VOL 2 (2018) NO 4 - 2

e-ISSN : 2549-9904
ISSN : 2549-9610

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON INFORMATICS VISUALIZATION

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Based Car Parking System

Muhammad Syamil Mazlan# , Isredza Rahmi A Hamid#, Hazalila Kamaludin#
#
Faculty Science Computer and Information Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract— Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is widely used in various applications such as attendance system,
tracking system, monitoring system or parking system. Currently, the existing parking system used manual entrance through security
guard to access the premise. Therefore, the company need to hire security guard to monitor the premise. In addition, the security
guards need to monitor all movement of vehicle or person that enter or leave the premise. As a result, unauthorized vehicle or person
can easily access the building. To address this problem, we proposed a parking system using RFID technology that can monitor
vehicle’s movement that enter or leave the specific area or place by scanning the RFID tag. The potential benefit is it can improve
security for both security guards and users. Besides that, this parking system can facilitate access control for users and improve
traffic flow during peaks period. There are five modules in the proposed parking systems which are user registration, vehicle
registration, RFID tag, staff and report generation.

Keywords— Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), RFID tags, parking system.

I. INTRODUCTION
Various technologies have been introduced with the aim Our major contributions are summarized as follows:
of facilitating the user in daily life. This may indirectly 1. to design a parking system for Fujitsu based on Radio
improve the productivity and efficiency in solving several Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
matters. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless 2. to develop a parking system that can monitor vehicle
communication technology that able to uniquely identify that enter or leaving the premise.
tagged objects or people. RFID systems have been widely 3. to evaluate the proposed parking system in terms of
used in many application, such as inventory control, product system functionality and usability testing.
tracking through manufacturing and assembly, parking lot The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II
access and control, container or pallet tracking, describes the related work on parking system using RFID.
Identification (ID) badges and access control, equipment or Section III presents the parking system methodology that is
personnel tracking in hospitals and others [1][2][4][12]. Object-Oriented Software Development (OOSD). Section IV
RFID use the electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for discussed the development and implementation of parking
the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags system for Fujitsu, Parit Raja. Finally, Section V concludes
attached to objects. RFID technology is applied in the the overall production results for the RFID based car parking
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to monitor the system
traffic flow and control system for parking. The case study
for this project was conducted at Fujitsu, Parit Raja. Fujitsu II. RELATED WORKS
did not provide any parking system for their staff. Therefore, This section gives review about RFID history, standard,
staffs have to park their vehicle at their own risk. Besides, architecture, technical specification and related work on car
this will not ensure that only the authorized person can parking system.
access the premise. Thus, the security guard plays an
important role to make sure only authorized person can A. RFID History
access the premise. They need to monitor vehicles or persons RFID technology is an emerging trend in many industries
movement entering or leaving the premise. As a result, we worldwide over these decades. Table 1 shows the history of
proposed the parking system using RFID technology to RFID technology over decades [3].
overcome these problems.

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 TABLE I 1) RFID Tags
THE DECADES OF RFID [3]
RFID tags contain two major parts which are integrated
Decade Event circuit and antenna. The integrated circuit is a
1940–1950 Radar refined and used major World War II microprocessor chip whereas the antenna is responsible for
development effort. RFID invented in 1948 defining the reading range of the tag RFID tag is activated to
1950–1960 Early explorations of RFID technology, laboratory be read and written by the emission of radio signals from
experiments antenna.
1960–1970 Development of the theory of RFID. Start of • Active RFID Tags: Active RFID tags have its own
applications field trials power source and transmitter that enable the tag to broadcast
1970–1980 Explosion of RFID development. Tests of RFID its signal. Active tags are capable to read longer ranges (100
accelerate. Very early adopter implementations of meters or more) and have greater memory capacities
RFID (128kb). To achieve a huge read range and larger memory, it
1980–1990 Commercial applications of RFID enter mainstream generates a greater power supply. Active tags usually are
1990–2000 Emergence of standards. RFID widely deployed powered by a long life battery.
RFID becomes a part of everyday life
2000–now RFID explosion continues
Passive RFID Tags: Passive RFID tags did not have internal
power source. Passive tags consist of microchip and antenna.
Both microchip and antenna commonly referred as RFID
B. RFID Standards
inlay. Passive tags need to wait for interrogating signal from
Table 2 shows RFID Standardization in International
RFID reader. Thus, the antenna draws energy from the
Standard Organization (ISO) based on group, general title
electromagnetic waves. Once the microchip powered, it
and ISO standard [5]. As RFID evolves, standards are
transmit a signal.
showing an interest between cost and security. There are
various tag types are commercially available, including
passive, semi passive, active, semi active, Lower Frequency
(LF), High Frequency (HF), Ultra High Frequency (UHF),
microwave, onboard sensors, ruggedized housings and
implantable.
TABLE
RFID’S ISO [5]

