JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10, OCTOBER 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.

ORG

Towards Mobile Supported Academic Information System

Simon S. Msanjila and Lupyana Muhiche
AbstractAccess to information in timely, completeness and quality manner is very challenging in developing countries such as Tanzania. Students in particular, require receiving accurate and timely progressive information regarding their studies in order to make informed decision regarding their academic progress. Traditional practice for delivering academic information such as examinations results in universities in Tanzania is through paper announcement on the notice boards. The practice obliges students to travel to universities to see their results or provide their confidential information such as examination numbers to other people so that they can read and inform them about their results. This paper presents a Mobile Academic Information System (MAIS) aimed at automating management of students academic records with a possibility of remote access. Index TermsMobile systems, information system, academic records management, MAIS system, remote information access

1 INTRODUCTION
uality Information is vital for daily organizations activitiesandsuccessofanybusiness.Informationis saidtobeofgoodqualityifitistimely,relevant,hasinte grityandwhendeliveredtousersitcanchangetheirbe haviorsuchasoutcomeofdecisionmaking.Thedelivery ofinformationneedstobeassuredandshouldbeontime andatlowestcosttoensurewelfareoforganizationsand individuals.CurrentlyinTanzaniathereare many Infor mation Delivery Systems available both manual and computerized such as postal mails, websites, telephone, faxesandothers.Despitethefactthattherearemanyop tionsfordeliveringinformation,manyorganizationssuf fers the consequences of poor Information Delivery Sys temsuchaspostalmailswhilethecurrentemergingweb sitetechnologyprovideslittleroomforthemduetohigh cost[6].AsfarasthispaperisconcernedInformationDe livery System is a collection of hardware and software requiredtoensurethatinformationreachestheintended user in good quality, timely and accurate. Currently manyorganizationsadoptwebsitesasthetechnologyfor delivering information to their customers while others still use manual ways especially postal mails and street posters. Though the systems in use work, still there are numberofproblemsfacingthesocietyrelatedtotheem ployed Information Delivery Systems. In this paper we have categorized the related problems into two classes, namely, manual delivered related problems and website

Simon S. Msanjila is with the Department of Information and Communication Technology of Mzumbe University, P. Box 87, Block C 111, Mzumbe, Tanzania. Lupyana Muhiche is with the Department of Information and Communication Technology of Mzumbe University, P. Box 87, Block B 204, Mzumbe, Tanzania.

based delivery related problems. In relation to manual deliverysystemthefollowingaretheobservedproblems: (1) People waste a lot of time in writing request for in formationonpieceofpaper,takeittopostofficeforsend ingandmakingpaymentofpostalservicethroughtradi tional paper sending methods such as parcel sending companies. This process is slow, time consuming and expensiveforthesender,and(2)Informationmaynotbe delivered in time due to poor transportation infrastruc ture,impropermanagementofbulkmails,lackofphysi caldeliveryaddressofrecipientsashousesarenotnum beredinmanydevelopingcountrieslikeTanzania. Asstatedabove,someorganizationshaveadoptedthe use of website to deliver information to customers. Al thoughthisisanautomatedmeansbutithasthefollow ing problems: (1) Information is less secured: since in formation is transported over public network (internet), people may tamper it using varieties of hacking tools. Information is usually public thus confidential informa tion is difficult to protect. Although access rights have beentheapproachtoprotectinformationinonlineaccess andretrieval,ithasnotbeenprovedassecuremeansand (2) The information reaches only small proportion of population: Many people in developing countries like Tanzania have no access to internet thus they cannot get the website based information. However majority of people have access to mobile phones thus they have an opportunity to use the proposed mobile based system whichusesSMStechnology. 1. High initial and running cost for many small scale business:inordertousewebbasedinformationsys temsmallscaleorganizationhastospendreasonable amountofmoneyforhiringexpertstodesignandin stall the internet access infrastructure, design and

