Payment Terminal Presence Data for Offline Fee Calculation
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Solution Overview
Problem
ID-based access control systems face challenges in post-payment scenarios where fees need to be paid upon exit, as they require all components to be online, and non-writable customer media cannot store access history for offline payment machines.
Innovation Solution
A method where each payment machine in an ID-based access control system maintains a presence data record and delta changes for each zone, allowing offline fee calculation using stored data, with updates transmitted via proxy servers when connectivity is restored.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If offline data records are stored on customer media to enable offline payment, then payment functionality is maintained when payment machines are offline, but only writable customer media can be used which limits compatibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces presence data records as an intermediary data structure stored on the payment machine itself, rather than on the customer medium. This mediator allows the payment machine to track which customers are present in which zones, enabling offline fee calculation without requiring the customer medium to be writable. The presence data record acts as a local cache that decouples the payment capability from the customer medium's write capability.
2Measurement precision
If complete presence data is continuously synchronized from central server to payment machines, then offline payment accuracy is ensured, but network data transfer volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for offline payment from the complete presence data. Instead of synchronizing all presence data continuously, the system transmits only delta changes (additions and deletions of customer media IDs from zones) at predetermined intervals. This extraction principle reduces network traffic while maintaining sufficient data for accurate fee calculation by focusing only on changes that affect payment obligations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements periodic synchronization of presence data records from the central server to payment machines at predetermined intervals. This periodic action ensures that payment machines have updated information for accurate offline fee calculation while minimizing network usage compared to continuous synchronization. The periodic updates occur only when needed to maintain payment accuracy.
Data Source
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AI summary
Within the framework of the method for operating payment terminals of an ID-based access control system for a post-payment scenario, comprising a central server (1) and at least one access control device (5), wherein each access control device (5) of the access control system is assigned to a zone, each payment terminal (4, 4', 4") of the access control system is assigned to a zone of the access control system, wherein each zone has a unique zone ID, and wherein at the beginning of the execution of the method, an attendance record created in the central server (1) for each zone is forwarded via one or more proxy servers (2, 3) to the payment terminals (4, 4', 4") of each zone and stored in the payment terminals (4, 4', 4"), wherein subsequently, at predetermined, definable time intervals or when the delta changes recorded in the central server (1), namely the IDs of the customer media,which are no longer in the zone and the IDs of the customer media that have been added to a zone exceed a predefined threshold for customer media added to that zone and/or for customer media no longer present in that zone, a file containing the delta changes for updating the presence record stored in the payment terminals (4, 4', 4") is transferred via one or more proxy servers (2, 3) to the payment terminals (4, 4', 4") of each zone.