A design and a prototype for a mobile information service for tourists

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Lappeenranta University of Technology Faculty of Technology Management

Degree Program in Information Technology

Stewart Sabuka

A DESIGN AND A PROTOTYPE FOR A MOBILE INFOR- MATION SERVICE FOR TOURISTS

Examiners: prof. PhD Kari Smolander D.Sc. (eng.) Uolevi Nikula Supervisors: prof. PhD Kari Smolander D.Sc. (eng.) Uolevi Nikula

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ABSTRACT

Lappeenranta University of Technology Faculty of Technology Management

Degree Program in Information Technology Stewart Reginald Sabuka

A design and a prototype for a mobile information service for tourists

Master’s Thesis

110 pages, 15 figures, 15 tables

Examiners: prof. PhD Kari Smolander D.Sc. (eng.) Uolevi Nikula

Keywords: Tourist, Mobile information service, Bluetooth communication, End-user cost-free service

Abstract

Tourism is one of the biggest industry branches with billions of tourists traveling every year around the world. Therefore, solutions providing tourist information have to be up to date with both changes in the industry and the world’s technological progress. The aim of this thesis is to present a design and a prototype of a tourist mobile service which is individual-oriented, cost-free for the end user, and secure.

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On the information providers’ side, the solution is implemented as a Web- based database. The end users access the information through a Bluetooth application on their mobile devices. The Bluetooth-based solution allows to avoid any costs for the end users, that is tourists. The study shows that, even with small data transfers, the tourists could save significantly when compared to possible roaming charges for data transfer. Also, the proposed mobile service is not intrusive, as it is provided through an application installed by tourists voluntarily on their mobile devices.

Through design and implementation this work shows that it is possible to build a system which can be used to provide information services to tourists through mobile phones. The work achieved a successful ongoing synchronization between the client and the server databases. Implementation and usage were limited to smart phones only, as they provide better technological support for the solution having features like maps, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Databases. Moreover, the design of this system shows how Bluetooth technology can be used effectively as a means of communication while minimizing its shortcomings and risks, such as security, by bypassing Bluetooth server service discovery protocol (SDP) and connecting directly to the device.

Apart from showing the design and implementation of the end-user cost- free mobile information service, the results of this work also highlight the possible business opportunities to the provider of the service.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisors Prof. Kari Smolander and D.Sc.

Uolevi Nikula for their guidance, support and advice throughout this work.

Special thanks go to my fiancée Matylda Jabłońska for her endless support both professional- and family-wise. Thank for your great deal of help and advice in putting the final document to the standard it is, and most of all thank you for taking care of our daughter Patricia and keeping everything warm while I was working late on this project.

The topic of this thesis was self-made by myself after observing potential problem and opportunity from the tourism and information service sector. Even though this work was done without any external funds, I was fortunate enough to get technical help from two of my very close friends, Peter Were and Derrick Katunzi. I would like to thank Peter Were for his constant advice in engineering aspects of the topic and Derrick Katunzi for his constant advice in business and innovation aspect of the topic. It would have been difficult for me to present this topic the way I did without a great deal of help from you guys and I honestly thank you.

For my family back in Tanzania, my sisters Sarah Sabuka and Grace Sabuka, and my brother Silver Sabuka, I thank and appreciate all your support and motivations throughout the years. I couldn’t ask for more.

Lappeenranta, 23 Feb 2012

Stewart Sabuka

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List of Tables

1 Classification of functional requirements. . . 47

2 Server authentication feature description. . . 50

3 Server data management feature description. . . 52

4 Server communication feature description. . . 54

5 Server message management feature description. . . 55

6 Client communication feature description. . . 57

7 Client message management feature description. . . 58

8 Client data management feature description. . . 59

9 Test group for cases: Create account, Log in and Log out. . 86

10 Test group for cases: Insert data, Update data, Delete data, View data and Manage synchronization. . . 87

11 Test group for cases: Process request message and Create response message. . . 88

12 Test group for cases: View data and Request updates. . . . 89

13 Test group for cases: Create request message and Process response message. . . 90

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14 Test group for cases: Open connection, Send request mes-

sage, Receive response message and Close connection. . . . 91 15 Test group for cases: Establish connection, Receive request

message, Send response message and Terminate connection. 93 16 Example roaming charges of Russian mobile providers for

data transfer in Finland . . . 98

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List of Figures

1 Server authentication use case. . . 49

2 Server data management use case. . . 51

3 Server communication use case. . . 53

4 Server manage message use case. . . 55

5 Client communication use case. . . 56

6 Client manage message use case. . . 58

7 Client data management use case. . . 59

8 System overview diagram. . . 61

9 Server database design. . . 64

10 Client database design. . . 65

11 Client server sequence diagram. . . 67

12 Server database insert synchronization management. . . 70

13 Server database update synchronization management. . . . 72

14 Client activity diagram. . . 77

15 Socket server activity diagram. . . 78

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16 Business owner user interface home page. . . 79

17 Business owner user interface – adding. . . 79

18 Business owner user interface – editing. . . 80

19 User interface – home page. . . 80

20 User interface – restaurant list. . . 80

21 User interface – restaurant description. . . 81

22 User interface – map. . . 81

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Lappeenranta is the second biggest tourist city in Finland. Statistics show that the number of Russians crossing the border in South-Eastern Finland, where Lappeenranta is located, was about 2.2 million for the year 2009.

That is over twice more when compared with the year 2000 when about one million Russians crossed the border [22]. Most of the tourists come for shopping purposes, on trips lasting only one day. Therefore, current ways of advertising shopping centers, retail sales or local events, that is websites, guides, tourist information offices etc. are not convenient for the mentioned visitors. Firstly, static information such as guides or maps are not updated regularly and so the information provided through guides might not be up to date, especially for same tourists coming frequently for short visits. Some major stores, like Gigantti, Anttila, Kodin Ykkönen etc., manage to provide weekly product and sale guides. However, small units do not have such ability, whereas it is the small businesses that play significant role for Lappeenranta tourism. The tourist office provides information but is not open on the late hours. Websites are very useful but very few of the tourists would actually carry a laptop with them or other internet access device, except for mobile phone. On the other hand, not every mobile phone these days has Wi-Fi available in its functionality.

