According to an aspect, there is provided a method and an apparatus. In the solution, an elevator call indication associated with a user is obtained. First guidance information is caused to be provided for the user to proceed to a waiting area. Location data associated with the user is obtained, the location data providing information about the location of the user. An elevator car is allocated in response to the elevator call indication, wherein the allocation takes into account the location of the user.

According to an aspect, there is provided an elevator communication system. The system includes an elevator controller, a first ethernet bus portion connected to a first port of the elevator controller, a second ethernet bus portion connected to a second port of the elevator controller, and at least one elevator system node communicatively connected to the elevator controller via the first ethernet bus portion and the second ethernet bus portion.

An elevator communication system includes a first elevator controller, a second elevator controller communicatively connected to the first elevator controller, a first ethernet bus portion connected to the first elevator controller, a second ethernet bus portion connected to the second elevator controller, and at least one elevator system node communicatively connected to the first elevator controller via the first ethernet bus portion and to the second elevator controller via the second ethernet bus portion.

An elevator group control device may handle load calls for an elevator system having an elevator car, whereby a load call includes a departure floor, a destination floor, load specification data and a time period which the load is to be transported from the departure floor to the destination floor. The allocating may include reserving a particular portion of the floor area of the elevator car for the load during a portion of the time period, based on the load specification data and the particular portion being available to accommodate the load during the portion of the time period.

According to an aspect, there is provided a method for determining the number of elevator cars in a two-shaft multi-car elevator system. The method comprises determining the number of active elevator cars N in the two-shaft multi-car elevator system by $N=\frac{\mathrm{RTT}*\mathrm{arr}}{a*\mathrm{carsize}},$
wherein RTT is a round trip time of the two-shaft multi-car elevator system, arr is the arrival rate of passengers, a is a car load factor, and carsize is the number of passengers one elevator car is able to carry.

A method for assigning elevators to specific routes based on zones consisting of contiguous floors, where the destination zone is provided prior to boarding by the first passenger for that zone and by means of one of multiple call buttons or their functional equivalent, and a “next floor” button within the elevator car for requesting a stop at the next available floor.

A multicar elevator system includes a group of individually drivable elevator cars and two shafts coupled to each other with at least two transfer channels. The system further includes a control unit configured to operate the system in either of two operating modes, wherein in the first mode the group of elevator cars is arranged to travel to a first vertical direction in the first shaft and to another vertical direction in the second shaft through the transfer channels. In the second mode, a first sub-group of elevator cars are parked in one of the shafts and at least one elevator car belonging to a second sub-group of elevator cars is arranged to travel in the both vertical directions in the other shaft upon a call.

A method for elevator call allocations in an elevator group of an elevator system includes applying statistical traffic forecasts modelling future passenger arrivals in the elevator system; receiving an indication of at least one elevator call; generating, for a fixed parameter, a set of scenarios based on the statistical traffic forecasts; determining a quality attribute for each candidate allocation policy of a set of candidate allocation policies by simulating, for each candidate allocation policy, the set of scenarios according to the candidate allocation policy in a current elevator call allocation situation in the elevator system; selecting a candidate allocation policy based on the quality attributes associated with the candidate allocation policies; and allocating the at least one elevator call to at least one elevator in the elevator group according to the selected candidate allocation policy.

A method for dispatching an elevator car that includes determining a first duration for each of a plurality of first elevator cars to travel from a current location to a first location, and dispatching at least one of the first elevator cars to the first location when the first duration of the at least one first elevator car is less than a threshold duration. The method includes determining a second duration for an occupant to travel from the first location to a second location, and each of a plurality of second elevator cars to travel from the current location to the second location, when the first duration for the first elevator cars exceeds the threshold duration. The method includes dispatching at least one of the second elevator cars to the second location when the second duration of the at least one second elevator car is less than the threshold duration.

The invention relates to a multicar elevator system, comprising: a plurality of elevator cars; an elevator shaft system; the plurality of the elevator cars and the elevator shaft system comprising a plurality of elevator components; a controller; the multicar elevator system further comprising: an elevator maintenance system configured to: receive the measurement data; determine the operational condition of the respective elevator component; and generate a maintenance signal for the at least one elevator component, a maintenance is scheduled in accordance with the operational condition of the respective at least one elevator component before a failure of the at least one elevator component. The invention also relates to a method and a computer program product.