A seminar report

on

A Study of Wireless Technology Based Pilgrim Tracking Systems

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of course credits for

INTEGRATED DUAL DEGREE

in

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

(with specialization in Information Technology)

Submitted by

DEEPAK KUMAR

IDD-CSE

(Enrollment No: 10211009)

Under the guidance of

Dr. Dhaval Patel

Assistant Professor

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

ROORKEE – 247667

August, 2014

ii

ABSTRACT

This report studies various technologies which can be used for people tracking and crowd management.

During any pilgrimage session, the events like losing a group member, medical emergencies, and

stampede are very common. In case of disasters like flood, fire, earthquake pilgrims are often left

stranded as they have a little knowledge about that area. To address these concerns, the authorities

need information about the location and direction of movement of the pilgrims. Sometime, it may be

necessary to identify a person in cases like a lost child, unconscious or dead person. Researchers have

proposed a number of solutions using the wireless technology which includes RFID tags, NFC, GPS,

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. An introduction about the technologies and how they can be used to design

systems for people identification and tracking is presented. The various systems using a set of

technologies have been studied in terms of their effectiveness and the cost.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Motivation .................................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Background .................................................................................................................................. 2

2. WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES......................................................................................................... 3

2.1 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) ....................................................................................... 3

2.1.1 Categorising RFID tags......................................................................................................... 3

2.1.2 Effects of operating frequency on RFID tags ....................................................................... 4

2.1.3 Ultra-Wideband RFID tags ................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Near field communication (NFC) ................................................................................................ 5

2.3 Wi-Fi ............................................................................................................................................ 6

2.3.1 Passive Wi-Fi Tracking......................................................................................................... 6

2.3.2 Active Wi-Fi tracking ........................................................................................................... 7

2.4 Bluetooth ...................................................................................................................................... 8

2.4.1 Inquiry or scan based tracking .............................................................................................. 9

2.4.2 Inquiry-free tracking ............................................................................................................. 9

2.5 GPS ............................................................................................................................................ 10

3. SYSTEM DESIGNS ........................................................................................................................ 11

3.1 Integrated Mobile and RFID System ......................................................................................... 11

3.2 Smartphone GPS ........................................................................................................................ 12

3.2.1 Updating Location .............................................................................................................. 12

3.3 Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) .............................................................................................. 13

3.4 Bluetooth .................................................................................................................................... 14

3.5 Wi-Fi .......................................................................................................................................... 15

4. SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 16

5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 18

6. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 19

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Ranges and costs of RFID tags ............................................................................................. 5

Table 4.1: Comparison of wireless technologies ................................................................................. 16

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Waterproof RFID Wristband ............................................................................................... 3

Figure 2.2: Process of associating with an access point ........................................................................ 8

Figure 3.1: Architecture of a system using RFID and Smartphone GPS............................................. 12

Figure 3.2: HajjLocator Architecture ................................................................................................... 13

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Motivation

Pilgrimage has a great significance in India. Each pilgrimage session attracts a huge crowd. Usually

the pilgrims move simultaneously in a large group. Getting lost in the crowd is very common. Finding

the lost person among thousands of pilgrims causes a lot of trouble for his relatives and the helping

teams. As the pilgrims come from across the country, communication problems may also arise due to

lack of a common language, which makes it hard to get the help from the helping teams.

Overcrowding at a specific site often results in stampede which leaves many people dead and injured.

Sometimes the dead persons cannot be identified. The medical history of an injured person can provide

better treatment and his family members should be notified as soon as possible. We can get the home

address and medical history about a person only after that person is identified and we have that

information already stored.

The problem of identifying and locating a pilgrim can be solved if a device can be associated with the

pilgrim. The device can be monitored to get the location trajectory of the pilgrim. Having the

trajectories of the movements of all persons, the crowd management can be made easy. It can help in

preparing traffic plans. We can get the statistics about the most visited places, the duration of staying

at a site and the way pilgrims disperse. The number of pilgrims at a specific site can be restricted to a

safe limit. The group in which a person is moving can be identified automatically and the lost situations

can be predicted if the system detects that the distance of a person is increasing from his group.