Moreover, even if the tourists find a wireless Internet access, the network

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may appear not to be free of charge. Using internet from service provider is not an option, as roaming charges are very high. Finally, not every small business in Lappeenranta has a Website.

It seems that the most convenient solution would be to provide a mobile location-based customized tourist-oriented service. In this matter the application should be cost free to the tourists; therefore, the solution should be provided through free Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technology. Providing free Wi-Fi just to run one application is not an ideal solution. Besides, there is no guarantee that users will use the free service to access the application.

Bluetooth technology, on the other hand, would ensure that the service is cost-free for the end users. The idea is to focus on the needed information for all the groups of tourists. While the current ways of providing information to tourists are not 100 percent effective, they are still useful and the proposed solution is not intended to replace the other solutions, but rather improve the current information infrastructure by providing dy- namic personalized information. Also, unlike the "blind" SMS and MMS messages, this service would be activated only by individuals interested in it, and only in locations of interest, that is Lappeenranta tourist sites and shopping centers.

The implementation involves two sides, that is a client and a server. The client side is implemented under mobile environment, while the server is implemented under normal server environment, not in any mobile plat- form. The client should be able to receive updates and be able to use the

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application even if it is not connected to the sever, so the client should store information. Client will be connected to the server via Bluetooth.

The features of Bluetooth are reviewed in this work, including both its advantages and disadvantages.

The service functionality would offer not only basic customized advertisement supply, but would also allow tracking specific products. On the businesses’ side, the benefit would come from simplicity of feeding information to a standardized online database. Also, after the application keeps working over a few months, there may be sufficient information available to analyze statistics of tourist interests. These would be useful for the business owners, who would be able to adjust their future offers and promotions to target their customers better.

Overall, the motivation for creating a Bluetooth-enabled customized information supply for tourists in Lappeenranta is the following:

• The type of tourists visiting Finland most frequently should benefit from an easy to use application with location-based features.

• The application will be a first one of this kind to be implemented.

• Bluetooth technology will make the use convenient on any mobile device: cost-free, low power dissipation, and no need for the Internet connection.

• The mobile advertising will not be intrusive as users will allow it

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individually by downloading a specially prepared application.

• The application would collect users’ access history to create statistical information for business owners, who could then provide customer- oriented offers.

1.2 Research question

Is it possible to build a mobile information service for tourist, which does not require the tourist to use any resources from their mobile service providers?

1.3 Research methods

The topic of this thesis was constructed after conducting a basic research on tourism sector and mobile sector in order to find the basic facts and apply the knowledge from the basic research to explore the possible ways to obtain the solution to the problem. The research method used in this work is "design- science research" which focuses on building or improving certain innovations [23]. The use of this research method will help providing feasible results and the answer to the research question. The result will determine how innovative the service is and if it can provide a business opportunity.

The design knowledge used in this research is a process-design with an

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emphasis on selecting own plan on solving the problem. From the research question it is clear that the desired state is already specified, hence the research problem of this work focuses on how to proceed from the initial point to the final state (desired state). The initial state towards solving this research problem is to provide the product requirements and specifications, which will be used in the building process to obtain the final goal.

1.4 Thesis structure

The structure of this thesis is as follows. Section 2 presents tourism worldwide and in Lappeenranta region and the currently existing solutions for tourist information supply. Section 3 discusses in detail the importance of mobile phone and mobile services market, including historical development, factors driving their use, criticism, and existing technological solutions. Section 4 lists the software requirements and specifications of the proposed solution, that is the system features, and functional and nonfunctional requirements. In Section 5 the system architecture and implementation are presented. Section 6 collects the testing results. Section 7 presents the thesis results and possible business potential of this project.

Finally, Section 8 concludes and outlines future work prospects.

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2 TOURISM INFORMATION SERVICES

2.1 Tourism statistics worldwide

Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world. The World Tourism Organization sets a definition of a tourist as somebody staying at a place different from their usual environment for over 24h but no more than a year, for recreational, work or other reasons [2]. Tourism brings great revenues for many countries with attractive geographical location. In 2008, the number of international tourists have raised by 1.9% from year 2007 and reached the approximate number of 922 billion [2]. In Europe, the countries leading in tourism are France, Spain and Italy. In North America it is USA, and in Asia – China [2].

The expansion or recession of this industry is highly dependent on the global economic situation, as well as local situation in the destination countries. For instance, the number of tourists has dropped after the Global Recession 2008-09, and after the numerous outbreaks of the H1N1 influenza virus [3]. Nevertheless, still hundreds of billions of people travel worldwide every year and create a demanding market for travel information suppliers [2].

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2.2 Tourism in Lappeenranta, Finland

Lappeenranta is the second biggest tourist city in Finland. Statistics show that a number of Russians crossing the border in South-Eastern Finland, where Lappeenranta is located, was about 2.2 million for the year 2009.

That is over twice more than in the year 2000 when about 1 million Rus- sians crossed the border. Statistics also show that about 50% of those who travel to Finland come for shopping purposes, 30% for holidays and the rest for other activities. Majority of the tourist come from Russia and Germany. Some of the common activities done by the tourists who visit the city include: seeing tourist sites, attending events, and shopping [22].

Also, as statistics say, at least 50% of Russian tourists visited Finland for one day only [22].

