BaggageReconciliationSystems(BRS)

Background:
According to the rules of most air transportation authorities, such as
the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union's
Joint Aviation Authorities, in the event that a passenger flying
internationallywithcheckedinbaggagefailstoarriveatthedeparture
gatebeforetheflightisclosed,thatperson'sbaggagemustberetrieved
fromtheaircraftholdbeforetheflightispermittedtotakeoff.Making
surepassengersboardflightsontowhichtheyhavecheckedbaggageis
called "passengerbaggage reconciliation" and is accomplished
automatically through various commercially available systems. The
security presumption of passengerbaggage reconciliation is that the
majorityofbomberswillnotwanttokillthemselves,andwillnotboard
anaircraftiftheyhavecausedabombtobeplacedinitshold.
Furthermore any bag that is destined to be loaded onto a particular
flightmustfirstbescannedandcheckedbeforeloadingtoensurethat
thereisrecordofthatbagbeingcheckedinatthecheckincounter.If
no record is found the bag will be prevented from being put into a
loading container before then going through a secondary (manual)
procedure of checking/reconciliation. If that process also fails the bag
willnotbeloadedontotheplane.Everybagloadedmustbeshownto
beassociatedtoapassenger.Unaccompaniedbaggageinthepasthas
led to the downing of two flights, when a bomb inside the bags
exploded:

1985:AirIndiaFlight182
1988:PanAmFlight103

Note:TheinformationaboveisfromWikipedia.

SystemDescription:
ABaggageReconciliationSystem(BRS)isusedatairportstoensurethat
the passenger count and bag count for any given flight matches. As
passengers CheckIn, the airline Departure Control System (DCS)
generates messages called Baggage Source Messages (BSMs), these
messages are subsequently used by the airports Baggage Handling
System(BHS)andtheBRS.
The BHS uses the BSMs for sorting bags to the different collection
points(orMakeUpUnits)fordepartingflights.
The BRS uses BSMs for reconciling departing passengers and the bags
thatarebeingloadedontotheirdepartingflight.
AtypicalBRSworksasfollows:ApassengerchecksInforaflight,at
the checkin counter where the airline staff or their handling agent
printsaboardingpassandabagtag.Thebagtagisattachedtothebag
andtheboardingpassisgiventothepassenger.Atthesametimethat
thebagtagandboardingpassareprinted,aBSMisgeneratedforthat
passenger.
The generation of the data for the printing of Bag Tags & Boarding
Passes, including the production of BSMs is all performed by the
DepartureControlSystem(DCS)
[Note: A BSM will contain information such as passenger name, flight
number identifier, destination, transfer information, onward
information, bag tag detail, class etc. Although a unique BSM is
generated for each passenger, several items of baggage may be
associatedtoasingleBSM].

OnceaBSMhasbeengeneratedbyaDCS,itisthensenttoacentral
messagingsystemsuchasSITABagMessageorARINCBagLinkwhichin
turn will forward it onto the BRS and BHS at the airport where the
baggagewasoriginallycheckedin.Centralizedmessagingsystemssuch
SITAs and ARINCs avoid having to implement multiple interfaces
locallyintotheBRSandBHS.Imagine,ifeveryairlineDCSneededtobe
directly interfaced to an airports BRS and BHS, it would create a
nightmare especially in high capacity airports were a large number of
airlinesoperate.
A centralized messaging system (e.g. SITAs BagMessage or Arincs
BagLink)isbasicallyastoreandforwardservicewhichoffersahigh
degree of resilience and reliability. In the event of a network
connection failure, the centralized message system will buffer all
receivedBSMssothattheycanberesentoncethenetworkconnection
isrestored.
TheentireprocessofsendingaBSMfromaDCStotheBRSandBHSvia
a centralized messaging service under normal operating conditions
takes milliseconds to perform. On receipt of BSMs, the BRS will store
each in its database so that they can be subsequently retrieved and
used for processing as part of the BRS functionalities as and when
required.
Typically, the BRS is composed of the following elements; Application
Servers, Web Servers, Operator Workstations, Printers, Wireless
Scanners,NetworkAccessPoints,andaBRSNetwork.
Application Servers The Application Server is where the actual
application software resides, normally for resiliency a primary and
backupserverareused.Additionally,databasesareusedforstoringthe

