by using a customized software application. This last one leverages a NFC-based e-wallet system to allow users to pay for parking fees. Furthermore, a customized software application, installed on a cloud platform, is able to manage alert events (e.g. improper use of a reserved space or expiration of the purchased time). In such a case, it promptly informs the traffic cops through an Android mobile app, which has been designed ad hoc for the considered scenario.