In the year 2010 only in summer (from 1.5.2010 to 31.10.2010) over 1.35 million Russians came to Finland, constituting over 38% of all international tourists in that period [38]. Research shows that in that summer 38% of the visitors did not spend a night in Finland, and 14% stayed for one night [38]. Also, 38.4% of all expenditures of international tourists were spent on shopping [38].

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2.3 Existing solutions for tourist information supply

The way information is supplied to tourists is crucial for their trip plans, covering both planning and accessing the information during the trip [18].

The highest interest of this study lies not in the information sources, but information channels. The importance of this distinction has been under- lined in one of the recent studies [18], which notes that the type of channels used by tourists have been changing over decades. We can find that in the 1980s and 1990s information supply was dominated by travel agent offices, guidebooks, and brochures. It was the beginning of the new century that turned into more electronic environment. Then, people started to use the Internet more widely and that, next to friends’ and families’ recommen- dations, became the most influential channel of tourist information supply [18].

Rapid growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web in 1990s opened prominent marketing opportunities for all kinds of businesses. This also ap- plies to the tourism industry. Its main advantage for information sources, such as travel agents, is that it can be frequently updated, which is not possible in the case of guidebooks and brochures [26]. It is most popular to be used by that group of tourists that have a generally high acceptance rate towards new technologies. However, it may not always be convenient to use the Internet during the trip. Firstly, there may be no access to the service in a given region, or the access may prove costly. Nevertheless, it is

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important to make the available information customized to the receiver’s (tourist’s) needs [13]. And the level of customization and prioritization differs along all the stages of any trip.

The ways from where and through which means tourists preferably access information differ highly with respect to whether it is done before or after departing for the trip. The most popular sources before the trip are family or friends, other travelers, and travel agents. Further, one would contact service providers, journalists, and information centers. But as soon as the tourist is on the way, the least preferred source, that is the information centers, becomes the most important one, then followed by family and friends, service providers, other travelers, journalists, and travel agents at last [18]. That is highly dependent on technological availability and limitations when being on the way.

Researchers recognize currently five most popular information channels. In the order of preference of using them before departing for a trip these are the Internet, print (brochures, guidebooks), face-to-face, telephone, and TV. The first three ones reverse their order of importance for the tourists after starting the trip. When traveling already, one would most commonly seek information face-to-face, then from the print and, finally, from the Internet, if possible [18]. However, in the view of current technological development, the list seems to be missing one important channel, that is mobile services (discussed more in Section 3). This channel could be of very high significance for the travelers on the way, as mobile phones seem

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to be the most commonly possessed technology, whether one is traveling or not.

A number of researchers have already tried to provide the information to the tourists when they are on the way. An interesting prototype system was presented in [17] which introduced Mastrocaronte, an adaptive tourist information supply system for the region of Turin City, to be used onboard cars. The information set focused on basic hotel and restaurant information. The main interest of the researchers was to develop the system’s adaptivity and minimal requirements for user’s interaction, to maximize driving safety. The former was obtained through an agent-based model analyzing information available about the car and the travelers. On the technical side, the communication of the vehicle with the server was provided with GSM and GPRS connection.

A different application for the same geographical region has been introduced in [7]. It focused on providing the main tourist information through the Web and a WAP connection. The user interface was generated through XML-based technologies. This system was also adaptive, however, through fuzzy evaluation functions for rating the items which were in the tourists’

interest. The application provides for the users opportunities for trip planning, and on the basis of the user’s choices, the system proposes a suitable itinerary.

In Lappeenranta, currently, information related to tourists’ needs is pro-

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vided on the websites, city guides, and maps. Each of these information supply methods has some disadvantages. The problem with websites is that they require a customer to have access to the Internet, which is usually costly. Also, as statistics say, at least 50% of Russian tourists visited Finland for one day only [22]. With so short trip duration seeking the Internet access does not seem convenient. Moreover, not all the businesses such as shops and restaurants in Lappeenranta have websites on the In- ternet, or they do not have all occasional offers or sales updated. City guides and maps contain only general and limited information, which is not updated frequently. For instance, city guides may mention only big annually occurring events for each season and leave out small events, which might as well be important to the tourists. With all the aforementioned, it seems justified to create a new advertising method for tourists, especially the short-term ones, in Lappeenranta.

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3 MOBILE PHONE MARKET AND SERVICES

One of the most developing and influential information supply channels in the recent years is mobile services. The mobile phone era started in the early 1990s, originally oriented on basic voice and text message communication. In 1991, Finland was the first country to launch a commercial GSM network. Also, in Finland, first mobile phones outnumbered fixed connections in 1998. Nowadays, the mobile phone penetration reaches there 5.4 million, which means 100% [12].

The general mobile phone market has grown over the years, since the introduction of smart phones a few years ago a number of new manufactures have emerged to produce different kinds of smart phones. The market leader in smart phone operating systems (OS) are Symbian OS, iPhone OS, RIM BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android, Palm OS and Linux.

Apart from Apple and BlackBerry the rest of the key smart phone manufactures produce smart phones with different OS [4, 16]. For instance, Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, etc. produce both Windows Mobile and Android.

From year the 1999 onwards more and more novel mobile services have been introduced and marketed one by one. These would include: "ringtones and icons, instant messaging and presence services via WAP-based mobile banking, lottery, m-commerce and travel services (in 1999), games (enabled by Nokia’s N-Gage in 2003 and later smart-phones), and location-based

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services (on an experimental basis in 2002, and GPS-based in 2006) to multimedia messaging services (introduced in 2003), like mobile television (2005) and online music" [12].

3.1 Development of mobile services

Over recent years the information supply has faced a significant shift from print and radio/TV media (decreased by 10-20%) towards the Internet (increased by 9.2%) and mobile phones (↑ 18.1%) [44]. One of the main and in the same time most advantageous features of, for instance, mobile advertising is the possibility to communicate with customers without any time or location limitations [40]. Nowadays, it is mostly accepted and desirable by users for specific products like weather and traffic updates, as well as movie releases and job openings [27]. That can be due to the fact, that mobile phone penetration rate starts reaching the level of 100%

in some of the most developed countries, surpassing the same indicator for the Internet and cable TV [31, 41]. As in every business, it is crucial to identify and understand factors driving mobile services performance, as well as get familiar with possible weaknesses of this approach. These issues are discussed in more detail in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 respectively.

