High‐speed processing and high‐reliability technology in an integrated fixed‐line and wireless, autonomous decentralized IC card system

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Increasing the processing speed of automatic fare collection gates (AFCG) is a topic of great importance for supporting passengers who are getting on and off high‐density transportation at peak hours. On the other hand, reliability is indispensable for processing tickets, which are a type of noncurrency negotiable instrument. Therefore, a passenger ticket system that provides both high‐speed processing and high reliability is required. To increase passenger convenience and reduce maintenance costs, a wireless IC card ticket system is desirable. However, since this system uses wireless communication for processing that is carried out with the fare collection gates, the drop in data during ticket examination is a problem. In this paper, the author proposes an autonomous decentralized technology for satisfying the requirements of high‐speed processing and high reliability in a wireless IC card ticket system. IC cards, automatic fare collection gates, and a central server are designed as nodes of an autonomous decentralized system. In particular, to achieve high‐speed processing, the author proposes an autonomous decentralized algorithm for fare calculation by IC cards and automatic fare collection gates. To prove the effectiveness of this algorithm, the author creates models and performs comparison tests. Also, as a technology for ensuring high reliability, the author proposes an autonomous decentralized data consistency technology for each subsystem. These technologies were introduced in the Suica system (East Japan Railway Company) in Japan and their effectiveness was proven. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 38(9): 1–10, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (<jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.interscience.wiley.com">www.interscience.wiley.com</jats:ext-link>). DOI 10.1002/scj.20800</jats:p>