The disasters like flood, fire, and earthquake leave the people stranded. The need may arise to quickly

relocate the pilgrims. Having an estimate of the number of pilgrims, their direction and speed of

movement may help in quickly relocate the pilgrims. The trajectory data can be used to find some

anomalies like people going from an alternate route which may be due to broken bridge or traffic jam.

Crowd gathering at unexpected place can also be detected which may be due to an accident or their

path is blocked due to flood. Ambulances or other moving objects can also be tracked by using methods

similar to tracking pilgrims.

In this report, a survey of various systems designed using wireless technologies for pilgrim tracking is

presented. Some other systems for tracking people in general are also studied, which can be utilized

for the purpose of tracking pilgrims. The technologies and system designs are studied for the features

they can provide like identifying or tracking a person, the infrastructure cost, scalability and the ease

of deployment.

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1.2 Background

Tracking and monitoring the pilgrims in a crowded area is a difficult task. Researchers have tried a lot

of solutions using smartphones [1] [2], RFID [3], wireless sensor networks (WSN) [4] or a combination

of them [5] [6]. Some of them deeply studied the protocol of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to track the

smartphones using unconventional techniques [7].

Today smartphones come equipped with GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, accelerometer, compass and

other sensors. Most of the systems utilize only the GPS and the mobile network available in

smartphones, using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and other sensors like accelerometer and compass remain

unused. These systems have a server maintaining the database of locations of each pilgrim and a

smartphone application for the pilgrims which get the coordinates using GPS and uploads it to the

server using GPRS, 3G or short message service (SMS). The mobile app can be used by a pilgrim to

request help or locate the helping team and officers easily. Section 2.2 explains that the NFC

technology can also be used to identify pilgrims.

RFID based systems are most suitable for the purpose of identifying a large number of pilgrims.

Because RFID tags are cheaper they can be provided to each pilgrims and the tag can be read using a

RFID reader, which can also provide the information about a pilgrim. But RFID readers are costly,

using them to track the pilgrims requires installation of a number of readers along the path. Also the

passive RFID readers have a short range, so the pilgrim must be close to reader. Active RFID tags can

be read from a larger distance but they are significantly more costly than passive tags. Researchers

have faced many difficulties in the system designed using RFID and they found it to be impractical

with the crowd [2]. Section 2.1 provides a detailed overview of RFID technology and how it can be

used in pilgrim tracking and management.

Systems based on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth require the mobile device to have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enabled

all the time. Wi-Fi monitors or Bluetooth monitors are installed similar to RFID readers in RFID based

systems. When the mobile device comes near a monitor, it captures the packets transmitted from the

mobile device and extracts it MAC address. The MAC address uniquely identifies a device and it can

be associated with a pilgrim at the time of registration. Section 2.3 and 2.4 discuss the Wi-Fi and

Bluetooth technology to monitor the pilgrims.

Tracking millions of pilgrims in real time requires a highly available, cost effective and robust system.

So the technology must be selected carefully. Existing technologies are surveyed for their practicality

in pilgrim management taking into account the cost and features supported. Chapter 3 discusses various

systems proposed by researchers.

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2. WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

2.1 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

RFID is a technology which uses radio-frequency waves for automated identification of objects from

a distance. In RFID systems an object is marked with a tag. These RFID tags are small, wireless devices

that store an identification number, which is typically a pointer to database entry. An RFID reader does

the work of scanning these tags, when they come in its read range. Deployment of RFID systems is

increasing due to cost reduction. Now they provide longer read range and higher data transfer rate.

RFID tags are also available as waterproof wristbands. Section 3.1 discusses the system designed for

tracking pilgrims using RFID tags.

Figure 2.1: Waterproof RFID Wristband (Courtesy of [8])

2.1.1 Categorising RFID tags

RFID tags can be categorised depending on their source of power or the technology used to transfer

the power and energy:

Based on source of power

1. Passive: Passive tags are most popular due to their very low cost starting from around ₹10 per

tag. They get their energy by harvesting the RF energy, which comes from the reader when it

tries to read the tag. They can operate only when a reader is trying to read.

