Mauritius is a small island and has limited resources. It has an ever-growing population rate due to rise in quality of service and standard of living. This has put new pressure on its limited resources.
The increase of vehicles in the island has forced Mauritian government to build new roads and highways to meet the rise in demand. But with limited space and ever-growing demand for vehicles have resulted in traffic jam and accidents. It has become very difficult for police officers to control the ever-growing of inflow of cars in urban areas.
In order to cope with the problem and help municipal councils and police officers to regulate the traffic in towns, a study of SMS Parking System (SPS) has been made. SMS Parking System has been a great success in many big cities in the world such as Muscat, London, Zagreb and Belgrade. This has led to low administrative costs, few people needed on site, a reduction in the municipal council cost and immediate income reporting.
The SPS will control the usage of parking areas in the cities of Mauritius and will tell people where and which parking is free. People do not have to go to buy parking tickets. People who are not registered also can use the SPS to park their vehicles. But after the confirmed message, the amount charged is immediately deducted from the user's prepaid account.
Introduction
With the increase in the number of private vehicles being used today all over the world, it has become and it is becoming more and more difficult to find a suitable car park. In order to come up with a solution to this problem, a lot of research and development is being done all over the world to implement Intelligent Car Park systems which would be able to provide information about vacant car parks to the drivers, before they physically reach the car park and will also enable them to pay for the car park.
Today's challenge is to offer a parking payment solution to drivers which provides them with peace of mind that they will not receive heavy fines, and that they do not need to search for small change or coupon parking each they park.
Municipalities and parking authorities also require better, more flexible solutions, which offer detailed reporting facilities, are not prone to vandalism and routine malfunctioning, and allow for easy evaluation of whether a car is in violation of the parking restriction or not.
Today mobile phones have reached such a wide penetration of the world's population that for most people, it is the only item that they will not leave the house without. Banks, retail stores, advertisers, and large corporate organizations are taking advantage of this fact and turning to mobile marketing and mobile ticketing solutions.
This project aims to propose an SMS based parking system for the car park in a densely populated area of Mauritius called Port-Louis. During weekdays, Port-Louis is crowded with influx of vehicles all over the island. People waste a lot of time and fuel in searching for car park. As a result, they come late to work and during tea-breaks they have to go to fill for coupon parking. Moreover, bad car park may result in traffic jam and accidents. At present, there is no system in use. Traditional methods such as parking coupons are being used for the car park.
In order to propose the SMS based parking system, a study was made for different car park scenarios and they are as follows:
Literature Review
PARKING GUIDANCE SYSTEMS (PGS) [1]
In the article of Lauren Smith and Hans Roth, It has been noted that search for parking facilities congests and interrupts traffic flows in highly dense areas. This results in time and fuel wasting. In order to alleviate the problem, Intelligent parking systems is used to guide people in congested areas to nearest empty parking spaces. This system addresses also drivers' need for more information about the position and number of the spaces that are actually available within a parking structure.
The availability of parking spaces in each facility is obtained from sensors that count the number of cars entering and exiting or, in other cases, by comparing the tickets issued at machines or cash registers to the capacity of the facility. This information is sent to a central or main computer that processes it, determining the locations of available parking.
Information can be obtained from answering machines (phones) which can give information on congestion and parking availability and via the Internet, where one of the main services is to provide information and parking reservations.
The PGS was designed in St PAUL, US to improve traffic and ease the search of parking in downtown. A central computer system obtains information from 10 different parking facilities, processes it and sends it to LED-based VMS (display the information in electronic plates).
In Pittsburgh which is found in US, has a PGS that consists of a series of linked signs that guide drivers not only to parking facilities but also to special attractions in the area.
In Europe, e-parking is used as a parking management system that relies upon mobile phone technology. It enables drivers to obtain early information on available parking spaces so that they can reserve spots at desired times.
The conveniences of e-parking are achieved through parking space optimization service (PSOS). The PSOS can:
check the availability of parking spaces in a given area (i.e. county, city, etc.) or give the parking availability at a certain time of day;
book a parking place in a given parking lot or area for a certain day/time;
help drivers find parking lots (via cooperation with guidance systems); and
interact with other electronic booking services to reserve parking spaces (i.e. near a cinema)
In UK, the Bristol system guides drivers to empty spaces within parking structures. The system includes 3 multistory parking facilities, with a combined total of 2,645 spaces. Infrared vehicle sensors detect empty spaces, and this information is transmitted to a main computer that controls VMS, which in turn show the number of available spaces on each floor and guide drivers to them. The system software has the ability to learn from the data so that it can forecast at what times of day a particular facility will be full and accordingly divert drivers to other facilities.
