2010 International Conference on e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning

Web-based SMS Passenger Application; New Approach to inform passengers via SMS in Airlines

Newsha Ghoreishi Information Technology and Computer Engineering Department Amirkabir University of Technology Tehran, Iran n.ghoreishi@aut.ac.ir

Mehdi Shajari Information Technology and Computer Engineering Department Amirkabir University of Technology Tehran, Iran mshajari@aut.ac.ir

Abstract - This paper describes the design and development of a new software which is included sending SMS to inform passengers in an Airline about flight status notifications. While investigating corresponding cases around the world, we found that it seems to be inadequate integrated software to inform the passengers about the flight status notifications such as delays, cancellations, change the date of flights and some other important changes. This present paper briefly outlines some of the reasons enforced the need to construct this new tool, advantages of using SMS sender software in Airlines, architecture of the application and valued customer service benefits. Also this paper presents SMS Passengers software as a useful tool for facilitating Airlines for online effective communication with customers. In order to build this application, we designed an architecture which uses http request for accessing to a web service or call parameters from pre-defined URL which is supported by SMS Provider Company. Keywords: Short Message Service (SMS), web-service, webbased SMS Passenger Application, customer satisfaction, Airline, flight status notifications

carrying a mobile device, airlines and airports are able to deliver effective communications to passengers and in so doing provide a valued customer service benefit.[1,pp4] Nowadays, most of the approaches to develop ebusiness solutions for Airlines are characterized by significant complexity and high usage of development resources. Some researches about online applications have focused on communicating with passengers systematically, indicates there has been little research in the area of analyzing the ways of informing passengers about a flight status notification before a travel from Airlines via SMS messaging. SMS is perfect for applications offering quick bursts of information on a periodic basis, such as weather reports or financial information, and in this especial case, informing the passengers about different flight statues notifications from an Airline department. II. MAIN ARCHITECTURE OF WEB-BASED SMS PASSENGER APPLICATION Web services are moving towards mobile world as a new emerging technology for applications communication. Mobile devices can operate as service consumers or service providers. Most approaches nowadays support consuming web services from mobile devices. This paper introduces a new architecture called Web-based SMS Passenger Application for providing mobile web services for web applications. The proposed model is based on the existing web service and internet technology standards in order to provide software and platform using mobile services. As well, it reduces the overhead on mobile devices and the wireless network, as they are resource constraints, by presenting a web server which hosts and manages all services. The web server communicates different mobile applications that belong to different mobile network operators to enable services exchange between various types of web applications.[2, pp1]

I. INTRODUCTION Lack of information has always been a major source of frustration for passengers, particularly at times of disruption. In a SITA 1 Passenger Self-Service Survey in 2007, staying informed came third on a wish-list of travel elements passengers most wanted to change about the travel experience, just behind baggage retrieval times, security screening and flight status, while 79% of passengers would want to receive an SMS notification service. In the past it was difficult to get accurate information to passengers quickly. But with almost all travelers now
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- SITA is the world leading service of IT business solutions and communications services to air transport industry.

978-0-7695-3948-5/10 $26.00 2010 IEEE DOI 10.1109/IC4E.2010.149

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Web services (WS) constitute a new model for using the web that allows the web publishing of business functions and their universal access. Both developers and end-users can enjoy the benefits accruing from WS, as on one hand business application development and interoperation is simplified, and, on the other, end-user needs are well served through the provision of an intuitive, browser-based interface that enables them to choose, configure and assemble their own WS. At the same time, advances in mobile communications and the continuously increasing number of users of hand-held terminals make the latter an ideal channel for offering business information and services to mobile users and give pace to the rapid development of m-commerce in all industries such as Airlines. The main goal of this paper is to introduce a new approach to inform passengers via Web-based SMS Passenger Application which enables Airlines to have better communication with their customers. The proposed model in this paper is an attempt to using existing web service, http request, pre-defined URL supported by SMS Provider Company, integrate with customer information system and store SMS Passenger data in an independent database. Figure 1 depicts the overall details of the suggested framework with all possible parties. According to the figure, Web0based SMS Passenger Application Architecture contains four main parts. Telecommunication, service provider, web-based application and two main databases. In this Architecture, at first, the application search for customers cell phone numbers of a special flight or flights from Customer Database which contains all information about the customers of all flights. Both flight schedules and customers information are included in this database. Second, the end user of the application can make a desired notification text according to the fight status which defines from Operation Control Center of the Airline called OCC. The Web-based application can be developed by any framework language such as Microsoft .NET or Sun J2ME. The application communicates with web service provider through network operator using SOAP messages as is shown in the figure. In particular, web service provider can provides the description details of the Web service (i.e. WSDL document) and the service itself. As well, they register the services on the UDDI registry via network operator to be available for both mobile and Web applications. So, Web services and their description reside on the mobile Web server and they are registered in the UDDI, which means it can be searched by any application wherever it executes. [2, pp6]

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Figure 1. SMS Passenger Application Architecture

After that, the message should send to Tele Communication. Tele Communication provides the main infrastructure for mobile network operations and services in Iran. And all other service providers such as web service providers and mobile service providers should finally communicate with Tele Communication. Now Tele Communication sends the message for all cell phone numbers which were included in the main http request. In order to send the messages to cell phone numbers, SMS Status acknowledgment will be sent for all messages to web service provider form Tele Communication. Also, Tele Communication sends SMS Passenger acknowledgment, SMS Delivery and SMS Trace Code for all messages. Webbased SMS Passenger Application can receives, stores and logs these acknowledgments in SMS Passenger Database.