There has already been a number of studies carried out to identify and explore the status and trends ruling mobile advertising. These would most likely refer to practices, business structure, and evaluation on the customer

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side [31]. It is known that generating prominent revenues in this field is possible thanks to specifying the right consumers, markets, and products.

Also, one has to be aware of the business position in the value chain [31].

The authors claim that mobile advertising has a lot more potential than the Internet advertising, but there should exist a real accountable commission and fee system.

People’s attitude towards mobile services can be very different, regardless whether it is received through messages like SMS/MMS or Bluetooth. For instance, studies show that South Korean customers are more open than those from United States of America or Europe [25]. But at the same time, Western societies are a lot more tolerant than Chinese customers [40]. Criticism on mobile services is discussed in Section 3.3.

3.2 Factors driving attitudes towards mobile services

Categorization of factors driving mobile services vary from one research article to another. Some name basic issues like interactivity, personalization, targetability, and ubiquity [31]. That is, to be successful at a minimal level, one not only has to make sure that his advertisements and other information are well targeted to a specific customer, but also that it is easy and convenient for the customer to react to the advertisement whenever he wishes. There are quite opposite opinions when it comes to the role of demographic factors. In [27] there was no demography-related influence

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found, whereas in other studies one can find information about importance of customers’ age, gender, income and education level [40]. For instance, unmarried working youth class is more likely to both access and act on mobile advertising [33]. Many other researchers emphasize the role of trust and the advertiser’s credibility in the overall level of mobile services acceptance [27, 41, 40, 20], and these depend on medium and message content [33].

There has also been proposals of two broader and more detailed factor categorizations. The first one presents repartition to industry, medium, consumer and demographic factors [20, 40]. The industry part lists down technological indicators, such as technology used for advertising, the trans- mission time, the ease-of-use for the customer and compatibility with consumer’s device, as well as possibility of personalization, wireless service provider control, and, finally, governmental regulations and industrial guidelines. Certainly, technology can play a huge role. For instance, SMS messages do not support images, which limits advertisements to text only.

MMS messages are costly and, moreover, neither of them recognizes user’s location. This is where Bluetooth can bring real time possibilities of providing location-based promotions [25]. The only drawback here is Blue- tooth’s small range, but still, when enabled, it can instantly receive videos, graphics, text, sound, ringtones, wallpapers, and even software.

The medium category mentions marketer-to-consumer interaction, possible costs or monetary benefits, advertising value, and contents. The de-

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mographic factors include the already mentioned age, gender, income, and education. For instance, in specific societies such as inhabitants of Birm- ingham, England, the group within 18-29 age is found to be most open for both Bluetooth and mobile advertising [25]. On the consumer side, one can find the general attitude towards advertising and mobile advertising specifically, level of brand trust and perception of utility. Other important factors are also privacy costs, message processing costs, freedom of choice, control, and risk.

Another complex conceptual model presents also four but different factor categories: consumer, message, device, and media [41]. On the customer side the authors refer to the level of privacy kept while providing the service, purpose of the supplied message, and performance. When it comes to the message, it is very important what it contains, how it is formulated logically and symbolically, and by whom. Thus the related factors are:

message content, its customization towards the user’s preference and his device, and credibility of the sender. The device should be characterized by a right user interface, sufficient interactivity and intelligence. Finally, the medium’s influence comes from the prices, business processes and policies.

3.3 Criticism on mobile services

One of the biggest concerns in mobile advertising and other mobile services is privacy. What helps in targeting the customers’ needs is knowledge

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about their personal interests, latest activities, or exact location [44, 32, 25]. But this means that the users have to sacrifice their privacy. For the marketers it may be really useful to follow the users history on how and from where they act on the advertisements mostly. But to have full trust on their side, providers must work out proper privacy procedures [32].

Finally, personal perception of mobile advertising depends highly on where and in what circumstances the advertisements are received. For instance, it has been shown that people are more likely to react to them if they are in a public, rather than in a private location [9]. But that still depends on activity that they are doing at the moment. If somebody is at work or on a business meeting, he may perceive receiving advertising messages as intrusive and disturbing. But would that change if in any case the advertisement is very attractive to that customer? [9]. These issue may be resolved if users access advertising only through specific applications which they have to first download to their mobile device. Some claim that such merchant-by-merchant contact and necessity of using separate applications for each of them can be inconvenient and troublesome, but there have already been solutions to that proposed. One example is the MAE (Mobile Advertising Engine) which helps aggregate coupons from different merchants [44]. Moreover, its advantage comes in applicability to location-aware devices.

With all the aforementioned, it is clear that any new proposed mobile service should be well targeted, personalized and interactive, as well as

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credible and protecting personal information, which is the solution proposed in the following section of this work.

3.4 Proposed solution tools and technologies

As discussed in Section 2.3, some advanced tourist-oriented applications have been developed by a number of researchers. The aim of this thesis is to propose a mobile service providing tourists in Lappeenranta with customized information. The core idea is to supply up-to-date information about promotions and sales in the region, as well as various events. There- fore, it is partly related to mobile advertising and this aspect is discussed in more detail in Section 3.1. Some tourist-oriented services proved really useful, like the public transport ticket sales in Helsinki, later followed by other Finnish cities. The type of application proposed in this study has only been implemented in a prototype form, not yet commercially, whereas it can be beneficial and has a business potential.