In Japan, Advanced Parking Information Systems are used to maximize the utilization of parking facilities in this city is of 340,000. Information is provided in six ways:
Telephone information on traffic congestion, road restrictions and parking availability.
Using suburban VMS to guide drivers to the three most convenient parking facilities
By roadside radio
Downtown VMS guide drivers to the most accessible parking facility where space is available. They also offer en-route congestion.
Individual Guide Sign direct drivers to a named parking facility
Entrance signs at parking facilities
In the above scenarios, it is mentioned about either reserving or guiding drivers to parking spaces. But if the parking space is too big, then drivers might lose their way and this can cause congestion inside parking facilities also. Therefore, some parking facilities use VMS to guide drivers to empty parking spaces. This requires sensors in each parking space to determine its occupancy status, communications to a central computer that determines how to guide drivers to empty spaces, and communications to the VMS.
In Baltimore/Washington Airport, the "BWI Smart Park" system is an automated parking guidance system intended to make finding a parking space quick and hassle free. Ultrasonic sensors mounted over each parking space monitor the vacancy status of each space and illuminated electronic "way-finding" signs, located at the ends of each parking row, display the number of spaces available in each row. Green arrows direct patrons to lanes with vacant spaces. Red Xs indicate lanes where no spaces are available. Blue lights direct disabled patrons to accessible parking areas.
These advanced car park systems also provide advanced, electronic payment options for the customers. The idea behind these electronic payment options is to prevent the customers from having to wait in long queues to buy a ticket. "Queues can cause congestion in areas within and outside of parking facilities" are according to Lauren Smith and Hans Roth article. Thus, these advanced car park techniques provide the car parking authorities as well as the customers with the following advantages (Smith and Roth, 2003):
Benefits of PGS/APS
Reduction in time spent and fuel consumed while searching for available parking space.
Reduction in congestion due to fewer cars driving around searching for spaces.
Elimination of queues entering parking facilities because drivers will not go to a facility where there is no available space.
Reduction in illegally parked vehicles.
Better distribution of flow and parking demand through the area.
APS systems result in higher revenues and profitability for the parking facilities.
SMS-based ticket service for Helsinki City Transport [2]
Helsinki City Transport organized a two-day trial on the occasion of the International Car Free Day where tickets were bought from mobile phones. The ticket was specially priced and was valid for a full day of travel on the city's green trams and metro service.
The number of customers who tested the new service was relatively low, about one thousand, according to Helsinki City Transport information officer Eeva Mustonen. She tested the service herself and found that it took only a couple of seconds to receive the ticket. The first person to acquire a SMS metro/tram ticket was up early and made his purchase soon after the service opened at five AM. The networks and technology worked together without any hitches.
"Mobile payment and ticketing makes public transport in Helsinki more accessible. Buying a ticket in advance is easy and it makes tram traffic more flexible. SMS-ticket service will increase the number of commuters in Helsinki City Transport, especially among younger passenger groups and people visiting in Helsinki," commented Mr. Seppo Vepsalainen, Planning Director, of Helsinki City Transport.
Cutting the search time for Parking space [3]
This article talks about an e-parking project being funded by multinational companies in five countries of the European Union, to help drivers buy parking tickets using their mobile phones. Once the project is complete, it will allow drivers to pay for the parking space in advance, using their mobile phones. After the payment has been made, an access code will be sent back to the driver which will act as a validation code when he enters the car park. On reaching the car park, the driver sends the validation code to the main database server using the Bluetooth technology and is granted access to the parking area. The figure below shows us how the whole system has been integrated and is expected to work.
Figure 1 [6]
Once the project is complete, it is expected to provide a large number of long term benefits. From the point of view of the business, it will increase the revenues for the car park authorities tremendously. Also, the costs incurred by the car park authorities, will now be transferred to the parking users. This will happen because the car park authorities would have to employ less people to sell tickets at the car park tickets and to check for unauthorized vehicles that have been parked in the car park after their parking has expired. From the point of view of the consumer, this concept of e-parking will ensure them a car parking space available when they reach the car park. It will prevent them from wasting time looking for vacant areas to park their cars, which will in turn prevent congestion inside the car parks. The biggest advantage of this project is that consumers will be able to pay for their parking spaces electronically.
