Internet of Things (IoT) enabled smart queuing model to support massive safe crowd at Ka’aba

Abstract

One of the important rituals that Muslims do on their pilgrimage to Makkah, which is called Tawaf in Arabic, is a walk around the Ka'aba seven times. The space around the Ka'aba is limited and it is usually crowded. Pilgrims arrive at unpredictable intervals to perform the Tawaf and quickly join the crowd, which increases the population. Congestion and high density are issues that arise during the Tawaf as a result of time and space constraints. Furthermore, short proximity among pilgrims owing to the crowd during prayers, Tawaf, congregation, stay in hotels, creates a perfect environment for transmission of infectious diseases. Therefore, changes in the crowd movement pattern and smart scheduling can not only reduce the transmission of infectious diseases, but safety from being stressed and injuries which is caused due to fellow pilgrims push into each other. This problem specifically affects older people and female pilgrims. This study proposes a smart queue at various entry points to reduce the waiting time in the system as a function of the number of multiple entry/exit loops, social distancing, and arrival rates of pilgrims. The study also proposes to use Internet of Things (IoT), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies to monitor the crowd at exit/entry points that will help in capacity estimation and planning. Furthermore, the study recommends redesigning the entry and exit mechanisms for smart queues to minimize congestion and alleviate the associated problems while maintaining pilgrimage rituals. We evaluated the achievements of our proposed model by simulating historical data. The simulation results indicate that the average completion time for circumambulation is significantly reduced.