A Real-time DBMS System for the Immigration Processing of Large Hajj Crowd

Hajj is an important Islamic ritual and one of the five pillars of Islam. The Hajj event occurs in the twelfth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and requires anywhere from two to three millions of Muslims from all over the world to make pilgrimage for 10-15 days to the Holy city of Makkah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Providing quality Hajj services to such large number of pilgrims has been a significant challenge for the Saudi Arabian authorities. Among other services, immigration processing of a large Hajj pilgrim crowd arriving simultaneously at various Saudi Arabian ports during the specific Hajj days has resulted in significant delays at these ports. Unique and technology based solutions must be explored to alleviate the various Hajj related pilgrim service problems and to improve overall quality of these services. This paper reports experience with the design and development of a prototype backend DBMS system to automate the immigration processing of the large Hajj crowd. A real-time DBMS is considered for meeting the processing requirements of such a large Hajj pilgrim crowd arriving simultaneously at various ports. The purpose of this prototype was to understand the challenges and the feasibility of implementation of the backend system using a real-time DBMS.