Smart Security Framework for Educational Institutions Using Internet of Things (IoT)

Educational institutions massacres are a severe threat to security in increasing terrorist attacks. These are easy targets. Recent history reveals that thousands of children have been killed in such attacks. In 2004, 334 students were killed and 783 were injured in Beslan School Siege, Russia. In 2000, 191 students were killed and hundreds were injured at Walisongo School in Indonesia. In 1990, 158 students were killed and hundreds were injured at Eastern University, Srilanka. In 2016, 153 students were killed and hundreds were injured in Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan.

A number of security systems have been devolved. Security agencies have launched a number of initiatives to notify the attack on the institutions immediately. Emergency mobile phone numbers, alarm systems, and smart security cameras were installed. Instead of spending billions of assets on security, no new technologies have been adopted to undertake these issues smartly. All these existing systems need to be updated to the new demands of threats and technology. The basic alarm system is not a valid solution for increasing attacks on educational institutions. To safeguard our children and assets, a smart alarming system must be installed in institutions [Tsakalozos, Verroios, Roussopoulos et al. (2017)].

The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming very popular in academia and day-to-day life as an emerging intelligent technology, in which smart devices are connected to the cloud. It uses the idea of fog and cloud computing to process a large amount of data. Its basic concept is to connect smart devices to the cloud through the internet. IoT facilitates users to take the whole world on their smartphones. IoT is changing human lives by making them smart and easy. Data management, wireless communications, and real-time decisions are the key features of IoT. There has been a great deal of IoT research on different applications, such as smart homes, e-health systems, wearable devices, etc. According to the Industrial Analytical Firm (IAF), it is expected that about 50 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. Embedded technology is used in devices and sensors. Wireless technology enables them to connect with other devices or the internet [Vermesan and Friess (2014)].

Smart homes, smart e-health, and smart cities are popular topics in recent years, but Smart Security Frameworks (SSF) have not been well investigated. IoT is the ideal technology to deal with such issues. The most beneficial is that existing infrastructure such as security cameras and control rooms may be utilized to convert them to the SSF.

In the proposed SSF, different types of sensors, security threat detectors, and security cameras are used. These devices are connected to the Emergency Control Room (ECR) and Central Emergency Control Center (CECC) by wire and wireless technologies. In an emergency situation, the proposed system instantly notifies the concerns within a second and starts all sensors and security cameras streaming to ECR. A panic button, installed on the smartwatch, is used to activate the SSF manually. The figure above shows the data flow of the Smart Security Framework.

SSF uses several types of algorithms to get data from all installed security devices. These algorithms help to categorize the alert. An alarm is issued to the concerned departments with live streaming. The CECC is the centralized place in the region. CECC has members from police, rescue and ambulance services. Live updates and attack nature is displayed on monitoring screens. All top stack holders control and monitor the operation from that centres to make smart decisions.

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In this article, Smart Security Framework (SSF) has been introduced for educational institutions. The recent past massacres have taken many precious lives. This might be depreciated by adopting an efficient and smart alerting system. SSF is efficient and intelligent in alerting concerns in case of an emergency. Different types of sensors are placed in different locations of the building, and the reading environment 24/7. In case of any warning detection, an alert is sent to the Emergency Control Room (ECR) and also to Central Emergency Control Center (CECC). Smart emergency doors are connected with the proposed system which automatically opens in case of any alert detection. SSS is not confined only to educational institutions, it may also be used in any other organizations for security objects. Our future plan is to extend this framework to the Smart Security Framework for the City (SSSC). In the SSSC, sensors will be placed in streets, public places and especially religious places to notify the concern on time.

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