2. Semi-Passive: They have their own power source but they can transmit information only when

read by the reader. Due to having battery for power, semi-passive tags are significantly more

costly than passive tags, and their size is also larger.

3. Active: They have their own power source and can transmit information automatically or when

asked by a reader. Having battery provides significantly longer read range than passive tags,

but makes it most costly tag. The chip inside tag consumes very less amount of power (less

than 1 mW), so most of the tags have battery life or around 5 years.

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Based on power and data transfer

RFID tags can be divided in two categories based on power transfer from reader to tag and data transfer

from tag to reader: [9]

1. Near-field RFID: The energy is transferred using magnetic induction. The RFID reader

generates alternating magnetic field which produces an alternating voltage in the tag coil. The

generated voltage is then rectified and a capacitor attached to it accumulates the charge. This

charge is used to power the chip inside tag. Load modulation technique is used for transferring

the tag id to the reader. Current in the tag coil produces its own magnetic field which opposes

the reader’s magnetic field. This will change the current flow in reader’s coil which can be

detected by the reader. The range for using magnetic induction is approximately 𝑐/2𝜋𝑓, so the

read range decreases on increasing the frequency. This technique is used for tags operating at

less than 100 MHz.

2. Far-field RFID: The tag has a dipole antenna which captures the EM waves transmitted from

the dipole antenna of a reader. The energy received in the tag is in the form of alternating

potential difference. The rectified voltage is applied to capacitor which stores the charge. The

data transfer is done using back scattering. The tag reflects the part of received energy by

changing the impedance. The tag’s ID can be encoded by changing the impedance over time.

The reader receives this reflected signal, so the energy received is proportional to 1/𝑟4, where

r is the distance between reader and the tag. So the read range of passive tags using this

technology is around 3 to 6 meters. This technique is used for tags operating in the UHF band.

2.1.2 Effects of operating frequency on RFID tags

1. As we increase the frequency, the energy contained in radio frequency waves also increases,

so the passive tags can harvest more energy, resulting in higher read range. Passive UHF tags

can have read range more than 3 meters, while LF and HF tags have few centimetres.

2. At high frequencies radio reflective materials impede the scanning of tags. So UHF tags will

be affected by beverages and metals. The human body has lot of liquid, so UHF tags may not

work properly near humans.

3. At higher frequency the data transfer rate is also high. So UHF and UWB tags have high data

transfer speed, so the tag id can have more number of bits and more number of tags can be read

in a fixed time.

4. Tags operating in UHF are cheaper than the tags operating in high frequency or lower

frequency.

5

Table 2.1 compares passive and active tags operating in different categories with regard to their range

and cost. Empty field indicates that the tags falling in that category is not commercially available.

Table 2.1: Ranges and costs of RFID tags (adapted from [10])

Frequency Passive Active

Range Cost Range Cost

125-134.3 kHz Low Frequency

(LF)

10 cm – 30

cm

$1

13.56 MHz High Frequency

(HF)

10 cm – 1.5

m

$5

865-867 MHz Ultra High

Frequency

(UHF)

1 m – 15 m $0.15 50 m $20

2.45 or 5.8 GHz Microwave 3 m 30 m $25

3.1–10 GHz Ultra Wide Band NA up to 200 m $5

2.1.3 Ultra-Wideband RFID tags

This technology is relatively new. UWB tags operate in 3.1 to 10 GHz band, by transmitting low power

signals on a large range of frequencies instead of transmitting a strong signal on a particular frequency.

UWB tags are energy efficient and they provide a very long read range. Since they use a broad range

of frequencies, the interference is very less. So, they can be used nearby liquids, metals and humans.

They do not interfere with any other device because of weak signal on a particular frequency. So the

UWB tags can be the best among active RFID tags for tracking pilgrims.