Group General Title ISO Fig 1. Components of RFID system [7]

Standard
Sub Group 1 Data Protocol: Application Interface ISO/IEC
Data Protocol: Data Encoding Rules 15961
Table 3 shows the comparison between active RFID and
and Logical Memory Functions ISO/IEC passive RFID tags based on its power, required signal
15962 strength, communication range, range data storage, cost and
Sub Group 2 Unique Identification for RF Tag IOS/IEC applications [8].
15963 TABLE 3
Sub Group 3 Part1: Reference Architecture and ISO/IEC COMPARISON OF RFID TAGS [8]
Definition of Parameters 18000-1
Part2: Parameters for Air Interface ISO/IEC Description Active RFID Passive RFID
Communications below 135kHz 18000-2 Power Have own power No internal power
Part3: Parameters for Air Interface ISO/IEC source source
Communications at 13.56MHz 18000-3 Required Signal Low High
Part4: Parameters for Air Interface ISO/IEC Strength
Communications at 2.45GHz 18000-4 Communication Long range Short range (3m)
Part6: Parameters for Air Interface ISO/IEC Range (100m+)
Communications at 860 - 960 MHz 18000-6 Range Data Storage Large read/write Small read/write
Part7: Parameters for Air Interface ISO/IEC data (128kb) data (128b)
Communications at 433MHz 18000-7 Cost Applications Expensive Auto Inexpensive
Application Implementation Guidelines – Part1: ISO/IEC Manufacturing, Electronic tolls,
Requirement RFID- Enabled Labels 24729-1 asset tracking item Level
Profile Implementation ISO/IEC tracking
(ISO/IEC Guidelines – Part2: Recyclability of 24729-2
TR 18000) RF Tags Implementation ISO/IEC 2) RFID Reader
Guidelines – Part3: RFID 24729-3 The RFID reader is an electronic device which includes
Reader/Antenna Installation
two basic parts: an antenna and a transceiver. The antenna is
designed to allow the open communication between the tags,
C. RFID System Infrastructure whilst the transceiver is responsible for acquiring the RFID
RFID system infrastructure consists of three typical data. Moreover, the RFID reader has a function of reading
components, which are RFID tags, RFID readers, and a data from RFID tag and writing data to the RFID tag.
database that stores RFID data transferring between reader
and tags as shown in Figure 1 [7]

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 3) RFID Database Our proposed RFID based parking system differs than
RFID databases associate tag-identifying data with other system in such a way that, we used RFID technology
arbitrary records. These records may contain product as a detection tools as compared to others. So, only
information, tracking logs, sales data, or expiration dates. authorized person have access to the promise. Moreover, we
Independent databases may be built throughout a supply developed the proposed system using Visual Basic
chain by unrelated users, or may be integrated in a programming.
centralized or federated database system.
III. SYSTEM METHODOLOGY
D. RFID Frequency Bands The methodology used in this study is Object-Oriented
RFID tags fall into three regions in respect to frequency: Software Development (OOSD). Figure 2 shows seven
Lower Frequency (LF), High Frequency (HF) and Ultra phases of OOSD model. The seven phases are requirement
High Frequency (UHF). Table 4 shows the comparison specification phase, system analysis phase, system design
between the RFID frequencies [9]. phase, implementation phase, testing phase, deployment
TABLE 4 phase, maintenance phase [10].
RFID FREQUENCIES [9]

Description LF HF UHF
Frequency 125 kHz – 13.56 MHz 860 MHz
Range 134.2 kHz - 960 MHz
Operating Less than 0.5m 1m 3-6m
Range
Applications Animal Tags, Item Box and
Vehicles Tracking, Pallet
immobilisers Access Tracking,
Control Logistics
Benefits Inexpensive, Medium Long range,
good read range, high speed
penetration medium
(non-metal) speed
Disadvantages Short read Expensive Need line of
range, slow system sight to read
speed Fig 2. Object Oriented Software Development process [10]

