Improved Utilization for “Smart Parking Systems” Based on Paging Technique

Considering the rapid urbanization and the road congestion, the development of smart parking solutions becomes more crucial, especially in terms of economic interests. Thanks to IoT-connectivity and the cloud-integrated platforms, drivers can easily find a vacant parking lot with smart parking services. This paper intervenes in the profit of parking management systems. The paper proposes a new technique “paging technique” which increases the utilization factor of parking slots. The proposed method takes advantage of the idle time that exists between two successful parking services in the same slot. Besides, it investigates the possibility of using the idle times from different parking slots to provide a continuous parking time for an additional car. The paging technique is optimally implemented using mixed-integer linear programming that maximizes the utilization factor for the parking slots with minimum car transitions. Moreover, a data model for the parking management system has been constructed while considering the three major customers, namely, regular, prepaid, and walk-in customers. The difference between fixed and dynamic pricing for parking has been investigated. The technique has been validated using GAMS optimization software and hardware using DSP with Coin-or branch and cut solver (CBC) under real-life conditions. The statistical results prove that the revenue for the proposed parking system has increased significantly. Finally, a comparative analysis is performed, benchmarking our proposed method against recent competing algorithms in real world applications to demonstrate its superiority.

I. Introduction

The concentrated emergence of vehicle fleets in the transportation sector poses unprecedented challenges for urban management, such as road congestion, pollution, and a lack of parking slots. On the other hand, smart parking systems are emerging to provide solutions for urban mobility. This is aided by the rapid development of vehicle IoT and sensor technologies, which enables the transfer of real-time data regarding parking availability, traffic, and road conditions [1]. The authors in [2] highlight the need for innovative approaches in addressing parking problems, particularly in the context of connected and automated technologies. The authors cover various topics such as autonomous vehicles, shared parking mechanisms, dynamic pricing, and parking market interactions. While the papers offer valuable insights, further research is needed in parking planning, operation, and management, as well as modeling and analyzing the economic impact of smart parking systems. The fully automated parking system comprises three essential platforms: path planning, statistical reporting, and parking management. Literature is consistently striving to develop the objectives of these platforms to create a fully automated parking system.