3.4.1 Mobile phones and smart phones

Mobile phones and smart phones in particular provide a perfect environment for the solution for tourist information supply for a number of reasons. As a personal device, most people tend to keep their mobile phones with them at all times including traveling and, hence, it will be convenient for the tourist to access vital tourist information via a mobile phone

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or other mobile devices such as tablets. Most smart phones offer better hardware, such as larger screen, which is important to allow mobile user to read the content comfortably from the device, high resolutions for better image and content appearance, touch screen for easy navigation, bigger RAM and CPU which is vital for data processing and, finally, storage support such as SQLite database and XML. Most smart phones are capable of supporting location based services as well as Maps which can be used to replace static printed maps provided to tourist.

Now that mobile phone is selected to be the main environment for our solution, we can turn our focus to the means of communication between the mobile device and the server. There are different means of data transfer supported by the mobile phones, such as the Internet via service provider or via Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth. We can look at all these technologies and see which one offers the best solution to our problem.

3.4.2 The Internet

The Internet can be accessed in the mobile phone through a service provider or through wireless such as Wi-Fi. The Internet might be a good solution to our problem as it provides different options for accessing it, it is widely available and over high data rate transfer. While the Internet may seem to be perfect means of communication as it provides high speed data transfer and covers wider area compared to NCF and Bluetooth, described more

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in Sections 3.4.3 and 3.4.4, respectively. Tourist who have the Internet access through their service provider might not be interested to access their Internet abroad as most roaming charges are still high. On the other side, not many ordinary mobile phones have Wi-Fi with exception of the smart phones most of which have Wi-Fi connection. Also, if the tourist wants to have access to the wireless Internet connection, very often he/she has to pay for it, and this does not fit to our solution which is to eliminate cost to the tourist. Another disadvantage is that not many mobile phones have Wi-Fi compared to the number of mobile phones which have Bluetooth.

3.4.3 Near Field Communication (NFC)

NFC is a is a short-range wireless which allows communication for devises within 10cm at maximum. It operates at 13.56 MHz. While NFC might be a perfect solution for payment services, it is not suitable for our solution as it requires the user to be very close to the source of information to get an access, whereas the solution I am focusing on is not to force users to certain areas. Another big disadvantage is that NFC is not supported by the majority of mobile devices so far and there is no indication that the technology will be used by more mobile manufacturers in the near future.

The fact that NFC is not available in most mobile phones eliminates it as our favourable mean of communication.

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3.4.4 Bluetooth technology

Bluetooth was created in 1994 by a Swedish company Ericsson. Their main intention was to provide low-cost short-range RF transceivers. It was designed to operate in the free frequency range of 2.40-2.48 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical). In early 2000’s a number of researchers studied Bluetooth functionality and predicted its future vast array of applicability, e.g. [43]. Its creators set up a SIG (Special Interest Group), which has nowadays 2000 member companies. The Bluetooth core specification has 1000 pages, and a document discussing the technology’s interoperabil- ity scenarios with other applications adds another 400 pages. The base range for Bluetooth operability guarantees 10m, but with boosted energy input it can reach up to 100m.

Advantages and application scope: As already mentioned, the main aim of Bluetooth design was to provide a low-cost short-range peer-to-peer temporary communication tool [19]. Therefore, similarly to Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), it is very convenient for wireless replacement of any cable nests at homes, work places, etc [8]. Some researchers claim that Bluetooth can appear to be less successful in the shadow of Wi-Fi [19], whereas others seek its advantage in low power consumption [10, 24]. Indeed, it can be a really competitive alternative to IEEE 802.11 due to its extremely low power dissipation. This is how a Bluetooth-based Internet network can be a lot more attractive than Wi-Fi, especially with mobile phones [24].

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It saves their battery life span. Finally, Bluetooth provides a reasonably high speed of data transfer [37]. A new, originally military technology called Ultrabandwidth (UBW) was recently turned civilian and aligned with Bluetooth to utilize its feature of high bandwidth to transfer very large files between devices [8]. Recent studies predict that over the next years the importance of SMS and MMS messaging will drop, whereas the use of mobile services like the Internet, search and TV will raise along with Bluetooth [21].

The scope of Bluetooth applications is getting wider all the time. The first ones aimed at connecting basic devices, like mouse, camera, etc., to computers or to the Internet [10]. Nowadays, Bluetooth is as important as GPS or FM radio. Therefore, different technologies attempt to incorporate these radios in a single chip with as little interference between each other as possible [5]. One of the aims is to target location-based services (LBS) which are briefly discussed in Section 3.4.4. Bluetooth can also be used for temporary connection with others locally. For instance, when sitting on a train, one can browse for locally available people having their devices active. That would not be much of seeking dating opportunities, but rather flirting to fill up travel time. This could also be more functional for seeking mates in crowded public places like clubs or restaurants [28].

A more recent and more future oriented study proposed connecting a number of home white appliances, like refrigerator, microwave oven, washing machine, etc., through Bluetooth to the Internet [37]. The authors’ intent

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was to create a possibility of device control and data transfer to provide appliance control, eventing and monitoring, optional software updates, and their remote maintenance. The idea was aimed at being implemented in a future "smart home", as the researchers named it.

Bluetooth-based positioning: One of the most common location-based applications of Bluetooth is GPS. It can help users in getting driving direc- tions, finding points of interest like museums or shopping centers, and providing reviews of places intended to be visited like bars, restaurants, etc. [6]. The most desirable type of information to be accessed through Bluetooth are up-to-date traffic and weather feeds. This is possible in real time thanks to connecting Bluetooth-enabled cell phone with Bluetooth- enabled GPS device [34].

High availability of Bluetooth allows users to get their location updates sufficiently precisely for being offered context-sensitive services. This is related to the topic of mobile advertising, which was discussed more in Section 3.1. It is possible since Bluetooth allows getting indoor location information with accuracy down to 1.88m [15]. Design of such positioning system is complex and non-linear, but it pays off. Researchers have shown that RSSI (receive signal strength indicator) to link quality is not a right approach in this case, as it brings significant uncertainty of over 5m.

