# Building Fire Evacuation: An IoT-Aided Perspective in the 5G Era
## 4 Preliminary Design of an IoT-Aided Building Fire Evacuation Control System
### Potential Services and Applications
#### 4.3.1 BIM-Based Monitoring Platform  
In recent years, Building Information Modeling (BIM), as well as Virtual Design and construction (VDC), has gained increasing impact in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry. The development of BIM/VDC provides a virtual design and construction platform to facilitate the design and construction as well as the project management process. The tool permits the display of building plans in three dimensions; people can easily understand the building geometries and the added information right into  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Information Needs**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Means of Data Collection**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Data Sources**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Data Transmissions**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Data Integration**} \\  & **Manual Check** & & & & & \\  & **Real-Time** & **Remote** & **Control** & & & \\  & **Check** & **Monitoring** & **Time Control** & & & \\ \hline A11 & & \(\bullet\) & & Thermocouple & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora & \\ A12 & & \(\bullet\) & & Gas detector & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora & \\  & & & Firewater system, manual check & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora, Wi-Fi & \\ A21 & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & & & \\  & & & (spreadsheet) & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora & \\ A22 & & \(\bullet\) & & Door sensors & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora & \\  & & & Turn gate, swipe card, manual check & wired, RFID, Wi-Fi & \\ B11 & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & & (spreadsheet) & \\ B12 & & \(\bullet\) & & Visual-based video & wired, LTE, 5G NR &
\begin{tabular}{c} BIM-based occupant \\ counting module \\ \end{tabular} \\ B21 & & \(\bullet\) & & Visual-based video & wired, LTE, 5G NR & \\  & & & & & \\  & & & & \\  & & & & \\ B22 & \(\bullet\) & & counter, thermal & wired, LTE, 5G NR & \\  & & & & \\  & & & & \\ B31 & \(\bullet\) & & & \\  & & & & \\ B32 & \(\bullet\) & & Infrared beam counter & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora & \\  & & & & \\ C11 & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & Visual alarm and alarm & ZigBee, NB-IoT, & \\  & & & & \\ C12 & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & Emergency lighting & ZigBee, NB-IoT, LTE-M, Lora & \\  & & & & \\ C21 & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & & & \\  & & & & \\ C22 & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & Public address (PA) & \\  & & & & \\  & & & system & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 4: Information sources and means of data transmission of all information needs in building fire evacuation control.  
the building components. Recently, there have been some research works concerning the use of BIM for building fire safety management and evacuations [29; 47; 49; 68; 69].  
For the proposed IoT-aided building fire evacuation control system, it is also important to integrate the collected sensor data into a BIM model and establishing visualization for the users. Visualized information can make it easier for building managers and ICs to guide the evacuation and manage various emergency evacuation facilities and equipment. The visualized information includes both static and dynamic information. The static information contains geometries of the building and compartments, locations of various fire protection and evacuation equipment, and maintenance information. The dynamic information is data collected from the local sensors, which can contain people counts, states of various facilities, and detections of the indoor environment. By attaching the dynamic information to the corresponding equipment or spaces inside the BIM model, browsing the real-time sensor data from a 3D interface is able to be achieved. Apart from visualizing these monitoring data, the BIM model also creates a platform for exchanging data with the fire risk assessment module and evacuation decision supporting module to provide more useful services. The approaches and functions of these two modules are introduced next.