Journal of Information Engineering and Applications www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5782 (print) ISSN 2225-0506 (online) Vol.3, No.10, 2013 55 SMS-Based Event Notification System Oludare Olaleye 1* , Ayodele Olaniyan 2 , Olalekan Eboda 1 , Adeleke Awolere 2 1. Department of Computer science, Allover Central Polytechnic, PO box 1518, Sango Ota, Nigeria 2. Department of Computer Engineering, Gateway Polytechnic Saapade, PO box 2003, Isara-Remo, Nigeria * E-mail of the corresponding author: oludarejohnson@yahoo.com Abstract Existing mass Short Message Service (SMS) mailing systems are designed to work with a specific SMS gateway hence resulting in user lock-in to a SMS vendor. Also, some SMS gateways support scheduling of SMS message to be sent at a later time and date, others do not support it. Moreover, those gateways that support scheduling don't mostly allow users to cancel scheduled SMS message. This study has successfully designed and developed an enterprise class mass SMS mailing system that support multiple users as well as multiple SMS gateways, providing a unified interface and common set of features across many SMS gateways which prevent vendor lock-in as users can choose among multiple SMS vendor gateways. Another major feature provided by the new system is the introduction of SMS message scheduling. This feature makes SMS message scheduling possible across all SMS gateways including those that do not internally support scheduling. Moreover, users can also cancel any scheduled message if the need be. Keywords: Mailing Systems, Lock-In, Scheduling, SMS, SMS Gateway, SMS Vendor. 1. Introduction The short message service (SMS) technology is one of the most stable and most widely used mobile communication methods after phone calls. Most students of tertiary institutions carry mobile phones which is capable of receiving short messages as a means of event notification. In principle, text message can be used either as a one-way communication to provide the user information such as reminder, alert, etc, or as a two-way communication that enables the user to send and receive information (such as question and answer). Event notification (through SMS) is a well-known way of notifying users about an event scheduled to take effect within a particular period in an institution. Moreover, Mobile text messages are an excellent aid for communication when there is a need to submit information also at long distances or without well working communication system or infrastructure, or when the people cannot physically meet the staff that is concerned, provided that the cost of the text message is very low and it is available to practically everyone. It has been found useful to employ the text messaging in many routine-like academic environment applications. Typical examples of these application areas are e.g. different kinds of reminders and instructions, reporting of laboratory test results or home assessment for students, remote controlling and monitoring etc. By using this kind of communication, it is possible to save resources by e.g. avoiding unnecessary visits and phone calls; the mobile phone messaging in institutions has been a subject of active research work for about a decade. In this paper, the development of a schedule-able SMS-based system which permits multiple vendor gateways for event notification is presented. 2. Literature review SMS is an acronym used in the world of communications technology. It stands for Short Messaging Service which is a protocol used in communications that gives way to the exchange of short text messages from one mobile telephone device to another. SMS or text messaging largely dominates today's means of communication since seventy-four percent of all cell phone users send and receive text messages nowadays. The technology behind SMS has paved the way for the rapid growth of improvement of text messaging that has now allowed users to broadcast SMS text messages not just from mobile phones but also from computers with the use of SMS software and through public SMS gateways. The link between text messaging to SMS technology now co notates the terminology of "SMS" as the act of texting or sending text messages even with the use of a different communications protocol. 2.1 The Capabilities of SMS The use of SMS as an effective means of personal communication has expanded the market of text messaging. Businesses, government offices, and even television shows now use this service since SMS is the quickest way to get a message through from one entity to another 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. SMS has unique advantages that other non-voice services do not have. It provides a very convenient method of exchanging small bits of information between mobile users. The reasons for the enormous