Parking Meters
Parking meters refer to coin-operated devices that register the amount of time purchased for the parking of a motor vehicle, at the expiration of which the driver is liable for a fine. Meters are convenient for parking inspectors to check since the meter shows the prepaid time remaining, or whether it has been expired. However, there are many disadvantages to meters: the driver needs to prepare small change or cash in advance which means that he has to predict in advance for how long he will be parked. Municipalities have to cover the overhead outlay for the infrastructure of the meters, which fill up with quickly with coins and need to be emptied regularly by the parking authorities. Parking meters are prone to theft and vandalism.
Scratch Cards
These are prepaid parking cards bought from retailers with various date and time options which can be scratched off. The card is then displayed in the car window while parked. Scratch cards are believed to be less prone to fraud and vandalism, but they too have many disadvantages. The cards need to be bought in advance and drivers will usually overestimate the amount of time they will be parked so as to avoid from heavy fines. Different scratch cards are needed for each city and are only available for purchase in the specified city which makes it difficult to purchase them in advance. There is no possibility for remote extension of parking time with scratch cards.
What will you choose?
Many countries such as London, Oman, Dubai and Czech Republic have run trial periods and many have gone to embrace the technology. When parking the driver simply has to send as SMS to a given number and on receiving a confirmed message, he can park his vehicle. The payment is done through the driver mobile phone.
With mobile parking solutions, there is no need for the driver to prepare cards or coins in advance. Overpayments are avoided since the drivers do not have to predict how long they will be parked. If the mobile parking makes the use of prepayment, the driver is able to top up the payment if necessary from wherever they are sending by sending another text message and can even be warned in advance when the payment for their parking is about to expire.
Despite the many advantages of parking via mobile, there are many disadvantages associated with it. Firstly, the driver has to have a mobile phone. However, today almost all people have at least one mobile phone with them while travelling. Mobile phone has become a must in today's world.
Moreover, statistics show that the many of the older generation are not familiar with SMS services that are used for parking vehicles via mobile phone. Bu the trend is rapidly changing. This problem can also be solved by using IVR system instead of texting - where the end user calls a number in order to start or stop the service.
Finally, there are sometimes delays in SMS -i.e. in times of high load of the cellular operator, SMS messages are queued, and wait in line at the gateway. Such delays can then result in fines from enforcement agents. Realistically, these delays are few and far between.
Parking inspectors type the car's license plate number into a PDA, or type in the car's license plate number using a secured WAP portal in order to check parking validity.
Mobile Phone Parking offers both drivers and parking operators several distinct advantages. End users benefit from the convenience of being able to pay for parking from the comfort of their car with their mobile phone, and parking authorities are not obliged to invest either existing or new street-based parking infrastructure.
In summary, the advantages of mobile parking are as follows:
The system is easily implemented and easy to use for all parties involved.
Will result in increased revenues for the municipalities or parking authorities as well as increased savings on parking for drivers.
Reduces municipality costs for infrastructure.
Simplifies revenue collection.
Improves reporting, monitoring and control.
Reduces fraud.
Customers can send SMS from anywhere he likes provided there is network connection.
Renewal of parking time from any location.
Reduction of risking a parking fine.
More secure parking procedure.
No more of printing parking permits.
No ticket loss problem.
No need for queuing on parking exit in order to pay for parking tickets.
Provides drivers with a simple, cost-effective, flexible parking payment solution.
The technology that we have chosen is parking through mobile phone because of the above advantages and its simplicity. It costs lesser than other sophisticated technology and easy to implement. Mobile phone is user friendly and people cannot think of living without it. Before going deeper into design specifications, it is important to understand and become familiar with the following technical terms:
what SMS is,
how it works, and
a brief about SMS parking.
Concepts and Technical Terms Explained
What SMS stands for?
Short Message Service (SMS) is a communication service that allows the interchange of short text messages between mobile telephone devices. SMS is also often referred to as texting, sending text messages or text messaging. The service allows for short text messages to be sent from one cell phone to another cell phone or from the Web to another cell phone. Including spaces, text messages traditionally can't exceed 160 characters. SMS messages often use T9 Predictive Technology. T9 makes text messaging faster and more efficient on non-Qwerty cell phones without full keyboards.
SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application on the planet, with 2.4 billion active users, or 74% of all mobile phone subscribers sending and receiving text messages on their phones. The SMS technology has facilitated the development and growth of text messaging. The connection between the phenomenon of text messaging and the underlying technology is so great that in parts of the world the term "SMS" is used as a synonym for a text message or the act of sending a text message, even when a different protocol is being used.
How the SMS actually works?
The Short Message Service is a standardized service in the GSM mobile communication system which allows messages to be broadcast to all mobile users in a specified geographical area. Messages are sent to a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) which provides a store-and-forward mechanism. It attempts to send messages to their recipients. If a recipient is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for later retry. Users may request delivery reports to confirm that messages reach the intended recipients.
To understand how the SMS travels from the mobile phone to the SMSC please take a look at Figure 1. On this figure you can see which protocols are used and which GSM network entities take place in the communication process. As you can see, the mobile phone (Mobile station) transmits the SMS message to the GSM base station (BTS) through a wireless link. After this the message goes though the backbone network of the service provider. The Mobile Switching Center (MSC), the Home Location Register (HLR) and optionally the Visitor Location Register (VLR) is used to find out the appropriate Short Message Service Center (SMSC) that will store and forward the message when the receiving party becomes available.
Figure 1 shows architecture of SMS
What Parking SMS is?
SMS parking is a platform which allows people to pay the parking via SMS. User has to send a SMS from their mobile phone to some number. After verification, the user receives a confirmation message about the parking information. A notification message is sent to the user just before the expiry of the parking time.
Initial Investigation
A survey of the location Port-Louis was conducted which has led to the following observations:
Parking in Port-Louis is only possible with ticket.
Those tickets can be bought at petrol stations. They are valid for either half-hour or one hour and will be filled by the driver when he parks the car. One of the tickets can be found in the figure 2 below.
There are two different zones and depending on the zone parking is either 10 or 20 Rupees an hour.
There is parking area in Caudan Waterfront where when you enter, you have to take a ticket that will be used later to pay for the parking place. This is a secure parking place.
Staircase parking can also be found. Similar to the above, when exiting the parking, you will have to pay.
Figure 2
The Proposed System
SMS parking steps (Drivers):
Step 1: User sends SMS with vehicle number [operator number contains information about provider, city and parking zone] to premium rated number advertised on the site or near the parking sites.
Step2: User receives a SMS receipt confirming the parking payment if the user has enough money in his/her prepaid account. If the user is a postpaid customer then the system will not check for available cash in the user account.
Step3: User receives a notification 10 minutes before the expiry of the paid parking time.
Control message steps (Police Officers):
Step 1: The officer types the vehicle registration number on the hand held device for checking.
Step2: The system returns an information message including the remaining time period.
Traffic policemen will benefit from the new system, enabling them to use their portable GPRS enabled terminals, PDAs or any mobile device to check online whether the fee has been paid for a vehicle.
Scenario of the system
Customer drives in with his/her car to the parking slot.
Customer parks the car and reads the sticker on wall telling him/her about how to park by SMS.
Customer sends SMS after careful reading.
Time passes.
Customer receives notification at the restaurant.
Customer replies (extends the duration of the parking time).
Customer enjoys his/her food with friends.
Customer leaves the restaurant.
Customer leaves the parking.
SMS PARKING SYSTEM Website
There will be a website that will maintain and control the SMS Parking system. The system will be divided into three main modules namely Administration, Registration and Reporting modules.
The Administration module will be divided into the following categories:
Reference Module
Maintain of Location
Maintain of Streets
Maintain of Zones
Maintain of Parking Types
Maintain of Occupation Info
Maintain of Company Info
Maintain of User Details for Business
Maintain types of Vehicles
Record of Parking Info
Associate different zones, rates and parking types with the parking Id.
Allocate the private parking to business people
Transaction Table
Recording of daily parking for public
Recording of daily parking for business purposes
The Registration module will consist of the following:
Registration Module
Online application for business parking, reserved parking and disabled people parking with different number of plates to a mobile number
Verification and Approval of parking
Re-allocation of parking
Reporting Module
Business Logic
Public will send SMS to the system in a specific format:
"Park parking no vehicle Registration Duration" to a certain number.
