The design of an intelligent urban transportation system in Jamaica based on the Internet of Things

The concept of an intelligent transportation system has been accepted and deployed in many countries. At the same time, there are others that are yet to embrace this technology. Henceforth, the possibility has arisen for the feasibility of such a system to be researched in a Jamaican context. This paper's contribution presents a concept model for an intelligent transport system using the Internet of Things architectural model. The paper also will show both the motivation and application of this model within the context of the Jamaican transportation environment. Additionally, the paper will seek to provide the next steps required for evaluating the scaled infrastructure deployments with an aim to create and discuss a proposed design and structured model of an intelligent urban transportation system for the Jamaican environment, based on the Internet of Things (IOT).

I. Introduction

Situated right between the North, Central and South Americas, Jamaica sits in a sweet spot in terms of its proximity to many major markets in the Western Hemisphere. Jamaica also enjoys a diverse economic environment, with close to 60% of the population living in the urban areas. Critical to any healthy economy is an efficient public transportation system. Jamaica is in a position where the IT infrastructure is mature enough to be used to address many of its problems, and the public transportation system is a prime target. The use of wireless sensor networks, cellular networks, data mining techniques, and integration into the Internet of Things should provide a platform on which a more efficient transport system can be built. Figure 1:

Map of the kingston metropolitan region