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implement the website, payment for bandwidth of fered on regular basis, as well as employing an ICT professional(webmaster)formanagingandupdating thewebsite. 2. Lack of competent computer science experts with necessaryskillstokeepthewebsitealiveintheinter net. Website must be accessed through the internet andwheninternetisappliedprotectionofdatafrom unauthorized users is positively inevitable. The lack of experts is the world problem but more serious in developingcountries. 3. Poor and unreliable supply of electricity: in many developing countries electricity is one of the major problems due to poor level of technology and over dependencyonnaturalsourcessuchaswateringen eration of electricity (hydro electric power). Thus havingawebsiterunningviamachinedoesnotguar anteethatuserswillalsohavepowerattheirsite. Onthebasisoftheabovestatedchallengesitcanbecon cluded that, though there are operational information delivery systems in developing countries such as Tanza nia and some promising initiatives already taken, the availablesolutionshavenotyetbeingabletomaketimely andcosteffectiveinformationdelivering.Thispaperpro posesamobilebasedsystemwhichusesSMStechnology for remote management and access of information. The proposed system is applied in academic environment particularlyMzumbeUniversityinTanzaniaasademon strationcase.Therestofthepaperaddressesresearchgap and background of the problem, introduction of the MAIS,overviewofsimilarsystems,theneedforthepro posedsystem,anddesignoftheproposedsystem.

RESEARCH GAP AND PROBLEM BACKGROUND

Though there are many Information Delivery Systems, mostofthemarenotefficientandeffectiveduetovarious problemsstatedinsection1.Goodqualityinformationis vitaltoolforsurvivalofanyorganizationandcontinuity ofanyindividual.Inadequacyofreliableandsustainable Digital Information Delivery Systems (DIDS) is basically caused by insufficient capital for some stakeholders of informationsuchas: Smallscaleorganizations:duetohighinitialcostofin vesting in internet service, many small and medium enterprises in developing countries have little access tointernetserviceproviders(ISP)thatprovidesrelia bleandspeedyconnectionataffordablecost. Customers: since large proportion of population in developing countries is small farmers and hand to mouthworkers,theydonothavesufficientcapitalto buy and maintain effective and efficient DIDS tech nology such as a computer with internet access. Not onlythisbutalsothelowpercapitalincomehampers

them to acquire basic ICT skills to access internet based systems and consequently information deli veredthroughwebsiteandemailsreachessmallpro portionofpopulation. Information technology infrastructure: Due to lack of competent computer scientists to design and imple menteffectiveandefficientstateofartinternetbased systems and poor status of overall Information tech nology Infrastructure in developing countries, inter netisaccessibletofewpeopleofthoselocatedinur banareas. On the basis of the above facts it is clear that we need a lowcostDIDSthatmaydeliverinformationtolargepro portionofpopulationintimeasstatedearlier.Thispaper addresses the means on how organisations can fill this gapbydesigningandimplementingtheMobileAcadem icInformationSystem(MAIS)whichwillneedsuchalow capitalthatisaffordablebyevensmallscalebusinessand individual users while ensuring information needed is obtained in good quality, that is timely, accurate and re levant. The MAIS is designed to convey information to the users through mobile phones benefiting from the ShortMessageService(SMS)technology. Information is secured: Since information will be car ried in proprietary network there is less chance of unauthorized access as it is in public networks. The retrievalofinformationwillbeexecutedthroughcon fidentially provided credential including mobile numbers,usernames,useridentificationnumber. The system will serve a large proportion of population: Currently many people have mobile phones, since thesystemwillbeaccessedwhereveramobilephone communication service is available, large proportion of population will easily access information from MAIS. Protected information will be accessed through registered phone numbers and specific pro videdpersonalcredentials. Low initial and running cost: On the users side of MAIS,he/shewilljustneedamobilephonewhilethe organizationssidewillneedadatabaseserver,aper sonal computer with SMS application and Global SystemforMobile(GSM)modemconnectedtoit.

2.1

Foundation of the Problem

Duetoremarkabledevelopmentinscienceandtechnolo gy,organizationshavebeenequippedwithvariousways of sending and receiving information. With improved Information and communication technology infrastruc tureinformationinformoftext,images,voice,andother multimediacanbecommunicatedvirtuallyanywhereon the globe in very short time, the world has become a technologicalvillage[146].Theinventionofweb2.0made a significant breakthrough in the industry of ICT, this is becausethetechnologyprovidedvariousservicessuchas