2.2 Near field communication (NFC)

NFC is a wireless technology for short range communications between the devices which are held

together for a short time. Using NFC mobile devices can communicate with the nearby devices in both

directions. The theoretical distance of working is up to 20 cm, while practically the devices should be

within 5 cm [11]. NFC is based on RFID technology and the NFC standard is compatible with already

deployed contactless solutions [12]. Mobile phones have embedded tags within them. The NFC

technology uses magnetic induction for data transfer and powering the tag. An unpowered NFC chip

or passive tag can communicate to an NFC device. NFC has slow data transfer rate with maximum

theoretical rate being 424 kbps. The typical data transfer rate is from 30 to 60 kbps [11].

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NFC can be used for identification, if we already have the details about the person and the device. It

can be used for tracking purpose also, if the pilgrims are required to tap their phones at the check post.

The device can be identified even when the phone is switched off. A smartphone with NFC capability

can read the high frequency RFID tags operating in 13.56 MHz frequency. So the pilgrims can be

given low cost passive RFID tags which can be read using a smartphone and the information about the

pilgrim can be accessed using Internet or stored in the tag.

NFC can be used to transfer data. When using GPS to log the location trajectory of the user, the logged

data can be transferred to another device seamlessly. It requires only to touch another device, both of

the devices can transfer data using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. For data transfer using Bluetooth, first we need

to activate the Bluetooth on both devices, then search for the other device and then pair. These

functions may not be easily accessible in the menu system. The updated Bluetooth standard supports

paring the devices via NFC. This whole process can be replaced by momentarily holding the devices

close to each other. In the similar way NFC can be used to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot or transfer the

data using Wi-Fi Direct.

2.3 Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi operates in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. It provides longer range and very high data

transfer rate compared to Bluetooth. Research has been done on tracking smartphones without

modification in their software using Wi-Fi [13] or Bluetooth [7]. Researchers have also compared

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in terms of architecture, discovery time and signal strength [14]. This section

discusses how we can use Wi-Fi to track a smartphone, and the next section describes the use of

Bluetooth for tracking.

Wi-Fi enabled devices transmit messages even when they are not connected to a network. For detecting

available access point within range, probe request frames are transmitted periodically on every

supported channel. These frames can be detected by using Wi-Fi monitoring equipment in the region

of interest, which can provide coarse-grained location for the phones nearby monitoring device. Each

frame transmitted consists of a MAC header, payload and frame check sequence (FCS). The MAC

header contains the MAC address of the Wi-Fi device along with other fields. Following sections

discuss tracking a Wi-Fi enabled phone passively and actively, in order.

2.3.1 Passive Wi-Fi Tracking

During passive tracking no frames are transmitted. A Wi-Fi monitor listens silently for the packets

transmitted from the phone. As the smartphone software is not modified, the message transmission

occurs on the discretion of phone, for example when the phone is searching for other Wi-Fi networks.

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These transmissions can be detected from 20 meters to 300 meters depending on the transmission

power and other environmental factors. These frames contain the MAC address of sender. By

associating this MAC address with a pilgrim, the location information of can be logged in the database.

The performance of the Wi-Fi monitoring system can be improved by increasing the number of frames

transmitted from a device. More number of transmissions helps in getting more devices detected and

their trajectories can be obtained more accurately. A phone may not get detected by Wi-Fi monitors.

One of the possible reason can be that the phone is not transmitting any probe message. Also a message

transmitted may not be correctly detected by the monitor due to environmental factor or long range.

The next section uses active tracking approach to get more transmission from the smartphone.

2.3.2 Active Wi-Fi tracking

Active tracking involves transmissions of frames from a Wi-Fi monitors. A smartphone can be tricked

to connect to a virtual hotspot or reply to a query, which involves transmission of frames and increases

the number of devices detected and the accuracy of localizing the device. Following three techniques

can be used to increase the number of frames transmitted.

Advertising popular access point’ SSID

At some places like airport, few companies provide free Wi-Fi. The hotspots from AT&T use “attwifi”

as their SSID. Once a phone is connected to an “attwifi” hotspot, it can automatically connect to any

other hotspot with “attwifi” as its SSID. To boost the number of frames received from a device, a

beacon frame is transmitted with the SSID of a popular hotspot. If the phone has already been

connected once to the hotspot with this SSID, the phone then sends an association request to this virtual

access point.

