TCP to X.25 POS Gateway software for APACS, ISO 8583 and other custom ePOS Transactions

General Purpose Options

The Gateway also can be configured for general purpose TCP to X.25 data translation, which includes the functionality of DRPD, SRPD and SRSD Personality Modules as provided with the general purpose FarSync TCP-X.25 Gateway, providing fixed routing between TCP and X.25 connections, dynamic routing, RFC 1006 and Cisco RBP compatibility.

Overview of Resilient Operation

The FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway can be deployed in a wide variety of ways to achieve the level of resilience required by the application. The level will depend on the value of the data traffic and the acceptable degree of user intervention required to rectify any problem. The aim with resilience is to remove single points of failure. Resilient configurations using more than one POS Gateway also allow improved performance by sharing the traffic load between several machines.

Network Line Redundancy

To achieve network line redundancy, a single FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway may operate with two or more X.25 lines. It can route data over any active line connected to the Gateway so that if one line goes out of operation then the second line continues to be used automatically. Your network provider may also support a number of additional resilient offerings. Examples include diverse routing of cabling into your premises or even connection of network lines to geographically dispersed network nodes.

Communications Equipment Redundancy

To further improve on Network Line Redundancy, multiple FarSync X.25 cards may be used in a single POS Gateway machine. This will allow the Gateway to continue operation even if there were a hardware or software fault within one of the communications adapters that prevented it handling calls.

Gateway Redundancy and Load Balancing

For fully resilient operation, two or more FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateways may be deployed. This can be either with simple failover from a primary to a backup machine or in a load balancing configuration.

The FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway operates in conjunction with Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB), an integral feature of Windows Server 2003 (also Windows 2000 Advanced Server). NLB provides failover support for IP based applications and services that require high scalability and/or availability and is ideally suited to improving the availability of the FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway. Load balancing these services ensures there is no single point of failure and that there is no performance bottleneck.

FarSync Gateway Supervisor

The FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway utilises the FarSync Gateway Supervisor application to integrate tightly with NLB to extend its basic LAN resilience to also cover the service level as well as the LAN access level. The Gateway Supervisor checks the state of the X.25 network lines and as these change state between fully operational and faulty it selectively enables/disables the server from the NLB pool for the FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway service, thus managing the availability of that particular POS Gateway machine. Events such as the connections established are logged on a rotating log file, key events such as loss of an X.25 line are also logged on the Windows event log.

Performance and Expandability

The FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway easily handles very high transaction loads. Support for large numbers of X.25 lines and multiple Gateways provides enormous scalable expansion capability and resiliency. The main performance and expansion capabilities of the Gateway are:

• Up to 500 POS transactions per second on each Gateway (MAX version)
• Multiple load balancing Gateways, up to 32 sharing a single IP address
• X.25 line speeds from 2,400 baud to 8 Mbits/s
• From 1 to 16 X.25 lines per Gateway
• X.25 network, leased line and X.25 dial-up connections supported
• Up to 2,000 connections per X.25 line (MAX version)
• 3 versions - 10 session, 20 session and MAX (up to 4,000 )
• Up to 4,000 simultaneous connections on the MAX version of the POS Gateway

Connection Routing and Address Mapping

The FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway is typically used to route connections to a single acquiring host. It can, however, support routes to 2,000 different X.25 hosts. Similarly, when using the called X.25 address as the routing key, incoming X.25 calls can be routed to thousands of different TCP/IP hosts.

When making connections to the X.25 network, the POS Gateway has the capability of mapping the source IP address to a calling X.25 address, thus allowing the destination X.25 host to identify the connection source uniquely.

The Dynamic routing option allows the X.25 address (NUA) and call parameters to be set by the remote application at the time each X.25 connection is established. X.25 packetisation information is passed to the application.

Configuration Application The Configuration Application for the POS Gateway allows the TCP interface, X.25 connection, and POS protocol types and the event log levels to be selected. Almost all changes to the configuration are made dynamically so continuous operation of the Gateway can be maintained. The sample screen shot taken from the Configuration Application shows the configuration parameters for an APACS 30 X.25 to TCP/IP connection Configuration by Text Files As an alternative to using the Gateway Configuration program, the POS Gateway configuration can be defined in text files. This approach is more scalable, allowing hundreds of routing definitions to be easily configured. As with the Configuration Application changes to the text files can be applied dynamically allowing continuous operation to be maintained.

FarSync X.25 card

The FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway uses the FarSync X25 T-Series or M-Series cards to provide the X.25 connection. One or more of these high performance PCI-X / PCI / PCMCIA cards are required to connect to the physical X.25 line/s that connect to the Host's X.25 network. See FarSync X.25 T-series PCI cards and FarSync X.25 M-Series PCMCIA cards.

Maintenance Contract

FarSite recognises that this product is often used as a key component in POS transaction systems and as such a guaranteed response to unexpected problems is required. A maintenance contract is available for the FarSync TCP-X25 POS Gateway and FarSync X.25 cards for priority service and rapid problem resolution.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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Last updated: 05-Jun-2008