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mashups, blogs, forums, wikis, and others, at very low cost since they were transferred through the internet [1]. On the other hand internet phone, fax, emails and video conferencingtechnologyalsoevolved.Notonlythesebut also internet greatly reduced communication cost since the legacy centralized and unreliable telecommunication networkwhichrequireddirectwiringbetweencommuni cationnodeswasdecentralizedandbecamewireless.As the matter of fact business has been drifted from legacy phone based telecommunication to internet based. Con sequently many businesses have been adopting websites and emails as a common way of communication among partnersintodaysdigitalandknowledgeeconomy. Despiteitssoundimpactinoverallflowofinformation inthebusinessenvironment,websiteandemailsmaynot besuitablechoiceforsomebusinessinformationdelivery systems.Theinsignificanceiscausedbynumberofdraw backs that website and email information delivery sys temsposeaspresentedinearliersections.Thedrawbacks are more vivid in developing countries than developed ones due to weakness of some elements of knowledge based economies namely the levels of education attain ment, business environment and information infrastruc ture[4]Aubert,2004): Level of education: The level of education in develop ingcountriesislow,thisisasignificantbarrierinde velopment and diffusion of innovative solutions as thelevelofinnovationisstrongcorrelatedwithedu cationalneedsofthecountry.Forinstanceforpeople to receive information through website and emails, they need to have basic ICT skills and English lan guage. Level of business environment: Bureaucratic climate whichforcestheentrepreneurtoobtainhundredau thorizations to establish his/her ICT enterprise is a problem.Ontheotherhandcustomersareobligedto undergosimilarbureaucraticprocessestoobtainICT services such as obtaining Internet service connec tion, gateway for direct connection to mobile opera torsSMSserverforbulkSMSservices,electricityser vice line to power the enterprise ICT infrastructure andcustomerICTequipments. Levelofinformationinfrastructure:inmanydeveloping there in inadequacy of competent computer experts to design and implement state of art internet based systems. Theabovefactsclearlydemonstratethatthereistheneed fordevelopinginformationdeliverysystemthatissuita ble for delivering good quality information(relevant, timely, accurately, integral and consistent) to people in developing countries so as to reduces short comings of currentinformationdeliverysystems.

3 MOBILE BASED INFORMATION DELIVERY SYSTEM

With rapid development of mobile phones, several services liketheShortMessagingService(SMS),MultimediaMessag ingService(MMS)andothersemerged;theservicesarerea dilyavailableandaddtotheusefulnessofmobilephones.As stated by ADC NewNet [3], SMS is a wireless service that enables transmission of alphanumeric messages between mobile subscribers and external systems such as electronic mail and paging system(wireless communication system designedto send brief message to the subscriber). The mes sage transmitted can be a text or binary message, a binary message consists of a raw data message which may present an image, wallpaper, business card or others. The relative ease of use of SMS enables large proportion of population without basic ICT skills to send SMS easily. Schofield and Kubin [13] argued that small devices could potentially pro vide better interface for finding information than through page browsing and other means. As a convenient and low costmobilecommunicationtechnology,SMSisexperiencing very rapid growth. From Portio Research [10] it is learned that 6.9 SMS trillion messages were sent in 2010 worldwide andSMStrafficisexpectedtobreak8trillionin2011. As time goes technology becomes cheaper and conse quently many people will be capable of owning mobile phones. People are indispensable from their phones thus information sent to them as SMS reaches them in time as longastheyareinnetworkrange.Ontheotherhandmobile phone networks have large coverage compared to internet servicenetworkthuspeoplearealwaysintouch.MobileSMS hasbeenstatedtohavecomfortablealertingtype,withtheir vibration alerting people can be notified of incoming mes sage without disturbing their concentration moments, for instance during meetings. The remained parts of this paper are denoted on development of the proposed Mobile Aca demic Information System (MAIS). The emphasis is on de signing and implementation of information system thatwill covey students results thorough SMS (SMS based student result checking) as a demonstration case. The system is de signed based on well established standards namely service oriented architecture thus it can act as a model system for extension to other mobile based information delivery sys tems.

