Integrated Port eManagement and Monitoring
System Using Radio Frequency Identification
Melbern Rose C. Maltezo*, Renato Butch R. Bituonan, Michael L. Narisma, Ira C. Valenzuela
Technological University of the Philippines
Manila, Philippines
melbernrose_maltezo@tup.edu.ph
Abstract— Transportation is an essential aspect to a
developing country bringing service to all the people even in the
countryside. The purpose of this study is to automate port
services in monitoring and supervising the increasing number of
passengers, improve port services like tracing passenger, ship
crew members and generating real time voyage reports. The
target output of the study is to produce system features of having
integrated modules for passenger ticketing, check-in/boarding,
baggage billing, and tracking appropriate passenger
accommodation. RFID was used in identifying and authenticating
passenger tags supported by Electronic Product Code (EPC)
Class 1 Gen2 standard. The hardware components were
interfaced using computer program modules for monitoring
passenger accommodation. The passenger ticketing was
developed as a web-based application using PHP, MySQL,
CodeIgniter with online booking. System testing was successfully
conducted to validate the performance of the sensor and the UHF
reader used for better analysis and interpretation of the desired
features as designed. The report print-out generated in a form of
manifest or list of passengers correspond to the embarkation and
disembarkation process. The result of the experiment in a ship
environment setup showed localization of using RFID technology
suited to improve services at the port area.
Keywords—RFID tags, e-ticketing, sensing technologies
I. INTRODUCTION
The Philippine transportation system is still under
developed because of the mountainous and scattered islands.
In recent years, the government has put its best effort to
improve land-based, train system, air-based and water-based
transportations. Currently, there are twelve (12) airports that
cater both international and domestic flights, train systems and
ferry services.
Water-based transportation like ferry services to regions
and provinces are very important to cruising passengers.
However, overloading and overcrowding amongst inland
passenger vessels have been traced as some of the main causes
behind structural failures that led to passenger ferry accidents
[1][2]. The poor passenger management caused by the manual
ticketing and monitoring should be improved. Aside from
that, long queuing and lead time causes the delay in the travel
time of the passengers as well as on the service provider.
On the other hand, RFIDs has been used in some types of
transportation. Specifically, the train system in the Philippines
uses an RFID for the fare payment in the train. The utilization
of the RFID having tags and readers makes the tracking
978-1-5386-7767-4/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
system a better option. The price cost of RFID is much lower
and several applications had proved already the durability and
portability of the technology. It delivers remarkable benefits
for companies such as those in retail and apparel, healthcare,
aerospace and defenses, manufacturing, healthcare, and other
sectors [3]. This supports the potential and continued usage of
RFID-based business application. The use of RFID to track
lost items is one of its basic applications for business.Today,
the integration of converging technologies such as the use of
RFID and databases systems are more adopted.
The main core of this study focused on the authentication
and tracking of read tags associated with the online ticketing
system. There are features to keep track passenger e-ticket,
billing statement, accommodation allocation, and generates
embarkation reports to sailing vessel or ferry. Moreover, a
computerized system for monitoring passenger embarkation
was developed and this was addressed using radio frequency
identification (RFID) technology and jointly with the
development of a database system for online ticketing
designed to the ease long queues and wait time in buying
tickets.
II. LITERATURE REVIEWS
RFID has been largely used due to its main advantage of
unique identification of item or tag. RFIDs are typically used
in inventory control for various commercial sectors, at various
stages of a supply chain, inventory management in a
warehouse, access control for buildings, tracking passenger
luggage in the airline industry, and animal tracking. In effect,
tracking of items, pricing, total billing could be done
spontaneously and the total bill would be deducted from
customer's credit card account.
In the study conducted by [4], RFID together with the EPC
system has been utilized for the inland shipping. The
implementation of information service was designed to
address the problem of information exchange for which in this
study had the same key elements of electronic product system
utilized.
Kotak, et al. used RFID for bus ticketing. A commuter taps
the card tag at the RFID reader located at the entrance of the
bus. Data on the tag ID used and its balance are sent to the
server and the source stop fare is deducted from the
commuter’s account. At the destination stop, the commuter
scans the card at the RFID reader’s designated exit. With this
finding, an RFID tag ticket is reusable for the next trip of the
commuter [5].
Another study proposed the used of RFID in waste
management system [6]. The research has a title of,
“Development of a Waste Management System using RFID
and GPS Technology”. The study aims to improve the
tracking and monitoring of the garbage collection in a locality.
Communication technologies such as radio frequency
identification (RFID) and global positioning system (GPS)
with a camera are integrated into the waste monitoring system.
The system was developed using MS Visual Basic.NET and
SQL Server. The software was proven to be effective
compared to the existing method of garbage collection.
