JPH0721811B2 - Card authentication terminal group management device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a card authentication terminal group management device (hereinafter referred to as a cluster controller), and a plurality of card authentication terminal devices are connected to one of the cards. The card authentication data transmitted from the authentication terminal device is transmitted to the host computer, the transaction approval / disapproval result is received by the host computer, and the transaction approval / disapproval result is transmitted to the corresponding card authentication terminal device and the transaction authenticated by the host computer. The present invention relates to a card authentication terminal group management device for transmitting transaction data of the above to a store controller.

[Prior Art] As is well known, a card authentication terminal device called a CAT (credit authorization terminal) has been put into practical use in order to automate credit card authentication with the spread of credit cards. Recently, while managing multiple card authentication terminal devices,
A cluster controller is provided to mediate data transmission between the T, host computer and store controller. Here, the host computer is for authenticating the credit card, and is provided in, for example, a credit company. The store controller collects transaction data and is provided, for example, in a store. Then, card authentication data including transaction data such as card data, product code, and amount data input from the CAT is transmitted online to the host computer via the cluster controller and processed in real time by the host computer. If the host computer determines that a transaction is possible, the cluster controller transmits the transaction data online to the store controller.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, in the conventional cluster controller, when the transaction is transmitted from the cluster controller to the store controller, the store controller operates due to a fault in the communication line or for inspection. There is a problem that transaction data to be transmitted is lost when the transaction is stopped.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a cluster controller in which transaction data is not lost even when data transmission is not normally performed. And

[Means for Solving Problems] A cluster controller of the present invention transmits transaction data of a transaction determined to be transactable by at least a host computer to a storage means for storing transaction data and a transaction data totaling means. The transmitting means, the determining means for determining whether or not the transaction data is normally transmitted each time the transaction data is transmitted, and the determining means that the transaction data is not normally transmitted. In response to the determination, the transaction data is written in the storage device, and when the data transmission by the transmission device is enabled, the transaction data is read out from the storage device and is controlled by the transmission device. It is configured with.

[Operation] According to the present invention, when the transaction data is not normally transmitted to the transaction data totaling means, the transaction data is stored in the storage means and the data can be transmitted to the transaction data totaling means. At this time, since the transaction data is read from the storage means and transmitted, the transaction data is surely transmitted to the transaction data totalizing means without being lost.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a transaction processing system including a cluster controller to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. Second
In the figure, the cluster controller 1 has a plurality of CAT2s.
The host computer 3 and the store controller 4 are connected to each other. A plurality of ECRs (electronic cash registers) 5 are connected to the store controller 4.

Cluster controller 1 is CAT2, host computer 3
And mediates data transmission between the store controllers 4. The configuration and operation of the cluster controller 1 will be described in detail later. CAT2 is a terminal device for authenticating credit transactions. The host computer 3 determines whether or not the transaction is possible based on the authentication data transmitted from CAT2, and transmits the result to the cluster controller 1. Store controller 4
The transaction data is processed based on the transaction data transmitted from the ECR5, and when the host computer 3 determines that the transaction is possible, the transaction data of the transaction is received from the cluster controller 1 and aggregated. .

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the cluster controller 1 shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the cluster controller 1 is provided with a CPU 10. A ROM 11, a RAM 12, a store controller-side transmission unit 13, an upper-side transmission unit 14, and a lower-side transmission unit 15 are connected to the CPU 10.

The ROM 11 stores the operation program of the CPU 10 based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 1 described later. RAM12 is
It includes a storage area as shown in FIG. 4 which will be described later. The store controller-side transmission unit 13 mediates data transmission between the CPU 10 and the store controller 4. The upper transmission unit 14 mediates data transmission between the CPU 10 and the host computer 3. Lower transmission unit 15 is CPU1
It mediates data transmission between 0 and CAT2.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view showing a transaction data message transmitted from the cluster controller 1 to the store controller 4.
In FIG. 4, the transaction data message 20 is composed of a sales / cancellation code indicating sales or cancellation, a company code of a card company, a customer member number, the amount of transaction, the number of payment splits, and a store number.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing a storage area of the RAM 12 shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, the storage area of the RAM 12 includes an untransmitted transaction data counter 121 and an untransmitted transaction data storage area 122. The untransmitted transaction data counter 121 is an area for storing the number of transaction data stored in the untransmitted transaction data storage area 122. The untransmitted data storage area 122 is an area for storing the transaction data when the transaction data is not normally transmitted to the store controller 4. The untransmitted transaction data storage area 122 can store, for example, 100 transaction data. The transaction data stored in the untransmitted transaction data storage area 122 is erased when it is normally transmitted to the store controller 4.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of one embodiment of the present invention. Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

It is assumed that there is no untransmitted transaction data at the start of the operation. The CPU 10 performs step S1 (abbreviated as S1 in the figure)
At, the untransmitted transaction data counter 121 is set to zero. Then, in step S2, it waits until data is transmitted from any CAT 2 or host computer 3. The CAT2 transmits a card authentication request message including transaction data such as card data, product code, and amount data, and the host computer 3 transmits a transaction permission message indicating whether or not a transaction is possible. CP
In response to the data transmission, U10 checks where the source is in step S3. This source check is performed based on the source identification code included in the transmitted electronic message, for example. Here, it is assumed that the card authentication request message is transmitted from CAT2. CPU1
In step S4, 0 transmits the transmitted electronic message and transmits the edited card authentication request electronic message to the host computer 3. Then, it returns to step S2.