Different numbers will be allocated to different zoning.
Reserved, business and disabled people will be allocated each a different number that will be saved in their phone book. Their SMS format will differ from public and will be looked like this:
"Park Duration" to either reserved, business or disabled number.
The business people can also send a certain parking number of the nearest parking slot to the business number. This is used when business people has to go to client places to attend meeting or for other purposes.
For registration people, monthly bill will be sent to home address or office address depending on the user preference when applying for parking.
For public, the amount will be deducted after receiving the confirmed SMS.
Each parking slot will be identified by a unique number. In this way, people will know the information about an available parking slot by sending "ParkInfo@Location" to a number that will be published on the website with other steps and facilities for the users to better use the system.
How will the time be calculated in order to make the user informed?
Where will be the processing of validation of messages?
Hardware, Software and Network Setup
The hardware for the SMS Parking System is located in a custom-Built data center that is built and maintained by Trio Company. The data center is fully secured and has the following features:
It is back-up by a diesel or petrol generator in case there is a power cut.
It has internet connections from two different backbone providers in order to ensure multi-homed bandwidth and continuous connectivity.
The center is also connected over a secure VLAN connection to three major mobile operators namely Orange, Emtel and MTML.
The data center has an automatic climate control system with camera surveillance.
The access to data center is restricted and controlled.
The back-end system comprises of the following:
Router
The CISCO Router connects to the different Internet providers and establishes the VLANs with the mobile operators.
Switch
UPS
There are two UPS devices are cross-connected to each piece of server and network equipment on the rack to ensure continuous power supply in case of UPS malfunction.
Tape Back-up
Log server (Intrusion Detection System)
The Log server is a security server which is responsible for logging all network traffic, web server and database activity, security monitoring and reporting. It is connected to the tape back-up device and makes a differential backup of recent logs (logs and database) to the tape.
Web Server
The web application is deployed in web server. Port 443 (SSL) of the web server is made accessible over the internet (assigned to a static, real IP address) and is used primary for communication with the PDA devices used by the controlling officers in-field. Communication with the mobile operators is also done on port 443 but over secure VLAN (and restricted by internal IP address).
Database Server
The database server contains the database of the system which records data. Connections to the database are allowed only from the Web Server machine, over SSL, on a non-standard port, restricted by IP, and after proper authentication. No other services run on the Database Server.
Monitor, Keyboard & mouse
This is used for the user to communicate with the server.
Printer
This is used to print reports or other information from the server.
Interaction of the SMS parking system
There are 3 possible ways in which the system will interact with different people:
Public, administrators and controlling organization
The public can register through web. The administrators will approve the application and control and maintain the SMS parking system. The controlling organization will generate reports.
Controlling officers
The controlling officers will use their PDA devices for querying and updating the server with information associated with a specific License Plate number or Phone number.
Mobile operators
The system will communicate with mobile operators for the exchange of incoming and outgoing SMS. The system will communicate via SMPP protocol and exchange SMS as XML messages. Therefore there will be two java APIs: one for receiving SMS from (SMSC) mobile operators and the other one for sending the SMS to the (SMSC) to the mobile operators.
The SMS parking will cost Rs (SMS cost + parking rate) and there are two parking zones in Mauritius. With each sent SMS, the client is charged their standard SMS tariff (determined by their mobile operator) plus the parking fee of Rs xxx should the transaction be successful. The working hours are from 09:00 to 16:30, Monday through Friday, and from 09:00 to 12:00 on Saturday.
In general, the SMS payment process abides by the following pattern:
Client sends SMS message containing the license plate number of the vehicle they wish to park, the parking number and duration. Messages are sent to a unified short-number (1302) regardless of the mobile operator.
Mobile operator receives SMS and relays it to SMS System via SMPP.
SMS System does preliminary validation of the message and (if everything is OK) attempts to charge the owner of the phone number from which the SMS originated.
If the owner has been charged successfully, SMS System extends the vehicle's parking time by 1 hour and sends a confirmation SMS via SMPP to the mobile operator.
The mobile operator receives SMS and relays it to the client's mobile device.
5 minutes before the expiration time, SMS System sends a reminder SMS to the client, informing them when their parking time expires and how they can extend it.