A holistic view of readiness for organization to adopt
RFID applications has been presented in [7]. A framework of
technological, organizational, and environmental facets to
access with corresponding metrics developed to analyze the
readiness of a specific company in planning to adopt RFID
technology was discussed. Since the costs of RFID
implementation drop sharply in recent years, companies began
to tag pallets and cases, and likely to extend to items level.
The researchers then concluded that in context all were
associated with each other, while expected value, managers’
commitment, and network infrastructure are the key factors
that influence the intent of adopting RFID in the industry. To
summarize, based on the successful utilization of RFID
application in different areas as presented above, it seems
RFID application is never-ending. The monitoring of
transaction can be done not only by the administrator domain
but at the same time can be checked by managers via online.
III. METHODOLOGY
A. Hardware Development
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the system. RFID
reader, digital weighing scale, motion sensor and buzzer were
connected to the microcontroller unit. The data that the reader
read will be processed and will be sent to the server via router.
An embdeded RFID middleware filters and pass only
applicable information to the progammed modules.
This has three (3) operations: initialization, fetching codes
and accommodation monitoring. Both the host computer and
the buzzer are in the standby mode while the microcontroller
performs the initialization of the system. Then the control
codes are fetched from the RF hardware. During the
accommodation monitoring, registered tags are being detected
and maps the passenger accommodation.
Figure 1. Block Diagram of the System
In this study, a UHF Integrated MidRange Reader and
Writer (STU-1861-8dbi) was used as RFID reader. It is a high
performance UHF Reader designed upon fully self-intellectual
property. It supports fast tag read/write operations with high
identification rate. It is an efficient digital signal processing
algorithm based on proprietary. The reader operates for 9 to
12V with frequency range of 902-928 MHz (adjustable). UHF
Card tags contain a unique serial number. The reader captures
data on tag and transmits it to the server through the router.
The tag is embedded in smart labels. The specification
matched the reader specs capable of 2048bits/96bits memory
size, with ISO18000-6B/EPC Class1 Gen2 protocol standard.
An Arduino microcontroller has been utilized in this study
for the interface. It has 14 digital input/output pins, 6 analog
inputs, with 16 MHz crystal oscillator, low powered which
fits to the requirement for interfacing. Also, a digital weighing
scale is added to measure the baggage brought by the
passenger and matched it to the corresponding allowable
baggage allowance. A motion sensor was incorporated in the
system that outputs high when there is a detected motion.
B. Proposed Algorithm
Figure 2 illustrates the system flow. The issued tags are
validated and a report is generated in a form of manifest or list
of passengers. The design of module includes subsystem for
the passenger ticketing system, and the embarkation system
(check-in and boarding). As soon as the tag is within the
parameter read range, the registered passenger account will be
read onboard upon entry in assigned bunk accommodation.
Figure 2. System Flowchart
C. System Design
The ticketing program module consists of two accounts,
one for the system administrator and the other is for the
passenger account. The two accounts are password protected
for data security. The system administrator account has all the
rights and privileges in managing user accounts as well as
system logs. A passenger with registered account can update
its own account and can browse features of the system.
The e-ticket program has menu and sub-menu for easy
selection as illustrated in Figure 3 showing the Hierarchy
Input-Process-Output (HIPO) structure. The HIPO technique
is a tool for planning and/or documenting a computer
program.
 Figure 3. The Developed Web-based Ticketing System
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The current process of issuing paper-based tickets is
through ticket booth and there are a few big shipping
companies that offer online booking. The develop sub-systems
for this study consist of Ticketing Management, Terminal
Operation Management and Embarkation Monitoring System.
These programs were integrated to deliver consistency,
accurateness and be able to generate just in time reports.
The ticketing management handles the passenger booking
and scheduling. It also monitors the check-in and boarding of
the passenger. The baggage billing, on the other hand,
functions by registering the baggage weight and matched this
to the allowable baggage allowance of the particular
passenger. And the embarkation monitoring helps in
accommodation allocation and monitoring.
Figure 4 shows the front-end view of the e-ticketing
system. This is the interface developed for users and
commuters. In this part, the user can input the relevant details
such as the origin, destination, departure date, number of
people and others.
Figure 4. e-Ticketing Selection Menu
The dashboard of the system is shown in Figure 5. It is a
web-based system, respectively with dummy name under
Lakbay Shipping Lines.
Figure 5. Dashboard of the System.
The host computer generates related information for vessel
manager to access, check, analyze, and generate reports. The
necessity to make back-up regularly can be done online since
information can be routed.
The use of RFID reader and tags eliminate the use of
conventional way of manually registering names of
passengers. If an unauthorized passenger attempts to go to a
different type of accommodation the console displays
“unauthorized entry”. At anytime, a query to verify boarded
passengers can be executed. This scenario provides easier
return of information and storage of document for later use.