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This information can be used in reports and data analysis of the Airline. III. FIVE-LAYERED WEB-BASED SMS PASSENGER APPLICATION Web-based SMS Passenger software is a .Net application running on windows. User can creates text or uses a pre-defined text message to notify the current flight status. In this case, we have conceived a five-layered platform for Web-based SMS Passenger Application. Figure 2 shows a layered view of the proposed framework for the application. To simplify the framework, only key application-related entities are shown in figure 2.

database connections for both customer and application databases. Also, all of the acknowledgments, log information, report queries, notification messages, trace codes are can retrieve and store from this layer. This was a brief overview of the five-layered application we proposed for Web-based SMS Passenger application. IV. BENEFITS OF USING WEB-BASED SMS PASSENGER APPLICATION Using web-based SMS Passenger application provides various benefits over using traditional methods of communication to notify flight passengers in an Airline. Some of the most important benefits are listed as below: Keeping passengers informed. Surveys indicate passengers are highly concerned about delays and cancellations, but particularly in times of disruption it has been difficult to get accurate information to passengers quickly. Rapid dissemination of information, via mobile devices, can reduce frustration and also give passengers a degree of personal control of the recovery process using self-service technologies. By the end of 2009, over 90% of the worlds airlines expect to offer SMS notification as an optional service to their passengers. [1, pp4] Optimizing communication costs and time. Combining different communication methods such as web service and SMS has the potential to balance out and optimize the customer communication process costs and time. First step to making travel paperless. Often cited as the end game for modern air travel, the vision of global paperless travel will take a big step forward as mobile devices become increasingly capable of acting as personal travel folders by storing information presently kept on paper or plastic from boarding passes and baggage receipts to frequent flyer and credit card data. Increasing revenues. As mentioned in this paper, proposed application can make additional revenue opportunities because of better communication methods. V. WHERE CAN SMS PASSENGER AFFECT ON AVIATION INDUSTRY? In a SITA Passenger Self-Service Survey in 2007, staying informed came third on a wish-list of travel elements passengers most wanted to change about the travel experience, just behind baggage retrieval times and security screening, while 79% of passengers would want to receive an SMS notification service. In the past it was difficult to get accurate information to passengers quickly. But with almost all travelers now
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Figure 2. SMS Passenger Application Architecture

The first layer (upper level) is Faade Layer which can log, check security constraints and define SOAP communication between the web-based application and the server provider. The second layer is where the forms of application are located. It contains multi-lingual forms, which are supported both English and Persian information of flight status messages. This layer also follows the User Interface standards of the application. Web service layer is where web service, pre-defined URL and all needed connections to the main web server is defined. Business Logic Layer is a middle tier service, which can include all our business methods, mechanisms and scenarios. All of the standards and logics can define in this layer. Business Logic layer interacts with all layers of the application. In the DAL 1 (lower Layer), we define data objects, and
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- Data Access Layer

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carrying a mobile device, airlines and airports are able to deliver effective communications to passengers and in so doing provide a valued customer service benefit. Currently, the range of information is limited, consisting mainly of routine flight status notifications, but mobile technology will increasingly allow richer information to be delivered to passengers wherever they are at home, at work, on their way to the airport, at the airport, and even in the air. This will include both nice to know information, such as flight status and frequent flyer mileage, but also more importantly, information that keeps passengers informed of any disruptions to their journey. In particular: Flight delays or cancellations possibly saving an unnecessary journey to the airport Changes to a departure gate Failure of baggage to be loaded or transferred saving unnecessary waiting at the destination carousel and allowing instant initiation of the reclaim process. Once informed about a particular event, passengers can then follow the status of the recovery process or use selfservice technologies to take some control of the situation through services such as interactive baggage tracking, or onward check-in. [1, pp8] Another area where mobile devices will bring convenience to passengers is as a means of payment. Contactless transactions are perfectly suited to the travel experience, with passengers on the move, mostly making low-value purchases, and often having to deal with more than one currency. [1, pp10] VI. CONCLUSION There is increasing interest from airports and airlines to tap into this trend. Airports want to maximize revenues, as well as keep airport visitors happy. Mobility services provide an opportunity to do both. Airlines also expect to leverage mobile devices to deliver passenger service benefits in situations where this can be achieved at little added cost. However, the main drivers for large-scale investments in mobility technology are likely to be access to new revenue streams or incremental improvements in operational efficiencies, such as reductions in passenger processing costs or flight delays. Mobility services for passengers have already moved beyond countries with high mobile penetration rates. In particular, SMS is proving increasingly popular in large fast-developing markets, as a means of booking, rescheduling or canceling flights. VII. FURTHER STUDIES AND RESEARCHES SITA Passenger Survey in 2007 indicates that This is not surprising, by the end of 2007, mobile penetration had surpassed 100% in over 59 countries, with some 3.3 billion
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mobile subscribers in 224 markets worldwide6. At current rates of growth there will be five billion mobile cellular subscribers worldwide by the year 2011.[1,pp7] By then, most mobile phones will combine the functionality of communications devices with that of computers, TVs, wallets, personal navigation systems, as well as other sophisticated software to browse and search the Internet. This is a continuation of a trend that has seen communications move beyond voice towards data-oriented conversations, whether SMS, email, Instant Messaging, or the web.[1, pp7] Some further studies and researches in this field of technology will be the topics listed below: Mobile devices of passengers will also carry frequent flyer profiles, itineraries and e-ticket information, boarding passes, and biometrics. Use large-scale investments in mobility technology to access to new revenue streams or incremental improvements in operational efficiencies, such as reductions in passenger processing costs or flight delays. Investigating on using mobile device for in-flight entertainment REFERENCES
[1] SITA, How mobile technology will enhance passenger travel, May 2008. [2] S. EL-Masri, B. Suleiman, A Framework for providing mobile web services, School of Computing and IT, University of Western Sydney, The Second International Conference On innovations in Information Technology (IIT05).

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