ATM LoRaWAN Relay for Transaction Continuity During Outages

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Solution Overview

Problem

ATMs often go offline due to hardware or network issues, leading to inconvenience for customers and the need for technician dispatch, and momentary outages can cause loss of transaction details.

Innovation Solution

Equipping ATMs with a LoRaWAN module for connectivity to a long-range wireless network, allowing them to communicate with nearby online ATMs or application servers during outages, and using semi-supervised machine learning to detect errors and initiate automated repairs.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If ATM uses traditional ATM communications network to exchange data with bank application servers, then banking transactions can be conducted directly, but the ATM goes offline when network infrastructure fails or hardware problems occur

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveATM availabilityVSAvoidnetwork connectivity dependency

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a relay ATM as an intermediary device that enables communication between an offline ATM and the bank application server. When the primary ATM cannot directly communicate with the server due to network or hardware issues, the relay ATM acts as a mediator to forward transactions, thereby maintaining ATM availability without requiring complex direct network infrastructure at every ATM location.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the traditional direct mechanical network connection between ATM and bank server with a wireless communication mechanism. By using wireless communication capabilities, the system can maintain connectivity even when the traditional wired network infrastructure fails, reducing dependency on physical network connections and hardware reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Reliability

If ATM remains offline to avoid network issues, then hardware problems can be avoided, but customers must travel to another online ATM to conduct transactions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction completionVSAvoidcustomer access convenience

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The relay ATM serves as a mediator that allows an offline ATM to continue processing transactions. Instead of customers having to physically travel to a different ATM location, the system uses the relay ATM to bridge the communication gap, enabling transaction completion at the original ATM location even when direct network connectivity is unavailable.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If ATM experiences momentary outage for any reason, then connectivity issues can be resolved, but the ATM loses track of transaction state and requires restart

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction state persistenceVSAvoidtransaction resumption time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by continuously monitoring and recording the transaction state in memory before an outage occurs. This ensures that when the outage ends, the transaction state is already preserved and the ATM can resume the transaction from where it left off, rather than restarting from the beginning, thereby reducing time loss and maintaining state persistence.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Ease of repair

If technician is dispatched to repair offline ATM, then hardware or software issues can be fixed, but service disruption continues until repair arrives

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveATM repair capabilityVSAvoidservice disruption duration

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of repairVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables self-service repair capabilities where the ATM can automatically detect its own operational status and initiate repair procedures without requiring immediate technician intervention. The ATM can monitor its health, identify issues, and perform self-diagnostic or self-repair functions, thereby reducing the service disruption duration while maintaining repair capability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS20260080757A1Automated teller machine (ATM) transaction resliency using a long range wide area network

Publication Date: 2026.03.19 BANK OF AMERICA CORP

AI summary

An ATM includes a long range WAN module that provides the ATM with a low power WAN (LPWAN) capability for increased resiliency. The ATM and bank application servers generally communicate over an ATM communications network to allow customers to perform banking transactions. When this connection is not functioning, the ATM may continue to be used to perform banking transactions, without interruption, by communicating over a LoRaWAN network with another nearby LPWAN-enabled ATM that is in communication with the bank application servers. The LoRaWAN network may also be used to automatically obtain software to fix an error at the ATM when the software is obtainable via a nearby LPWAN-enabled ATM. The LoRaWAN module may be further used to record a state of operations at the ATM and to use the record to resume the transaction where the transaction was interrupted while in progress due to an ATM outage.