Advanced booking is readily accessible via the company’s
website. With the use of RFID tags, passengers are issued
smart card upon check-in. The captured photo of the passenger
is stored in the repository database for future reference. A
passenger account can be activated the next time a passenger
set schedule of booking.
Common set-up in the domestic terminal port area is the
use of X-ray machine for passenger baggage checking and
during check-in passengers are required to present
Identification (ID) Card or a government issued ID to
validated ticket ownership is still considered in the possible
implementation of this study. In the process of check-in and
boarding, every passenger is issued smart tags bearing
assigned accommodation which previously creates long queue
lines of waiting as it is done manual process. And in the next
step passenger needs to present baggage for inspection. Issued
tags to individual passenger has corresponding records of in
travel information such as voyage information, boarding pass,
and port arrival of the passenger are stored in the central
database. The tags are recognized and accounted upon
debarkation.
As passengers embark on to the vessel, RFID kiosk located
at the vessels bunk entry reads theissued RFID tag. By default,
the console displays the initialization of the system as
presented in Figure 5. The issued tag can be in a form of coded
card or color coded wristband. The passenger tags are verified
accordingly depending on the availed accommodation. In case
a passenger attempts to enter incorrect accommodation, the
console displays “Unauthorized Entry ”. Figure 7 shows the
check- in interface for the user.
 Figure 6. Kiosk Mode as Reader
Figure 7. Check-in Passenger Account
The reader sends the electromagnetic waves to the tag. The
tags draw this power from this wave and return the basic travel
information andrecords. These are stored in the server. The
readers again demodulate this wave and convert it as a digital
data. Figure 8 shows the mapping directory of passengers.
Figure 8. Passenger Directory Mapping
Finally, the manifest or lists of passengers in a form of
report can be generated either on port area office or via the
local area network or inside the vessel prior to sailing. The
developed software can be remotely access by the host
computer located in theofficethroughlocal area
networkoronline. List of boarded passengers is printed for
submission to the inspecting coastguard for trip approval.
Figure 9 illustrates sample of generated report. A
disembarkation report is also available for every completed
trip.
Figure 9. Lists of Passenger Report
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the
performance in terms of validation of RFID monitoring and
read range capability. There are two factors considered in the
experiment the distance from tag to the reader and location of
the tag.
Figure 10 shows the summary of tag verification to
determine successful and unsuccessful tag readings presented
in terms of percentage referenced at a distance one meter,
three meters and five meters as the first level of testing.
Second level of testing is the verification of passenger
accommodation as tag are registered and saved in the
database. Final step is setting to disembark, all tag readings
are saved as the reading of tags represents the passengers exit
from the ferry and be able to print disembarkation report. In
summary, all the ten cards read range were successfully
recorded which indicated 100% successful reading upon exit.
Figure 10. Verification test of the RFID tags
As per specification, the UHF reader is capable of reading
tag up to 5-meter maximum read range. The number of
successful and unsuccessful readings was noted for
documentation. For unsuccessful readings, three attempts were
repeated before declaring unsuccessful reading. The
procedures were repeated as the tag was moved away from the
reader to find the point at where the reader could no longer
decode. The total number of treatment combinations is 10*9*3
=270 runs. Aside from the distance the program control on
accommodation settings serves as the next factor to consider.
Overall, the success readings of the ten selected tags were
observed to be at 100% out of the 270 runs conducted and
disregard the cards with unsuccessful reading in the initial
attempts. A metric gripper tape was used in setting the
distance range from the reader. Ten tags were used to replicate
each distance level.
 The summary of testing is illustrated in Table 1. As successfully implemented. The developed system eliminated
shown in the table, the UHF reader set to test cabin the need for passengers and ferry operators to manually
accommodation and was successfully authenticated as shown perform ticket bookings, reducing long queues during check-
in row no. 1. Validated tag in row no.5 for tourist in, baggage payment, proper management of embarkation and
accommodation also corresponds and for the economy disembarkation. The system eradicated the possible human
accommodation in row no. 9 was then presented. The rest of error specifically in allocating passenger accommodation. The
the tags were invalidated and as showed display of study successfully tested the online ticketing system integrated
“unauthorized entry”. These results indicate a perfect with the RFID technology application system having 100%
authentication and accurate results. read range authentication, tracking and mapping issued RFID
tags. Therefore, the process made automatic and generate
TABLE 1. RESULTS OF CARD 1 TAG PERFORMANCE TEST precise reports evidently show improvement in port area.
Appro
Bunk
Passenger x. Console
Accommoda Tag ID
Trial Tag
Placement
tion Set Setting
Read
Distan
Display
Status
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