Architecting Internet of aerospace things: A system for tracking passengers inside an airport terminal

Experts predict the number of devices connected to Internet of Things networks in 2020 will reach 50 billion, being used in numerous industries. This Thesis focuses on the aerospace scenario and investigates how and where this technology might be applied to airport mobility and security. The discussion is initiated by presenting the concept of Internet of Aerospace Things, IoAT, its main premises and the importance of connectivity in the aerospace domain, which form the basis of the objective of the system. An airport terminal is an environment where different individuals and companies with diverse interests coincide, and the weak connectivity present between these parties leads to a lack of communication that often creates inefficiencies such as unnecessary waits or poor distribution of resources. The study is focused on the passengers, discussing possible solutions for reducing their traverse time. To accomplish that, this work proposes providing them with information regarding the people density at different points of the terminal based on tracking technologies. Next, RFID is selected as the concept for the system and the applicability of this technology for tracking passengers inside an airport terminal is studied. That is followed by the identification of a set of key decisions, such as the physical limits of the system or the specific technology to be deployed, in order to study the different possible architectures. To that end, a simulation model is developed and it incorporates the most important parts of the system, including: An airport model based on Chicago O'Hare International Airport, a passenger trajectory model, a link budget model, a coverage model, a reader placement algorithm, a communication protocol and the limitations of the available RFID technology. Based on the developed model, the architecture tradespace for the system is presented and the best architectures are analyzed based on the metrics space. Next, the influence and impact each decision has on the tradespace is evaluated, providing further insights on the system performance and cost. Then, the best architectures are chosen and extended simulation results are presented, showing that the system helps to increase the information on the airport passenger density, thus allowing passengers to take efficient decisions as well as helping the airport authority with security control. Los expertos predicen que el número de dispositivos conectados a redes de Internet of Things en el 202