The host computer 3 determines whether or not a transaction is possible based on the card authentication request message transmitted from the cluster controller 1, and transmits a transaction approval / disapproval message indicating the result to the cluster controller 1. In this way, when the transaction approval / disapproval message is transmitted from the host computer 3, the CPU 10 of the cluster controller 1 determines in step S5 that
Edit the transmitted message and send the edited transaction approval / disapproval message to the corresponding CAT2. Subsequently, in step S6, the CPU 10 determines whether or not the transaction has been completed, based on the transaction approval / disapproval message transmitted from the host computer. here,
If the transaction is successful, the process proceeds to step S7, and if the transaction is not successful, the process returns to step S2.

In step S7, the CPU 10 immediately transmits the transaction data of the established transaction to the store controller 4. As described above, the transaction data is immediately transmitted to the store controller 4, and the store controller 4 aggregates and manages the transactions, so that the transaction data can be aggregated easily in a short time. Further, since the cluster controller 1 does not need to have a counting function, it can be provided at a low cost.

Subsequently, the CPU 10 determines in step S8 whether or not there is a transmission error. Here, for example, when there is a response from the store controller 4 indicating that the transaction data has been received, the CPU 10 determines that the transaction data has been transmitted normally. Therefore, if there is a failure in the communication line between the cluster controller 1 and the store controller 4, or if the store controller 4 is not operating, it is determined that there was a transmission error. In this case, the CPU 10 stores the transaction data in the untransmitted transaction data storage area 122 of the RAM 12 in step S13, and increments the count value of the untransmitted transaction data counter 121 by 1 in step S14. Then, it returns to step S2.

After that, when data is transmitted from the host computer 3 and the transaction is completed, the transaction data of the established transaction is transmitted from the cluster controller 1 to the store controller 4. At this time, if the CPU 10 determines in step S8 that there is no transmission error, in step S9 the untransmitted transaction data counter
Check the count of 121. If the count is 0, there is no untransmitted transaction data, so
Return to step S2.

On the other hand, if the count number is not 0, the untransmitted transaction data is read from the untransmitted transaction data storage area 122 and transmitted to the store controller 4. This untransmitted transaction data is read, for example, by a last-in first-out method in which the most recently stored data is read first.

Subsequently, in step S11, it is determined whether or not there is a transmission error, and if there is a transmission error, step S2
However, if there is no transmission error, the transmitted transaction data is deleted in the untransmitted transaction data storage area 122,
Then, in step S12, the untransmitted data counter 1
The count number of 21 is decremented by 1, and the process returns to step S9. When all the untransmitted transaction data have been transmitted to the store controller 4 by repeating steps S9 to S12, the process returns to step S2.

In this way, when the transmission is normally performed, the stored transaction data is erased, so the storage capacity of the RAM 12 may be small.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the transaction data is not normally transmitted to the transaction data totalizing means, the transaction data is stored in the storage means and the transaction data totaling means is stored. Since the transaction data is read out from the storage means and transmitted when the data transmission becomes possible, the transaction data is not lost and is reliably transmitted to the transaction data totaling means.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a transaction system including a cluster controller to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the cluster controller shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is an illustrative view showing transaction data transmitted from the cluster controller shown in FIG. 2 to the store controller. FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing a storage area of the RAM shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a cluster controller, 2 is CAT, 3
Is a host computer, 4 is a store controller, 10 is
A CPU, 11 is a ROM, 12 is a RAM, 13 is a store controller side transmission unit, 14 is an upper side transmission unit, and 15 is a lower side transmission unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of card authentication terminal devices are connected, card authentication data transmitted from any one of the card authentication terminal devices is transmitted to a host computer, and the result of whether the transaction is acceptable or not by the host computer is received. In a card authentication terminal group management device that transmits the transaction approval / disapproval result to the corresponding card authentication terminal device, and also transmits the transaction data included in the card authentication data to the transaction data totalizing means when the transaction is possible. Storage means for storing transaction data, transmission means for transmitting transaction data of a transaction determined to be transactable by at least the host computer to the transaction data totaling means, and the transmission data of the transaction data by the transmission means. A determination means for determining whether or not data transmission is normally performed each time transmission is performed. And when the transaction data is transmitted normally by the transmission means while writing the transaction data in the storage means in response to the fact that the transmission of the transaction data is not normally performed by the determination means. A card authentication terminal group management device comprising control means for reading transaction data from the storage means and controlling the transmission data to be transmitted by the transmission means.