They proposed an ad hoc network formed by Bluetooth sensors themselves with no Ethernet LAN. Only the root node was connected to LAN which

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minimizes complexity and cost of the network [15].

Another study proposed a different Bluetooth-based sensor network. It supported Web-server capabilities allowing the wireless sensors to be accessed by commercial browsers through the Internet [14]. The authors tested the implementation using three temperature sensors whose output could be viewed by PC users. Along with the experiment, they mea- sured network power dissipation, area coverage, and response. Their results proved implementation feasibility and effectiveness, which shows that utilizing Bluetooth-Internet connection can be beneficial.

Bluetooth drawbacks: There are two main issues pointed out by Blue- tooth sceptics. One of them is its bandwidth interference with IEEE 802.11 frequency. They both operate in the free range of 2.40-2.48 GHz ISM RF band. And it appears that there may be a significant change in their performance when working simultaneously within a short distance from each other, causing limited data throughput for both of them. In particular, Bluetooth’s influence on Wi-Fi is minimal when their sources are 10m away from each other, whereas when they are only 2cm away, the impact is profound. Bluetooth can shut down Wi-Fi leaving only its short range operability. On the other hand, when the devices are 10m apart, Wi-Fi has basically no influence on Bluetooth, while 2cm distance reduces Bluetooth operability even in short range. These effects can be of serious importance for devices having chips of these two tools located close to one another,

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e.g. in laptops, cell phones, but solutions like AIM (adaptive-interference- management) have already been proposed as a solution [36].

Secondly, Bluetooth device can keep simultaneous connection with only up to seven devices at a time, which limits the number of clients accessing the server at the same time. Another disadvantage is that Bluetooth has a low data transfer rate compared to other wireless technologies, it supports up to 24 Mbit/s for version three and four. This can limit the amount of data sent between the device and server as large amount of data might take a very long time to download, which can be discouraging for users. Another disadvantage of Bluetooth is that it can only connect two devices which are 100 meters apart at maximum. This might limit or rather force users to be at the certain location to get access to the service provided.

The final issue raising concerns is Bluetooth security. Both IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth enable low cost tracking. Basically, wireless networks give away their users’ locations and this could be improperly used by attack- ers. When it comes to Wi-Fi, it is usually run by users on their laptops or PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistants). These are not active around the clock. On the contrary, the low-power Bluetooth is often switched on in mobile phones permanently. Of course, not every human being is interesting to be tracked, but people like executive officers in large companies could be tracked. Based on their location, the tracker can know whether there are any sudden board meetings. Then, based on the circumstances they can know whether the meeting is due to good or bad news, and then

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can react respectively in the stock market, being able to influence the company’s stock price [35]. However, Bluetooth is actually a lot more secure than other wireless technologies, as it uses both encryption and PIN authentication before allowing actual connection between devices, whereas many consumers are not aware of these features.

Final motivation for choosing Bluetooth as the solution tool: All the above technologies can be used as a means of communication. Some may have more disadvantages than advantages in relation to our problem. So far the Internet and Bluetooth seem to be the best options for the implementation of my solution. The main advantage of Bluetooth towards our problem is that it is available in most of the mobile phones. It is important to our solution as it will provide access to a wider range of audience. Another advantage is that Bluetooth access does not require or involve any financial costs unlike the Internet, which is one of the key aims of the solution I am trying to achieve.

If we consider a wider range of mobile phone users which includes smart phones and ordinary mobile phones (non smart phones), Bluetooth seems to be a better option as a mean of communication to my solution. It is supported by majority of mobile phones and it is free to access. On the other hand, if we consider smart phones only, then the Internet seems to provide better means of communication for our solution. However, then most of the ordinary phones would be left out due to lack of the Internet

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wireless access and high Internet connection cost. Therefore, I choose to use Bluetooth as a mean of communication in my solution, but I will also explore a possibility of integrating the solution with both Bluetooth and the Internet at the same time.

4 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFI- CATIONS

4.1 System vision

The previous sections discussed in length about tourism, tourist information services, mobile phone market, mobile information services and mobile technologies. The aim was to expose the problem area and explore a niche which might lead to an innovative solution. This section pin points the problem and provides a vision of the solution to the problem and discusses the research methods used in this research work.

4.1.1 Business case

The background research in tourism and mobile technology provided in the previous sections shows a possible business opportunity, as both sectors show a strong sign of growth. The mobile phone market keeps increas- ing in parallel with the mobile device technology. This gives motivation

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and makes it possible to provide different services through mobile devices.

Tourists need as much information about their destination as they can get, for example, most of tourists who come to Lappeenranta region come for a short visit from one day, overnight to two days. These kinds of tourists are more likely to engage themselves in shopping activities, which might require information about different shopping locations, products, range of prices and other tourist information. These kinds of tourists are also more likely to have their mobile phones with them during the visit. The actual information content may vary from one destination to another, but the key things regarding the information channel do not change aspects like convenience, cost and status. The information channel must be convenient to access, there should be very low cost, preferably no cost at all, in accessing the information and, finally, the information must be updated or easy to update on a regular basis. The mobile phone seems to fit these key criteria except for the cost which is for what this thesis work indents to find a solution.

4.1.2 Problem statement

There is a business opportunity for providing mobile information services for tourist but most tourists are reluctant to use their mobile phones abroad as most of these services require the use of internet which means that the tourist will have to pay extra charges (roaming) to his service provider in order to use Internet which will allow him to access the information he

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needs.

4.1.3 Vision

The vision of this project is to provide a mobile information service to tourists without the use of any service from tourist mobile service provider.