3.1 Over View of Similar Systems

Until recently there have been a number of related SMS based students result delivery system in the market devel opedwithdifferenttechnologyfordifferentapplicationenvi ronment. An example system in Tanzania is SMS based re sultcheckingsystemofnationalexaminationcouncilofTan zania (NECTA). With the system, completed students re questtheirCSEEandACSEEresultsbysendingtheirexami nationnumbertoNECTASMSapplication.Howeverconsi dering its design and operation the weaknesses of this sys tem which are similar to other related systems are: (1) The systemallowsrequestonlyfromsomemobileoperators,and doesnotprovideanyformofsecurity,(2)Studentcaneasily request of others result by simply specifying their examina tionnumber,(3)Thesystemdoesnotprovideresultsforpast

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years and thus there is no access to previous documents throughmobilephones,and(4)Thesystemdoesnotprovide anyadministrationservicethroughmobilephone.Belowwe present two example SMS based remote systems that some howhavesimilarfeaturestotheproposedMAISSystem. Example 1 NTU eXpress sms: NeXS is applied to convey students results through SMS for undergraduate students who have registered their mobile phone through the NeXS Portal. To get examination results students send a keyword suchasNTURESULT(fortheUniversityofNanyangTech nology) to 74000 through registered mobile number only. If the exam results of the current semester are released, NeXS will send. From the literature it has been observed that the system has the following advantages: (1) Restricting to re ceiving of message from registered mobile number only makes a form of security, and (2) Not only does NeXS pro vides examination results but also it provides other SMS serviceslikeexaminationseatingarrangements,subjecttime table,libraryaccountinformation,NTUstaffdirectorysearch etc. Similarly, it has been observed through literature that though it functions, the NeXS has presented the following weaknesses:(1)Limitingaccesstothesystemthroughregis tered mobile number only reduces flexibility of the system, on the other hand there in no way of verifying whether the messagecomesfromtherealownerofthephoneasastudent may take another students phone and request for the stu dentsresult.TheproposedMAISsystemwilluseusername and password for user authentication, and (2) NeXS also provides examination result for the recently concluded semester only. The proposed MAIS system will allow stu dent to query for results of any semester in the past they wish. Example 2 MUET SMS Result Checking: The application ofMUETinretrievingstudentresultsviaSMSisalsoanother exampleofSMSresultchecking.ThissystemreceivesSMSin theformatMUET<space>ICNumber,sentto39003(forthe Malaysia University English Test). The service charges 15 cents for each message sent and 30 cents for each received. Thissystemhastheweaknessthatthesystemdoesnotoffer any form of security. A student with the knowledge of another students IC number can request for that students result.Itisalsoexpensiveonthesideoftheusers.

mobile phone. The system prompts the user to send hiscredentialforauthenticationfirst,beforebeingpri vilegedtochangeit. Remote monitoring: The system allows the administra tortorechargeitthroughhis/hermobilephonewhen alertedofinsufficientcrediterror. Reliability: the system ensures every user message is processed,iftheusermessagewassentwhenthesys temwasofflineonbootingupthesystemwillretrieve itandprocessitaccordingly. Alsoiftheusersendincorrectmessagethesystemre plywiththeerrormessageandpossiblecauses. Accessibility large proportion of population have access to mobile phone thus they can access the sys tem. Also MAIS will use the architecture that allows usersfromanymobilephoneoperatorandavoidmo bileoperatorsandaggregatorsbureaucraticprocess. PortabilityInformationcanberequestedandreceived throughanymobilephonethatsupportsSMS. Convenience Users receive information at their own conveniencedespitetheirlocationortime. SavestimeSMSisonthefly.Itreduces thethrough put of result checking as websites are sometimes un availableduetocongestion,orserverdowntime.SMS providesafastermeansofsendingandreceivingsuch information. CheaperSMSiseconomical,sometimesisprovidedas afreeservice(atleastforcertainperiods).Alsomany providersdonotchargewhenusersreceiveSMS. Less human resources required Information are deli veredautomatically Mobilitymobilephoneuserstakestheirphoneseve rywhere they go, thus information reaches them im mediately.

4 DESIGN OF MAIS SYSTEM

Inmanycountries,thereisaproblemofcheckingexami nationresults;studentsstillusenoticeboardstoseetheir results.Despitethefactthatmostuniversitiesnowmake examination results available on their websites, the level ofinternetavailabilityindevelopingcountriesisstilllow and quite expensive. Even in the developed countries where most homes have internet access, SMS is still a faster and cheaper means of dissemination examination resultsaswellasotherinformationirrespectiveofmobile location.PramsaneandSanjaya[2]proposedthatuniver sities can provide educational services such as grade re lease, university announcement, enrollment information and field work opportunity based on SMS. Provisions of these services in SMS facilitate faster delivery and stu dentsmayrequestthemanytimetheywant.

