Self-Service Terminal Fault Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Self-service terminals, such as ATMs, generate unnecessary fault messages during maintenance or diagnostic activities, leading to excessive communication with remote management centers and costly dispatches of service engineers for transient issues.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a management application with a context filter that monitors the terminal's state and only transmits fault signals if specific filter criteria are not met, such as being in supervisor mode or if a fault persists after maintenance operations, to prevent flooding of remote management servers with transient or induced fault states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the ATM continuously monitors and reports all fault states to the remote management center, then the reliability of fault detection is improved, but the network traffic and communication overhead increase excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary evaluation of fault states against predefined criteria before transmitting to the remote management center. The management application assesses whether a fault state meets reporting criteria (such as persistence duration, severity level, or exclusions for maintenance modes) in advance, filtering out transient or expected faults before they enter the communication channel.
Solution Approach 2:
The management application serves as an intermediary between the fault detection system and the remote management center. It receives raw fault state data from modules, processes and evaluates it according to configured criteria, and selectively forwards only appropriate faults to the remote center, thereby mediating the communication overhead.
2Loss of information
If the ATM reports all fault states including transient ones, then the completeness of fault information is improved, but the number of unnecessary service engineer dispatches increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system evaluates fault states against predefined criteria before reporting them. Transient faults that resolve themselves or faults occurring during maintenance operations are filtered out in advance, preventing unnecessary service engineer dispatches while maintaining reporting of persistent or serious faults.
Solution Approach 2:
The system monitors the state of fault conditions over time and uses this feedback to determine reporting eligibility. If a fault state resolves itself within a specified period or reappears after being suppressed, the system adjusts its reporting behavior accordingly, learning from the feedback loop to avoid reporting transient issues.
3Ease of operation
If the ATM allows unrestricted module replacement and maintenance operations, then the ease of operation is improved, but the number of spurious fault messages increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by suppressing fault reporting during maintenance operations. When the ATM detects that a module is being replaced or maintenance is in progress (through status signals from the control application), it preemptively prevents spurious fault messages from being generated or transmitted, eliminating the harmful effect before it occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The fault reporting system dynamically adjusts its behavior based on the current operational state of the ATM. During maintenance modes, the reporting criteria are dynamically modified to exclude expected transient faults, while returning to normal reporting behavior during operational modes, thereby adapting to changing conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
A self-service terminal comprises a pc core; at least one module coupled to the pc core; a control application executing on the pc core for controlling the operation of the terminal; and a management application executing on the pc core. The management application is arranged to (i) monitor state of health of the pc core, the control application, and the at least one module, (ii) detect a fault state at any of the pc core, the control application, and the at least one module, (iii) monitor the control application to ascertain if a filter criterion is satisfied, and (iv) transmit a fault signal from the terminal only if the filter criterion is not satisfied.