Smart Parking Management System: An integration of RFID, ALPR, and WSN

Parking space has become a prominent problem due to the increasing number of vehicles which is not fully accommodated by the available parking space. In this paper, a Smart Parking Management System (SPMS) based on the combination of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR), and IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies is presented. Using ALPR and WSN, the system is able to collect information about the occupancy status of parking spaces and transmit them to a database server. This information can be accessed by user through mobile application to receive real-time updates. The application also encourages an NFC-based user identification and facilitates user with parking space reservation and online payment system. A proof-of-concept has been deployed, tested, and validated. The validation demonstrates that the proposed system can meet the real requirement of SPMS.