In recent years, ACS has implemented many innovative ticketing projects on major networks, involving multiple modes of transport or multiple operators. The Atlas system is now available, taking up the concept of decentralised sub-systems and offering, thanks to the Internet and the N-tier architecture of its central system, modularity that is unparalleled on the global market. Initially aimed at large networks, Atlas will be available to medium sized networks from the end of 2007.
Seamless travel, multimodal transport, functional excellence and customisation. Those are the features of a growing number of ticketing systems used by large and very large public transport networks. It has now become unthinkable for a major capital city to design its public transport system without state-of-the-art integrated ticketing, and the design and deployment of these complex projects take several years. To reduce the cost and shrink the schedule, the time had come to work on modelisation and capitalise on experience. The result is ACS’s new generation ticketing system, Atlas - Automated Ticketing for Large Advanced Systems. Atlas takes advantage of the experience from the 200 CATS systems already deployed by ACS, using the same decentralised sub-system architecture. It also draws on the experience acquired on large networks in cities such as Lyon, Montreal and Toulouse. "The main innovation lies in the central system’s N-tier architecture and web technology, which open up infinite modularity possibilities”, comments Eliane Dejoux, Atlas product manager.
N-tier architecture : lighter on infrastructure and costs
With N-tier architecture, data and applications are hosted on separate servers, which are themselves remote from the operator’s workstations.
These workstations are simply equipped with internet browsers giving access to the resources required by each profession. Infrastructure and maintenance costs are therefore lower, and the system has improved accessibility and flexibility. Special attention has been paid to ergonomics, navigation and graphics, with the creation of a graphic environment for all Web screens. The systems can be deployed considerably faster and remain permanently open to change.
Atlas is firmly focused on seamless travel. It can of course manage equipment and data for different operators, but it can also handle tickets sold on other networks. Also, each machine, with its specific TLC (Ticketing Location Code) label can be individually set and addressed. A brand new alarm server means the network can be permanently monitored, as well as triggering alarms and managing corrective action in real time. As for security, a SAM (Security Access Module) server means that a machine – such as a ticket vending machine – can be disabled after a certain number of operations without reconnection to the server.
Dedicated databases for each professional function
Finally, the set up of an ETL (Extract Transform and Load) process on the data warehouse offers each one of the operator’s professional functions – customer service, marketing, accounts, etc. – unlimited access, in terms of frequency and volume, to their own dedicated decentralised databases. They can choose to consult information in summary form or consult comprehensive and detailed data. As for applications servers, the same kind of freedom means ACS can make the most of its experience in ticketing systems, by developing extremely varied functionalities, fully adapted to the professional needs of the operator.
ATLAS will initially be deployed for all large networks. It will progressively replace CATS on medium-sized networks from late 2007
