RETRACTED ARTICLE: A low-cost, high-performance middleware solution for unified parking management

The parking system is a vital element within intelligent transport systems, playing a pivotal role in alleviating traffic congestion and mitigating associated stress and anxiety. In response to evolving operational requirements, specialized parking systems such as autonomous valet parking (AVP) and smart parking systems (SPS) are employed based on the specific characteristics of vehicles. This research endeavor begins by introducing a loosely connected middleware designed to accommodate a variety of vehicles within a unified parking area. While the automatic parking system is designed for automated vehicles, and the manual parking system caters to manually operated vehicles, both systems lack the ability to effectively manage both automatic and manual vehicles. To address this challenge, a middleware solution is introduced, which acts as an intermediary layer between vehicles and the parking system. This middleware consists of various modules, enabling the seamless entry of all vehicle types into parking areas, regardless of classification or mode of operation. Second, it uses the Markov Chain model to determine the enhancement in the usability of the parking system after the incorporation of the middleware. Lastly, the suggested loosely coupled middleware approach is compared with tightly coupled smart parking approaches like automatic and manual systems. The matrices of assessment evaluated showed that the recommended scheme outperform its predecessors. In addition, it demonstrated remarkable achievement in terms of cost function, space availability (70%), and traffic jam reduction (56%). The advocated middleware, apart from keeping smooth traffic flow, assists in fulfilling the dire need for parking areas.