To get even more frames transmitted from each device, a fully functional access point can be emulated.

Providing Internet connectivity is not necessary. The smartphone occasionally transmits null frames

to notify the access point about it power state, which can be used for tracking.

Opportunistic Access Point Emulation

A phone which has been associated to a particular SSID will transmit directed probe requests for it. If

the phone recognizes a hotspot with that SSID, it will make attempts for connecting to the hotspot.

The recognition process relies on the security protocol, which is not contained in the probe request. In

case of open access point it gets associated completely, and we will get more frames.

For secured networks the phone will not attempt to associate if the security protocol doesn’t match

with already remembered credentials. For associating using secure protocols like WPA, 4-way

8

handshake is required. This 4-way handshake cannot be completed because we don’t have the required

credentials for a successful handshake, and we don’t try to complete. But as shown in Figure 2.2, if

the access point does not initiate the handshake process (step C), after association response (step A),

the phone will transmit null packets (step B) for around 10 seconds to check if AP is still there and

after that it will repeat the association attempt. These continuous null packets can provide better

trajectory.

Figure 2.2: Process of associating with an access point (Courtesy of [13])

Sending RTS packets to detected phones

This method does not require association of a phone with the emulated access points. To boost the

number of frames transmitted from a phone, an RTS (request to send) frame can be sent. IEEE 802.11

standard requires that if a station receives an RTS frame and if the channel is free, then it should send

a CTS (clear to send) frame. An RTS frame has both receiver address (RA) as well as transmitter

address (TA), but CTS frame has only the receiver address. So a CTS frame transmitted from a device

does not identify it. To solve this problem, we can specify unique transmitter address (TA) in RTS

frame for each phone. So the phone will transmit CTS with the unique transmitter address as its

receiver address, which can be intercepted by the Wi-Fi monitor.

2.4 Bluetooth

Almost every phone comes with Bluetooth. It consumes less power and provides decent data transfer

rate. Most Bluetooth devices are battery powered class 2 devices using 2.5 mW of power. Its practical

9

operating range is about 10 m to 30 m, which makes is suitable for tracking the persons passing nearby

a Bluetooth monitoring device. Bluetooth technology operates in 2.4 to 2.485 GHz (ISM) band, it uses

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum technology at a nominal rate of 1600 hops per second. [15]

Connecting two Bluetooth enabled devices involves inquiry and paging, this process is called paring.

Inquiry procedure is used to discover all the devices in range and get their device addresses and clocks.

Paging procedure is used to establish the connection. During paging the master device transmits search

packets (called pages) targeted to a slave device until master gets a reply.

In android Bluetooth can be enabled programmatically, which we can use to transfer the data when we

are nearby some check post, which we can detect with the help of geo-fencing. And we can turn it off

when leaving the geo-fence.

2.4.1 Inquiry or scan based tracking

To discover the nearby devices, a master device transmits a discovery packet on some predefined 32

channels. If a device is configured to be discoverable, it will respond to this packet which can be used

to identify the device. It might take around 10 seconds to discover all the devices in range because the

response will be transmitted after a random delay which minimizes the probability of response

collisions from other devices. The scanning process also disrupts the current channels which are in

use.

Using above method anybody can track mobile devices by sending discovery packets continuously.

Considering that as privacy risk, nowadays Bluetooth is set in discoverable mode only for a limited

time or when the user is on specific page as is the case in Windows Phone. A scan packet originating

from a mobile device is not required to have source address, so it cannot be used for tracking the phone

when it searches for other devices to communicate.

2.4.2 Inquiry-free tracking

The authors have described a system for tracking the Bluetooth devices without discoverability, which

is connection based. It requires a Bluetooth device to be already connected to a Bluetooth monitor by

paring. Paring insures that an unpaired device cannot track a Bluetooth enabled phone. The Bluetooth

monitor sends an inquiry which is targeted for a particular device instead of all devices. It will require

multiple inquiry messages for tracking a number of devices, but the advantage is that a specific device

can be targeted quickly. Section 3.4 describes a system using Bluetooth for tracking persons.