The currently available technologies have been explored from the mobile point of view in previous sections, which gives the possibility of creating a system which provides information to the tourists without the use of the Internet directly by the tourist. The main idea is to

• design and implement a prototype product

• use the result from the prototype product to determine – whether it is practical to have such a system,

– what impact does the system have on the tourists and the current tourist information services,

– what are the possibilities to improve the product and to what extent can the product be improved,

• analyze any possible business opportunity which can be provided through the implementation of the system.

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4.2 Overall description

The aim of this project is to develop a mobile information service for tourists using technologies which will not add cost for the tourists who access the service, and provide a window of opportunity for individuals or organizations who run the service to generate income through the service.

4.2.1 Product perspective

The final product should allow people with valuable information related to Lappeenranta such as shop owners, tourist site managers, event organizers and other sectors to put their information to the main system, which will then follow the information to the interested tourists. Throughout the document this group of people who offer information are being referred to as an information provider and the main system is being referred to as a server. When the information is uploaded to the server, it should then allow the transfer of this information to the mobile phone at a request.

Throughout the document mobile users are being referred to as a tourist and the mobile phone is being referred to as a client.

System interfaces

The system should be divided in two parts: the client and the server.

The server will be used by the information providers to store and manage all the information. The server will be divided into two parts,

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the first part which involves information providers managing their information and the second part which connects the server with the client and transfers information from the server to the client. The second part of the system referred to as a client will be running on the mobile phone and will be used by a tourist to access information from the server.

User interfaces

The server side of the system will use a web browser to access and manage information in the application. The client side will use graph- ical user interface to view information from the server on their mobile phone.

Hardware interfaces

Hardware interfaces which are expected to be used in the project include computers, Bluetooth transmitters, and mobile devices such as mobile phones or tablets.

Communication interfaces

Communication between information providers with the system will be done with HTTP through a web browser and the communication between the client and the server will be done with a network socket.

Memory constraints

All application sub-systems will be designed to consume as little memory as possible. Since there is no special activity on the server side

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the system will not consume any extra memory. Unlike the server side, the client side of the system which is running from the mobile device must be checked for memory consumption, as mobile applications must consume as little memory as possible. After the study the memory consumed by the client application was estimated between 16MB and 21MB.

4.2.2 Product subsystem functions

Server

The server is divided in two parts, first part of the server will be used by information providers to manage their information. The basic function on the first part of the server includes creating an account, adding, updating and deleting information. Second part of the server will be used to connect to the client and collect information from the application and send it to the client. The basic functions of the second part will be to accept connection from the client and respond to their request.

Throughout the document, the first part of the server will be referred to as the HTTP server and the second part of the server will be called the socket server or service point.

Client

From the client side of the application the user will be allowed to

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send requests to the server and view information and receive updates when information changes. The basic function of the client will be connecting to the server, sending requests and receiving responses.

4.2.3 User groups and their characteristics

Information providers

This is the group of people who provide services or organize activities worth to tourist. Each business will have their own account and their main function is to update information about their business or product on the server.

Tourist

This is the group of people who are visiting the city and wish to have as much latest information about the city and current activities as possible.

Client/Server

Some activities in the system are not done directly by the users mentioned above, in such cases the name client or server replaces the term

’user’, depending on which part of the system the activity is taking place.

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4.2.4 Operating environment

The server will be running in Linux environment, the web pages will be created using PHP language and run under Apache server and MySQL is used as a database on the server side. The second part of the server will be created using Python and it requires Bluetooth transmitters for creating a socket connection. Mobile application will be an independent application which will be installed in a mobile phone, in this case the client will be developed in Android 2.2 operating system.

4.2.5 Design and implementation constraints

As mentioned earlier this project was carried out without any external funds hence all the technologies used in this project are going to be open source. With the reasons explained in previous sections, Bluetooth is cho- sen as the best communication option. This is where the service point comes into action as a bridge between the mobile application and the server. This limits the connection between the service point and the mobile application to Bluetooth and the connection to TCP/IP.

Since Bluetooth will be used as a means of communication, the application must be designed so that the service point does not keep a continuous connection to mobile application because Bluetooth can only keep seven continuous connection at the same time, while the expectation of the product is that one service point should serve more than seven people at the

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same time.

The main database will be MySQL in the server and in the service point it will be SQlite to increase speed and efficiency of the system.

The files, which will be exchanged between the applications, will be xml files because they are light and can be transmitted fast. The data type which will be transmitted will be a binary type.

4.2.6 Assumption and dependencies

Part of the system design is based on the assumption of the capabilities of the technology expected to be used. Having said that, some part of the design which might seem to be working theoretically may not work when it comes to implementation or may not be compatible with other subsystem designs. If this happens the design as well as implementation will be highly affected. So the main assumption for this project is that the implementation does not change the design but rather extends to the current design when necessary.

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4.3 Functional and nonfunctional requirements

4.3.1 Summary of functional requirements

Table 1 collects all the functional requirements for all the use cases presented in sections 4.4.1-4.4.7.

4.3.2 Performance requirements

The mobile application part uses Bluetooth to connect to the server and Bluetooth supports a maximum of seven simultaneous connections at a time. Also the server can connect multiple service points to one HTTP server which will increase the maximum number of simultaneous connection. To enhance the performance of the application it is recommended that the mobile applications should be designed in such a way that it should not maintain a constant connection with the server. A mobile application should be connected to the server only when sending requests or receiving responses.

4.3.3 Security requirements

To protect the application from viruses and other security threats, the server should not allow any connection from an unauthorized mobile application. In other words, the server should accept Bluetooth connection from authorized client applications only.

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Table 1: Classification of functional requirements.

ID Requirement

FR-1 Information provider creates account.

FR-2 Information provider logs in to the system.

FR-3 Information provider logs out of the system.

FR-4 Information provider adds new information.

FR-5 Information provider updates existing information.

FR-6 Information provider deletes information.