3.2 The need for MAIS System

Success of any individual or organization depends on accuracy of its decisions. As stated in the literature for anydecisiontobemadecorrectlytheremustberelevant informationtobeused.Thusthecorrectnessofdecisions made depends on quality of information used. The pro posedMAISsystemsophisticatedecisionmakingprocess significantly and some of the advantages of the system are: RemoteUserAccountControl:Usermaychangehis/her owncredentialsforinstancepasswordthroughhis/her

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4.1 Layered View of MAIS System TheproposedMAISconsistsofdifferentlayersthatwork

interactively through service invocation: The lower layer act as a service provider to the upper layer to meet the userrequestreceivedattheSMSapplicationlayer.These layers are enabled through both hardware and software tools. While hardware part consists most of a Personal computer and a modem or mobile phone the software parthasfourlayerstobeconsidernamelyoperatingsys tem layer, serial communication layer, SMS Attention (AT) commands set layer and SMS application layer as shownintheFigure1.

capableofsendingandreceivingSMS.Thecommands are required to configure and instruct the device to send and receive SMS. SMS based applications use serial communication layer to send and receive feed backofattentioncommands. SMS Application Layer: This is the uppermost layer whichdirectlyorindirectlyusesservicesoflowerlay erstodothecorefunctionofSMSapplication.Theap plicationlayerisalwaysusedasasublayerofspecific SMS based system for instance, a system may have otherlayerstoconnecttothedatabase,processingthe request,orconnectingtoothersoftware. InthedevelopmentofproposedMAIS,thefirstthreeup per layers have been designed and implemented in our research.

4.2

General Architecture for MAIS System

Figure1:LayeredlayoutandarchitectureofMAIS It has been observe in research that the proposed MAIS system as other related systems depends on the design and implementation of each of these software layers to ensure that each serves its designated tasks efficiently. Eachlayerhasitsowndelegatedtaskstoaccomplishthe functioningoftheoverallMAISsystemasfollows: Operating System Layer: Operating System is a col lectionofprogramsthatcontrolsandmonitorsoverall application of the computer. It is responsible for re source allocation and control of all running and new processorthreads.Ifthesystemkernelisnotwellde signed threads may result to deadlock, or starvation. Allthesewillaffectanyprogramrunninginthecom putersinceprogramsoftendomorethanonetaskata timeusingthreads.BecausethedevelopmentofMAIS systemcannotchangethecomponentsofanoperating system,itshouldbedesignedsuchthattheupperlay ers properly use the services provided by the operat ing system for example support for external service invocationwhichisprovidedbytheoperatingsystem. SerialCommunicationLayer:sinceMAISusesSMSas itsinputandoutputmechanism,theremustbealink between the running SMS application on a computer andothermobilephones.Thisisaccomplishedbyus ingGlobalSystemforMobile(GSM)devicecapableof sendingandreceivingSMS,thedeviceisconnectedto a computer that runs the application through serial port. Serial communication layer facilitates sending and reading of any information between the running applicationandthedevice. SMS Attention Command Set Layer: This is a set of commandssupportedbymanyGSM/CDMAmodems

TheproposedMAISsystemisdesignedanddevelopedto provide services for the access of students results irres pective of location or time. To avoid operators depen dence,thesystemwillusetheproposedindependentser vice architecture, and it will use both push and pull me thods depending on nature of information. The system willcheckusersIDandpasswordfromthereceivedSMS and compare it with student database for authentication asproposedbyPramsaneandSanjaya[2].Figure2shows generalarchitectureoftheproposedMAISsystem.

Figure2:GeneralarchitectureofMAISsystem

Students will first being verified before given requested results. In addition students will have an option to re questfortheirpastsemestersresultsbysimplyspecifying yearandsemestertheyareinterestedinviewingresults.

4.3 Componential Architecture for MAIS

Asitworksonstandardwheneverthemobilephoneuser sendsthemessage,themessagedoesnotgostraightlyto therecipient;insteaditisreceivedbythemobilenetwork operator SMSC (short message centre) which then for ward it to the specific recipient. If the recipient is offline the SMSC store the message and send it when the reci pientisbackonline.