systemdatasuchasdatareceivedfromothersystemsthroughsystems
interfaces and data generated by the system itself. A common
database used for this type of system is an Oracle Database. In some
cases these databases can run on separate servers other than the
applicationservers.Othersoftwarerunningontheapplicationservers
includesbutisnotlimitedto;
Operating System software this would be an OS such as
MicrosoftWindowsServer2003
DatabaseReplicationsoftwarefordatareplicationbetweenthe
primary&secondaryservers
Data Backup software for backing up the data within the
database
Oracledatabasesoftware
RemoteMonitoring&Managementsoftwareprovidingremote
accesstothesystem(e.g.NetSupportManager)
Web Servers The application software running in the application
servers is web based so is accessed through a browser. The Web
Servers provide access to the application from a system Operator
WorkstationusingawebbrowsersuchasWindowsExplorer.
OperatorWorkstationTheOperatorWorkstationsuseawebbrowser
toaccessthesystemapplicationsthatresideonthewebserver.These
workstationsareusedbyoperatorstorunthedailyoperationssuchas
monitor active flights bag counts, monitor bag alerts, print container
labelsandallothersystemsfunctions.
PrintersPrintersareusedtoprintContainerorULDslabels.

WirelessScannersThesescannersareusedforscanningbagtagsin
thebaggagehall(attheULDmakeupunitsandtransferbelts)andalso
attheplaneitself.OncethebagtagisscannedintothesystemtheBRS
searches for the barcode number or license plate within the system
database.Thebagtagnumberforthebagbeingscannedshouldhave
already been received by the BRS as part of the BSM sent from the
airlineDCSduringcheckin.Oncethebagtagnumberhasbeenscanned
andmatchedwithaBSMinthedatabasethescannerdisplaywillread
Loaded,atthispointthebagisinsertedintothecontainer.Ifthebag
tag number is not found in the BRS database an Alert is system
triggered indicating a problem. Once a bag has been successfully
scannedandreconciledtotheBSMinformationstoredinthedatabase,
aBaggageProcessMessage(BPM)isgeneratedbytheBRS.
[BPMs are also sent to the centralized message system such as
BagMessage or BagLink, where they can then be forwarded to the
airlinesandinsomecasestheBHSoftheairportwherethepassenger
checkedin].
Airlinescansubsequentlyusethesemessagestotrackbags.
NetworkAccessPointsNetworkAccesspointareusebythewireless
scannerstoaccesstheBRSnetwork.Onesthescannersareconnected
totheBRSnetworkthentheycantransmitandreceiveinformationto
andfromtheBRSdatabase.
Network The BRS network is used to interconnect all BRS system
componentsasdescribedabove.Typically,theBRSnetworkisavirtual
network IP subnet within the airport network and as such the BRS
system can the share information with other IT systems using IP
routing. These are what are commonly referred to as Systems

Interfaces. Network security is important so an Access Control List

SystemInterfaces:
CentralBagMessagingService(e.g.SITA/ARINC):
BSMs are received from the Central Bag Messaging Service for
Baggage Reconciliation purposes. These messages are generated
by the airlines Departure Control Systems (DCSs) as part of the
passenger CheckIn process, then sent to the central messaging
service to be forwarded to the BRS at the airport where the
baggage was initially checkedin. BSMs follow the IATA
recommended format for this type of message and include
importantinformationonthepassenger,theflightdetails,bagtag
details,destination,onwardflight,transitdetailsetc.
BPMs are generated by the BRS when a bag is scanned, and
loaded (reconciled) into the baggage container (ULD). These
messagesfollowIATAformatandcontainULDNumber,location,
positionandflight/passengerinformation,etc.BPMscanbesent
back to the airline host or to the BHS (via the central messaging
service) to keep track of bag location around the airport. In this
wayBPMscanbeusedtotracklostormisplacedbags.
BUMs (Baggage Unload Messages) are generated by the Airline
host(DCS)ineventthatapassengeristobeunloadedordoesnot
turnupattheboardinggatebeforeitcloses.Failuretoreconcilea
passenger at the boarding gate would result in a BUM being
generated and sent to the BRS via the central bag messaging
service to specifically notify the handling agent to unload that
passengersbag(s)offtheplane.

InformationBroker:
This interface allows the BRS to receive flight schedule
information. This information is needed to reconcile bags
according to the different departing flights. The daily flight
schedule resides in the Airport Operation Database (AODB) and
interfaces to the BRS via the Information Broker (IB). The data
format will conform to an agreed flight record structure for the
particularairport.

MasterClock:
This interface is used to synchronize time and date from the
GPS/MasterClockSystemtotheBRS.

AntiVirus:
This interface is used to update the BRS antivirus software with
thelatestreleases,thusminimizingthechancesofinfectionfrom
virusesandmalware.

NOTE:Theinformationaboveonlydescribesatypicalwayinwhichto
implement a BRS. The passenger and baggage reconciliation process
may vary from site to site depending on customer requirements and
airportdesign.Assuchtheprocessesdescribedinthisdocumentshould
onlybeusedasgeneralinformation.

END

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