FR-7 Information provider browses own information.

FR-8 Server manages data synchronization.

FR-9 Client requests connection to server.

FR-10 Client sends request message to server.

FR-11 Client receives response message from server.

FR-12 Client closes connection.

FR-13 Server establishes connection with client.

FR-14 Server receives request message from client.

FR-15 Server sends response message to the client.

FR-16 Server terminates connection with client.

FR-17 Client creates request message.

FR-18 Client processes response message.

FR-19 Client views data.

FR-20 Server processes request message.

FR-21 Server creates response message.

4.3.4 Software quality attributes

The server should be designed to operate 24/7. The service for the mobile application will only be accessible from the server.

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4.4 Use case view

The use case view of this system describes the design of the functional requirements which were described earlier in the document. Even though each use case represents a separate functional requirement, for clarity and simplicity all the use cases which are closely related have been grouped together.

4.4.1 Server authentication

Authentication use case group consists of three use cases: Create account, Login and Log out. Create account allows the user to create an account in order to have authentication permission to the system. Log in allows the user to create a session and log in to the system in order to manage their data. Log out use case allows the user to close their session and get out of the area in the system which requires authentication. Figure 1 shows the authentication use case. The three use cases are closely related to one another in such a way that Log out use case requires the user to be lodged in to the system and log in use case requires the user to create an account.

The system component which uses this use case group is the HTTP server and the user is the information provider.

Table 2 gives a detailed specification of the Server authentication use cases.

All the respective functional requirements are defined in Table 1.

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Figure 1: Server authentication use case.

4.4.2 Server data management

The main purpose of Data management use case group is to describe how information providers manage their data. The group includes five main use cases: Insert data, Update data, Delete data, View data and Manage synchronization. All the use cases in this group require Authentication use case, the authentication use case mentioned here represents the Authenti- cation use case group, the name inside Authentication use case is written in a bold font to distinguish it from other normal use cases which do not represent a group of use cases. Insert data, Update data and Delete data all include Manage synchronization use case. Unlike the rest of the use

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Table 2: Server authentication feature description.

Create account

Description Allows the user to create an account to the system by supplying information about their business and activities to the server.

User Information provider

Pre-req. The device with Internet browser and internet connection.

Functional req. FR-1

Login

Description Allows the information provider to log in to the system and update his account information, business/product

information or any other activities which can be performed only when the user is logged in.

Pre-req. The device with Internet browser and internet connection.

Logout

Description Allows the user to log out from the system. The system destroys the user session and closes access to all the features which require user authentication.

Pre-req. The device with an Internet browser and internet connection.

cases, in this group the Manage synchronization use case deals with the client server synchronization management which means it manages and controls what kind of data the server should send to the client with respect to the client status in order for the client to have all current data the

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same as what the server has. This is achieved by generating and updating specific data for synchronization purpose every time the user adds or changes information. Synchronization activities are triggered by the user but handled by the server. Figure 2 shows the data management use case.

Figure 2: Server data management use case.

Table 3 gives a detailed specification of the Server data management use cases. All the respective functional requirements are defined in Table 1.

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Table 3: Server data management feature description.

Information providers manage their information

Description Allows the information provider to add, update or delete the information about their business.

Pre-req. The user must have an account and must be logged in to the system to access this feature.

Functional req. FR-4, FR-5, FR-6

Viewing information

Description Allows the user to view his own information and other business profiles.

Pre-req. The user must be logged in to the system.

Server manages data synchronization with the client

Description Allows the server to manage data synchronization with the client.

User Server

Pre-req. The information provider updates information.

4.4.3 Server communication

The main purpose of Server communication use case group is to describe how the socket server communicates with the client. The main focus is the socket server’s ability to accept incoming connections and send or receive data. This group consists of four use cases: Establish connection,

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Receive request messages, Send response messages and Terminate connection. Manage message use case is written in bold because it represent a group of use cases which will be described shortly. Receive request message requires a connection to be established and includes Manage message use case. Send response requires manage message and Terminate connection requires that the response has already being sent. Figure 3 shows the socket server communication use case.

Figure 3: Server communication use case.

Table 4 gives a detailed specification of the Server communication use cases. All the respective functional requirements are defined in Table 1.

There is a possibility to connect multiple service points (socket server) to one http server. In this case all service points will be connected to the web service which connects to the database and serves the service points

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accordingly. For example if five service points are connected to the HTTP server and each service point is connected to one Bluetooth adapter which takes up to seven simultaneous connections, this will give a system ability to serve a total of thirty five clients simultaneously. The efficiency of the system will depend on the duration a service point takes to serve one client.

More about system efficiency and limitations will be discussed later on.

Table 4: Server communication feature description.

Server communicates with the client

Description Allows the server to accept a connection request from the client, receive request messages and send responses back to the client.

User Client

Pre-req. The server is not full, in case of a single service point there should maximum 7 clients and in case of multiple service points the number of clients should not exceed the total capacity of all service points. The client and server must be within Bluetooth acceptable communication range.

Functional req. FR-13, FR-14, FR-15, FR-16

4.4.4 Server message management

The purpose of Manage message use case group is to describe how the server handles messages going to and coming from the client. This group includes two use cases: Process request message and Create response message. Create response message requires that a request sent from the client is being already processed. Figure 4 shows the Manage message use case.

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Figure 4: Server manage message use case.

Table 5 gives a detailed specification of the Server message management use cases. All the respective functional requirements are defined in Table 1.

Table 5: Server message management feature description.

Server manages messages

Description Allows the server to process request messages and create response messages.

User Server

Pre-req. Server receives request messages from the client.

Functional req. FR-20, FR-21

A design and a prototype for a mobile information service for tourists

Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

1 INTRODUCTION

2 TOURISM INFORMATION SERVICES

3 MOBILE PHONE MARKET AND SERVICES

4 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFI- CATIONS