Title
Wireless Sensor Networks for Pilgrims Tracking
Abstract
Every year, and for five days, about three million pilgrims gather in the small city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, to perform the rituals of Hajj (Pilgrimage). Tracking the movement of such a large number of people is crucial to the pilgrims themselves and the authorities managing the whole event. This letter reports a real-time pilgrim tracking system that has been designed and implemented. The system relies on a dedicated delay-tolerant wireless sensor network (WSN). This WSN is interfaced to the Internet through gateway(s) available from an internet service provider (ISP). Energy efficiency, robustness, and reliability are key factors in the design of the system. Each pilgrim is given a mobile sensor unit which includes a GPS chip, a microcontroller, and antennas. A network of fixed units is installed in the Holy area for receiving and forwarding data. Periodically, each mobile unit sends its user identification (UID), latitude, longitude, and a time stamp. A central server maps the latitude and longitude information on a geographical information system (GIS). The developed system can be used to track a specific or a group of pilgrims. The developed system was tested during the last two pilgrim seasons. The pilot system was able to successfully track all pilgrims who participated in the experiment.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1109/LES.2012.2215913
Embedded Systems Letters
Keywords
Field
DocType
internet,wireless sensor networks,mobile computing,tracking,global positioning system,geographic information systems
Mobile computing,Key distribution in wireless sensor networks,Computer science,Tracking system,Real-time computing,Internetworking,Global Positioning System,Assisted GPS,Wireless sensor network,The Internet
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
4
4
1943-0663
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.67
2
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mohamed Mohandes1123.57
Mohamed A. Haleem26911.60
Mohamed Deriche331439.97
Kaviarasu Balakrishnan460.67
Mohammad Reza Gholami521817.14