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2.5 GPS

Global positioning system is a navigation system which provides position, velocity and time

information anywhere on earth. GPS uses the signal incoming from more than 4-5 satellites to calculate

its position. But to send this location to the server it requires other means of connectivity like Wi-Fi,

Bluetooth, 3G etc. Accuracy of GPS is from 2 to 10 meters, but due to weather conditions or indoors

it may be more than 100 meters, so the indoor use of GPS is very limited.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) also works similar to GPS. In most of the

smartphones having Snapdragon processor, both satellite networks GPS as well as GLONASS can be

accessed, which improves the location services in terms of reliability, increased accuracy and faster

fix on location [16]. Standalone GPS takes time to get its first location fix which may be up to 30-40

seconds. This time can be reduce by using assisted GPS (A-GPS) which gets the almanac and

ephemeris data from the Internet instead of getting it from the satellites by utilizing the cell phone

tower’s id (Cell ID).

Getting real time position from a smartphone requires an application to be developed, which gets the

position from GPS device, aggregates or stores the data and then transfer it to the central server when

the network connectivity is available. Section 3.2 describes a system designed for tracking pilgrims

using smartphone GPS.

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3. SYSTEM DESIGNS

Various systems have been designed by the researchers using the GPS of a smartphone, RFID,

standalone GPS with wireless communication for tracking the pilgrims. Some systems have been

designed to monitor presence of people in an area using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, not specifically for

tracking pilgrims, but they can be customized to track pilgrims.

The system should be scalable to handle real time location updates of millions of pilgrims. The system

should also be inter-operable and should integrate with other systems. It must be designed by keeping

in mind the duration of time it will be used. Using expensive infrastructure for an infrequent event

cannot be justified.

System designed for tracking people usually incorporate location based services (LBS) and geographic

information system (GIS). Location based services are services which use the location of an object or

person to control the features it provides. For example: finding nearby ATM, getting route to it and

traffic information, advertising, road traffic optimization, emergency call positioning. Location of a

device can be obtained using a wide range of complementary technologies including GPS, Assisted

GPS, RFID, cell identification, Wi-Fi positioning system. Following sections discuss the various

system designs possible for tracking pilgrims.

3.1 Integrated Mobile and RFID System

This system is designed for tracking the pilgrims during Hajj. In this system, an RFID tag is given to

each pilgrim. Pilgrims having smartphone with GPS can use location based services by installing an

app. These services include locating family members or friends, requesting urgent help, a map of

important locations. To be able to transmit the current position, the app must be running in the phone.

RFID readers are also installed in different regions to scan the tags.

The control centre provides features like visualizing the location of all the pilgrims on a map, searching

for pilgrim based on several criteria like region, age, etc. Sending notification to the mobile device,

maintaining the database of places like hospitals, location history and personal information about

pilgrims. Smartphones use web services and the RFID readers use a middleware software to interface

with the control centre. The overall architecture is depicted in Figure 3.1.

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Figure 3.1: Architecture of a system using RFID and Smartphone GPS (Courtesy of [6])

This system faced problems with RFID tags and readers. The read range of the RFID reader was low,

it was also affected by the environmental factors. The signal between the RFID tag and the reader was

getting blocked by the tag holder’s own body, also the read range was affected by the angle with reader.

So they decided to not have a wristband RFID tag.

3.2 Smartphone GPS

A system called “HajjLocator” [1], has been designed to track pilgrims during Hajj. The system uses

the GPS built into smartphone. The data transfer is done preferably using Wi-Fi or 3G, but the system

can also use SMS to send the data in emergency situations. A pilgrim is required to install an app on

his smartphone, which provides several features and sends his location to the server.