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Figure3:IndependentMAISSystemArchitecture TheSMSChandlesroutingofSMSthroughseveralother SMSCandregulatestrafficofwirelessSMSuntilitreach es the desired recipient. SMSC address is normal phone numberininternationalformat.SMSusetheGSMspecial signaling channel instead of the voice channel and is therefore a very reliable media channel. Mavrakis [7] identifiestwotypesofSMSwhichcanbeclassifiedonthe basisoftheoriginofthemessage: Mobile Originated (MO): SMSMOs are sent from a mobile phone to SMSC, example when a subscriber sends a message to another subscriber it is routed to SMSCfirst. Mobile Terminated (MT): SMSMTs are transmitted from SMSC to a mobile phone. Example when sub scribersreceiveSMSformsanothermobilephonesora computer application. Wireless SMS traffic can be routedinvariouswaysfromthesendertodestination. To efficiently develop the MAIS system we have de signed two types of architectures for showing the componential layout, namely independent service ar chitectureanddependentservicearchitecture. SMS applications are widely used in two methods, Pull andPush.Thesemethodsworkasfollows: APUSHSMSapplicationdisseminatesinformationto users without their prior requests. For instance SMS basedresultcheckingsystemthatsendsresultstostu dentswithoutthestudentsprompt.Advantageofthis methodisstudentsreceivetheirresultsassoonasthey areout. PULL method requires the user to send a request for thegiveninformation,andthenthesystemprocessthe request and sends back the result. This approach is based on service invocation as standardized through webservicetechnology. To facilitate transfer of SMS message through MAIS we have developed two service architecture namely inde pendentservicearchitectureanddependentservicearchi tecture: IndependentServiceArchitectureThisarchitecture presents the componential layout of parts of MAIS systemwherebytheSMSserverservesasastandalone entity in the organization. The designed architecture assumestheuseofaregularSIMcardandthesystem does not need to have any direct connection with phone operators SMSC or Aggregator Service for di rectroutingofpackets.Sincethereisnoneedforhav ingspecialgatewayandconnectorwithmobileopera tor. System that uses this architecture allows SMS communication from all mobile operators. Figure 3 showstheindependentservicearchitecture. Dependent Service Architecture In this Proposed architecture the organisations SMS server does not use regular SIM card for message connection instead there will be a constant internet connection between theserverandmobilephoneserviceprovidersSMSC. When the user sends the request, the request will be receivedbythemobilephoneprovidersSMSCandthe SMSC will forward it direct to SMS server for processing and replying. The Organizations SMS servers are connected to the SMS network through specializedconnectorsandgatewaysconnectedtothe SMSC of mobile operators [7] thus messages can be communicated through connected mobile operators only. Advantage of this architecture is that: service providerscanprovideaspecialtariffandadedicated line for a specific class of users such as dedicated to one organization. Figure 4 shows Dependent Service ArchitectureofProposedSMSbasedinformationdeli verysystemnamelyMAISSystem.

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Figure4:DependentMAISsystemarchitecture 4.4 Example services provided by MAIS system

To provide the servuces, MAIS system performs service invocation through system layers. Though each layer providesitsspecificservices,theyinteroperatetoachieve the system emergent properties through three key inte grated functions, namely receiving SMS, processing the SMSrequestreceivedandsendingbacktheresultswhich presents three key functions of any developed web ser vicesystem.Thesefunctionsarecarriedoutasfollows: SMS Receiving Mechanism: The mechanism developed for receiving messages continuously listens to dedicated GSM modem serial port for incoming messages. If mes sagereceivedattheportistheuserSMSrequest,itstype is set to sms and formatted to specific internal system template (CnmiSms) for easy retrieval of its contents (username,password,message,phonenumber).Thefor mattedmessageisaddedinthelistofreceivedSMSwait ing to be processed, namely in the SMS array (SmsRe ceived). Otherwise the system will set received message type to system and leave it for being processed with otherobjects. UserAuthenticationandMessageProcessing: The Mechanism for processing messages continuously checksforavailabilityofmessagesinSmsReceived.When message is available in SmsReceived the system extracts