Initially, we consider selecting passive RFID tag for our Figure 3 shows the activity diagram for RFID based car
proposed system because it is cheaper and affordable. parking system. First, admin need to login by using valid
Therefore, the communication range is 3 meter and the range username and password before accessing the car parking
of data storage is 128b. The RFID based car parking system system. The system will make sure either the input is valid
use HF that has higher transmission rates and ranges than LF. or not. If not, the admin need to register again with the valid
This parking system has similar frequency to Smart tags input. Then, admin can register new staff information,
which work at 13.56MHz. register staff’s vehicle, scan tag ID, view staff’s detail and
We conducted an evaluation on the existing and proposed view vehicle’s information in the system. Moreover, the
system. The findings from the study will be used to improve admin can view tag details, update staff and vehicle’s detail
the proposed system. There are two existing systems that and generate report.
have been considered which are Park-A-Lot [11] and
Intelligent Parking System [6]. The comparison between the
existing system and the proposed system is shown in Table 5
TABLE 5
COMPARISON BETWEEN EXISTING SYSTEM WITH PROPOSED SYSTEM

Details Park-A- Intelligent RFID Based

Lot[11] Parking Parking System
System[6]
User friendly Yes Yes Yes
Output display Yes Yes Yes
Database record Yes No Yes
Control No No Yes
functionality
Security No No Yes
Technology use Arduino Ultrasonic sensor RFID
Detection object Vehicle Vehicle RFID tag on
vehicle
Premise access Everybody Everybody Authorized person
only
Programming PHP Java Visual Basic
language Fig 3. Activity Diagram RFID based car parking system

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 IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 5) RFID Tag Interface
This section focuses on the implementation of the actual Figure 8 shows the RFID tag interface that consists of
system. There are two main parts which are system design Scan Tag ID and Show Tag Details. The Scan tag ID module
and implementation and testing. allow admin to scan users’ RFID tag that show the RFID’s
tag owner name, Tag ID, time in, time out and date as shown
A. System Design in Figure 9.
The system interface is designed to suit the needs and
requirements of the users which are users friendly and not
too complex. This system is developed using Visual Basic
and OOSD methodology.
1) Login interface
Figure 4 shows the admin login interface for the RFID
based car parking system. The admin needs to login using
valid username and password before accessing the system.

Fig 6. Registration form

Fig 4. Login Interface

2) RFID based Parking System Main Page

Figure 5 shows the main page of RFID based car parking
system for Fujitsu. This page shows all admin modules such Fig 7. Vehicle Registration form
as registration module, vehicle registration module, RFID
tag module, staff module and report module.

Fig 8. Scan RFID tag interface

Fig 5. Admin main page

3) Registration Module
Figure 6 shows the registration form for new user. User
need to register before accessing the RFID car parking
system. So, user have to fill up personal details in the
registration form such as full name, identification number,
staff ID, email address, address, phone number, username,
password, security question and security answer.

4) Vehicle Registration Module

Fig 9. Scan Tag ID menu
In order to access the premise, all vehicles should be
registered into the system. Figure 7 shows the vehicle
B. Implementation and Testing
registration form that user need to fill up such as name,
The implementation of the actual system is based on the
identification number, type of user, type of vehicle, plat
analysis and design that has been carried out. Then, we
number, model, vehicle colour and tag ID.
conduct the physical system and usability testing to

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guarantee that the RFID car parking system that has been The advantages of this system are:
developed meets its requirements and users’ needs. The i. Provide platform for Fujitsu to have a systematic
questionnaire is prepared and delivered to target user to test parking system.
the proposed system. This is done to collect user’s feedback, ii. This system only allow authorized person to enter the
comments, bugs, and suggestions. The questionnaire is done factory area.
on 5 respondents. Figure 10 summarized the physical system iii. Improve traffic flow during peak period.
testing result which majority of the respondent agrees that iv. Facilitate the security guard to guarding Fujitsu
the system is easy to understand, strongly agree that each entrance.
button function as expected and agree that the system can v. Allow admin to monitor staff and workers record by
easily view the content. referring to the database.

Although the advantages of this system mentioned, there

are also some weaknesses in the RFID Car Parking System
such as:
i. System cannot update username information.
ii. System can only monitor the while the vehicle entering
the premise.
iii. Any change of data must key in by the admin.
iv. Staff or workers cannot update their details by
themselves.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Fig 10. Physical System Testing The authors express appreciation to the Universiti Tun
Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). This research is supported
Figure 11 shows the usability testing result where 3 by Short Term Grant vot number U653 and Gates IT
respondents agree that the system works well. Besides, 4 Solution Sdn. Bhd. under its publication scheme.
respondents strongly agree that the RFID based car parking
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