3.2.1 Updating Location

The frequency of location update must be decided carefully as it affects the power consumption and

the network bandwidth. We can update the location after a certain time period or after the user has

moved a certain distance. Choosing time based method to update the location guarantees that we will

have the updated location after a particular duration. But if a user is stationary or he is moving slowly,

then the frequent location updates will be redundant and will drain the battery and increase the network

13

traffic. If we choose location based method, then we have to continuously keep track of the current

position and the last sent position. If the distance between current position and the last sent location is

greater than a threshold value, send the current position and store it as last sent location. If a user moves

very fast then the distance based method will update more frequently.

The server uses PHP and MySQL. Authorities can login into the web server using a browser to get the

position of pilgrims which is displayed in either a tabular form or in Google maps.

Figure 3.2: HajjLocator Architecture (Courtesy of [1])

They conclude that the distance-based update is recommended for tracking pilgrims [1]. Also an option

was provided to the user to send his location manually. They also reported that the accuracy in open

or semi-opened places was fine, but sometimes the server did not receive any data, why may due to

unavailability of a location fix. In some cases, the location obtained from GPS was very far from the

user’s actual location. Using the previous location records of a user, these erroneous locations can be

adjusted and corrected.

3.3 Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)

In this system each pilgrim is given a sensor unit which contains a GPS for getting the current location

of the pilgrim, a microcontroller which executes the program to send the location to fixed sensor units,

a battery to power this matchbox sized sensor unit. It also includes ZigBee radio which is used to

transfer the data to a network of fixed master units deployed in the region of interest. The tracked

mobile units can be much more than fixed sensing nodes. The designers of this system have developed

14

an RFID based system in the past, which provided only the identification of pilgrims. This system is

designed to track pilgrims as well as identify them.

The wireless sensor nodes transmit their unique identification number, its current position as obtained

from the GPS and the time periodically or on request from tracking station. The data transfer takes

place opportunistically using ad-hoc network. The sensor units transmit the data using flooding

protocol, so the same data is sent to all the nearby fixed sensors. This data is stored for some time and

then multi-hop routing is used to transfer this data. The system designed can tolerate failure of a few

fixed sensor nodes. The positions of pilgrims is mapped onto Google map similar to other systems.

For querying the location of a pilgrim, the server sends query by using optimal route utilizing the last

known location. The system also supports routing multiple queries in parallel. Battery powered

wireless sensor units should have power efficient hardware and software. The data transfer should also

be minimum. The increased frequency of updating the location affects power consumption and

bandwidth, but it reduces the time taken to find a pilgrim.

3.4 Bluetooth

A number of class 2 Bluetooth devices connected to a host machine are distributed in the area of

interest. All of these host machines are networked together. This setup can be simply adding a

Bluetooth dongle to a laptop or desktop. A central system which is connected to all these hosts

maintains a database which contains the information about the ID of device, the owner of device, etc.

This central system also maintains a model of the current positions of all the persons. This information

is used to ask a host machine (Bluetooth monitor) to scan for the device IDs of the persons who can

be there. For example, if a person leaves one checkpoint, he will probably go to next check point, so

the next check point can be ordered to scan the ID of that person’s device.

The system requires frequent connection and disconnection, so the connection time should be

minimum. The connection time depends on the clock synchronization between the devices. Once a

host knows the clock difference between its attached Bluetooth device’s clock and a Bluetooth device’s

clock, it can distribute that information to other hosts. To work this properly, the hosts must have their

clocks synchronized. It can tolerate an error of up to 10.24 seconds. This level of accuracy for time

synchronization can be achieved by using NTP. The time offset between the hosts as well as their

Bluetooth devices’ clock offset needs to be synchronized. This technique enables us to get an expected

connection time of 0.64 seconds.

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3.5 Wi-Fi

Smartphone users are increasing in India. Almost every smartphone comes with at least Wi-Fi. A

system was designed for tracking the smartphones on a busy street for traffic flow or congestion

monitoring using Wi-Fi. To track smartphones in an area, Wi-Fi monitors with a single radio device

are installed. These are standard access points with custom firmware. The power usage of a Wi-Fi

monitor was around 7W. The monitors collect the MAC address and the signal strength received. The

system can store the data for retrieving it later or it can upload the real time data.