its user ID, Password, phone number and message con tent.Thesystemquerythedatabasewithaspecificdevel opedserviceforvalidityoftheuserintermsofusername andpassword,andnumberofrequestmessagestheuser can send(SMS account balance). If username and pass word is valid and user SMS account balance is greater thanzero,thesystemsearchthespecificrequestexamina tionresults,createareplySMSwiththegivenresultand addittothelistofmessagewaitingtobesent.Otherwise thesystemcreatemessagetobesentwithrespectiveerror message.Figure5ShowsMessageProcessingAlgorithm. SMS Replying Mechanism: The mechanism for sending replytousers(SmeSender)continuouslychecksforavail ability of message waiting to be sent in waiting queue. When there is a message, the system retrieves the SMS, extractsrecipientnumber,themessagecontentsandcon sequently sends the message. If message sent status is successfully the thread system involves a service for decrementing SMS account balance, if the status of the messagewhichwassentisfailureduetoinsufficientcre dit,thesysteminvoketheserviceforsendingalerttothe administrator. SecurityandErrorHandling Just as other methods which universities use to provide students with their results, the proposed system involve authentication, that students need to provide credentials tobeabletoaccesstheirrespectiverecords.Thoughweb siteandemailsmaybeimplementedbysecureHTTPsfor authentication,theiruseofpublicnetworkwithopensys tems protocols, as a backbone, make the stored informa tionvulnerabletomaliciousattack.Theproposedsystem uses private network (Mobile Service Operator network) as infrastructure for transmission of information. On the other hand the level and application of security in SMS basedsystemdependsonthenatureofthesystem,ifthe system was meant for public use they do not need user authentication, example Google SMS applications which serveassearchengines.

Figure 5: Message processing algorithms

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To account for reliability the proposed system will check feedback of sent messages through re quest/response approach as standardizes in the web ser vicetechnologyforexampleifdeliveryfailureoccursdue to insufficient credit the system will notify the adminis trator by either beeping or sending alert message to his/hermobilephoneasexplainedearlier.Incaseoferror messagefromtheuser,thesystemwillsendhim/herrele vantinformationabouttheerrorandpossiblecauses.Al though positive issue outweighs negative issues on any preferredsystemSMSbasedsystemshavetheirownlimi tations. Due to low processing and display capacity of mobile phone SMS based system hardly display tables andhighdefinitionimageswithhighqualityprinting.
[5] [6] [7] [8]

[9]

[10] [11]

3 CONCLUSION
This paper presents the designing and developing of a cost effective and efficient mobile academic information system. The design of the architecture is based on the service oriented architecture and the implemented func tionalities work as services. Specifically the paper pre sented the problem foundation which is solved by the proposed MAIS system. It then presented a survey on existingsystemsaddressingtheirfunctionalitiesandtheir weaknesses. It then presents different types of system architecture applied for implementation. The paper has thus contributed to the development of mobile informa tionsystems. This paper has laid a foundation for many research opportunities.TheproposedsystemusesSerialnetwork ing and attention command set to accomplish SMS com munication. With the serial network part it is possible to designandwritesystemsfor monitoringandcontrolling other devices like electronic sensors and motors, on the other hand attention command layer enables us to write attention command based systems like phone call center servers.Ourfutureworkisonresearchingfurtheronim provingthesystemprocessingalgorithmthreadssoasto keeponreducingitsresponsetime,andintegratethesys temwithmobilebankingrechargingmoduleforrecharg ingusersSMSaccount.
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[15]

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Dr. ir. Simon Samwel Msanjila graduated BSc. Computer Science in 2001 from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; MSc. in Systems Engineering in 2004 from the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; and PhD in Computer Science in 2009 from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Currently, he is employed as a Senior Lecturer at the Mzumbe University in Morogoro, Tanzania. He is also the head of information and communication technology department. In addition to teaching a number of courses in Computer Science disciplines, he conducts research focusing on the establishment and management of collaborative networks of organizations. In the area of collaborative networks, Dr. Msanjila focuses on the management of information to support business operations conducted within these networks. One fundamental aspect of interest to him is the management of information to support the analysis and measurement of rational trust in organizations that are participating in business collaborative networks. Dr. Msanjila is also involved in research focusing on designing of infrastructures and systems to support enhancing professional active life of senior professionals (retired and retiring professionals). Currently he is performing research on development of a collaborative ICT infrastructure supporting the provision of online live and offline - HIV/AIDS advisory services to students and younger generation in Tanzania. Dr. Msanjila has authored one book titled On inter-organizational trust engineering in networked collaboration. He has also published a more than 40 papers in journals, as book chapters, and in peer reviewedbook format international conference proceedings. Lupyana Muhiche has graduated BSc. ICT management in 2011 from the Mzumbe University. He is currently working as a tutorial assistant at Mzumbe University.

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