The system takes care of stationary devices also. If a device is present continuously during scan, it is

put in a blacklist. If a device is not being observed for a long time, then it is removed from the blacklist.

This system used all three techniques to increase the number of frames transmitted as described in

section 2.3.2. The active tracking results in 3 to 5 times more packet transmissions compared to passive

tracking. The RTS technique has less effect than the others. In their experiment the mean error was

under 70 meters and the monitors were 400 meters apart [13].

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4. SUMMARY

Passive RFID based systems are best suitable for identifying, while active RFID based systems can

track pilgrims as well as identify them. Active tags also provide a long read range, but they are more

costly. If multiple tags are placed together, sometimes not all of them will be detected. RFID tags

operating in ultra-high frequency are susceptible to interference from human body. However, recent

ultra-wideband RFID tags are supposed to immunity to interference from the human body and provide

long read range. Passive tags compatible with NFC can be the best choice for identifying pilgrims with

a smartphone.

Using GPS device on a smartphone can provide more accurate and real time data, but this data needs

to be transferred to a central server. According to a study 50 percent of Indian smartphone users do not

have data connection. So assuming that a smartphone will always have an Internet connection is not

good. Users may disable Internet to reduce the data cost or to save battery. Similarly Bluetooth and

Wi-Fi can also be turned off to save battery. So smartphone alone cannot be used to track all the

pilgrims. Table 4.1 compares various wireless technologies which can be used for tracking pilgrims.

Table 4.1: Comparison of wireless technologies

Technology Distance Power

consumed

Cost Remarks

RFID

(Passive)

< 3 m No battery Very Low Best suited for identification

RFID

(Active)

~ 100 m Very Low Low Interference from human body

NFC ~ 4 cm No battery High Available only in high end

smartphones.

Bluetooth 10 m – 30 m Low High High availability in phones

Wi-Fi 20 m – 200 m High High Drains battery of smartphone

GPS +

Networking

Anywhere on

earth surface

High Very High Requires an application to be

installed in smartphone

The systems designed so far do not utilize all the sensors available in the smartphone. As Bluetooth is

cheaper and available in most of the phone, the systems utilizing Bluetooth in addition to RFID, can

be cost efficient. A system can use more than one technologies, for example, having Wi-Fi monitors

in addition to Bluetooth monitor can provide more data about the position of pilgrims. The researchers

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point out the lack of interactivity and facilities in the websites of Hajj [5]. GIS should be incorporated

into any pilgrim tracking system. NFC enabled smartphones can be used to scan high frequency RFID

tags, which is the most convenient way. It can also be used to quickly setup Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to

transfer data.

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5. CONCLUSION

Using wireless technologies along with smartphones can provide a fast and convenient solution for

tracking and managing pilgrims. Using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability of a smartphone, along with

GPS can provide most efficient solution. Passive RFID tags operating in high frequency which are

compatible with NFC, can be read by an NFC enabled smartphone. Active RFID tags are costly which

increases the total infrastructure cost as the number of pilgrims are in millions. Practical deployments

of RFID based solutions have experienced problems due to body mass and short read range.

Using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi monitors in place of RFID readers can provide more accurate trajectories.

Utilizing the built-in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi on a smartphone is cost effective as we don’t have to buy any

extra equipment for pilgrims. Also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi monitors are very cheap compared to RFID

readers. The location accuracy provided by RFID, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi based solution depends on the

number of readers or monitors installed in an area. These systems can only tell whether a person is

inside the region of a monitor or not.

The GPS enabled smartphones can provide highly accurate and real time location updates. It requires

Internet or other wireless networks to send the location data to central server. Also the battery

consumption is high, because an application must be running, GPS device is also on and the data must

be transferred using networking. Smartphone applications can be used to access several location based

services, like the map of important places nearby, viewing positions of group members on map.

The location data obtained from the RFID reader, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi monitors and the GPS can

provide several statistics. The trajectory data of pilgrims can be used for planning traffic, inferring

peak hours or restricting the number of pilgrims at a site, providing better crowd management.

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