UNRESERVED TICKETING SYSTEM (UTS) AND DATA

WAREHOUSING

2005 COMPUTERWORLD HONORS CASE STUDY

TRANSPORTATION
A CENTRALIZED INFORMATION SYSTEM PROVIDES UP -TO -DATE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION TO
PASSENGERS REGARDING ARRIVAL/ DEPARTURE OF PASSENGER TRAINS INCLUDING EXPECTED TIME OF
ARRIVAL (ETA) OF TRAINS THROUGHOUT INDIA AND IS AVAILABLE THROUGH DISPLAY BOARDS,
INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE SYSTEM, PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM, FACE -TO -FACE ENQUIRY, CCTV;
AVAILABILITY ON THE INTERNET IS TARGETED FOR APRIL 2005. [20055380]

SUMMARY
National Train Enquiry System (NTES) is a centralized information system that provides up-to-date and
accurate information to passengers regarding arrival/ departure of passenger trains including expected time of
arrival (ETA) of trains. This information is made available through display boards, interactive voice response
Robert Carrigan,
Chairmen of the Chairmen's Committee
system, public address system, face-to-face enquiry, CCTV and it is proposed to make it available on the
Ron Milton,
Internet in the next phase, beginning in April 2005. The information is collected from stations, control offices
Vice -Chairman of the Chairmen's and other database administrators. The project has been working successfully since 1998. The software has
Committee
networked all 5 servers running the NTES application. It now runs on Alpha server machine and under UNIX
Dan Morrow,
Chief Historian using Sybase as the RDBMS. It has also been Web-enabled so as to provide the arrival/ departure of trains on
the Internet. (www.trainenquiry.com).

APPLICATION
About – Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second largest under one
management. Criss-crossing the country, Indian Railways is a multi-gauge, multi-traction system.
Indian Railways has registered an impressive growth in the last four decades. Increases in the last few
years have been particularly striking. In 2000 an increase of 63% in freight and 60% in passenger traffic
was achieved. Harnessing the potential of these vast and widespread assets to meet the growing traffic
needs of a developing economy is no easy task and makes IR a complex cybernetic system. Over the
years, IR has built up an elaborate and well established manual information system to help them
monitortheir moving assets. Supported by a dedicated voice communications network, it collects and
transmits information from the remotest corners of the country to control centers, at the highest level.
About - CRIS
In 1986, Ministry of Railways established the Center for Railway Info0rmationSystems (CRIS),to be an
umbrella for all computer activities on Indian Railways. They also entrusted it with the task of design,
development and implementation of the FOIS, along with its associated communications infrastructure.
CRIS started functioning from July,1987. It is an autonomous organization headed by a managing
director. CRIS is mainly a project oriented organization engaged in development of major computer
systems on the railways. CRIS has acquired special knowledge and expertise in the field of informatics.
With such a rich practical experience a dedicated team of professionals and its own R&D effort, CRIS
aims to be a leader in this fast developing field.

What is National Train Enquiry System (NTES) ?

Why NTES?

IR has to provide the following information to passengers:

• Arrival and departure of passenger trains
• Platform berthing of passenger trains
• Facilities available at various stations ( e.g. retiring rooms)
• Railway Rules
The above information is made available to the public through:
• Display Boards
• Interactive Voice Response System ( telephone enquiry)
• Automatic Announcement System
• Face to Face Enquiry counters
• TV display
The above information is available at::
• Arrival Departure Information - Control Offices
• Platform Berthing - Stations
• Other Data - Designated Database Operators
The NATIONAL TRAIN ENQUIRY SYSTEM (NTES) has the following aims
? To collect train arrival departure information from control offices
? To collect platform berthing of trains from station.
? To provide updated information of arrival departure of trains and platform berthing to external
devices.
? To provide updated information on railway rules and facilities available through enquiry counters
? To make above information available on internet

Key Requirements for NTES

? Open solution
? Scalable system
? Reliable
? Round the clock operations
? Online backup
? Low response time (typically < 1 sec)
? NTES will have to share the existing 64kbps/2mbps lines used by PRS. Hence we have to keep low
network load between sites.
? Use of existing communication infrastructure for connecting to external devices. This would
typically be a shared serial link at <= 4800 BPS
? Internet ready
? Text based user interface should be available through serial terminals using existing links.
? Capability to handle high volume of enquiries.
The NTES application consists of four layers and three other functions namely

1. RDBMS
2. SERVERS
3. CLIENTS/APPLICATION GATEWAYS
4. EXTERNAL AGENTS
5. Database Administration
6. Application Management & Console Operations
7. Reports & MIS

RDBMS
• Control all database updates and queries.
• Application logic resides in RDBMS in form of triggers and stored procedures.
• Direct access to RDBMS will be only to 2,5 and 7.

SERVERS
• Handle client requests
• Multiplex database sessions
• No application logic will be coded in the servers.
• Populate the results of SQL into data structures used by the client.
• For services provided by the server a request function has been written. These functions form the
part of the SERVER API
• The SERVER API has been designed such that:
• The client is able to use the service without knowing any TP monitor data structures.
• It is possible for client to directly access all services without any change in code.

CLIENTS
These have been defined as of two types
• Interactive
• Application gateways
The interactive client runs on a dumb terminal based client and is used by users directly connected to
NTES server.
 Application gateways uses the External Interface Server API and gives a set of services to clients who
reside outside the NTES server and are connected to it. These are of two types:
• TCP/IP gateways e.g. for Web
• Serial gateways e.g. for IVRS
The clients l use the SERVER API for accessing database
They have no database connectivity.
They don’t not access to any memory resident database cache directly.

EXTERNAL AGENTS
These reside outside the NTES server.
They use the External Interface Client API for accessing NTES services
These agents are free to access cache data in their local database.
Services is provided for bulk transfer of data for local storage in the External Interface API.

Implementation Phases

The entire implementation of the pilot project is divided into 3 phases. They are:-

Phase–I : Scheduled and actual arrival and departure information of trains over Interactive Voice
Response System and across the counter using C++, Middle ware Reliable Transaction Router and
Adaptive Server Enterprise Sybase RDBMS.

Phase-II : Disseminate Tourist Information, Special Trains, Railway’s Facilities and Scheduled
and actual arrival and departure information to spot trains over Internet and SMS using HA, Web Server
and RDBMS. Provide actual train running position to Minister Of Railway’s special Cell constituted to
monitor the punctuality of special trains.

Phase – III : Build complete data base of all trains, their coaches, the kind of repair and maintenance
they are undergoing using J2EE, Application Server Web Sphere and Browser based thin clients.

• How long did it take to develop the new system?

About one year.

• When did you implement the new system?

Phase 1 in January 2001

Phase 2 in June 2003
Phase 3 wll be launched in April 2005

BENEFITS
How will passengers be benefited by NTES?

The passengers

• Can Plan their Journey well in advance as complete tourist information is available
• Don’t have to wait at railway stations when either they come to board train or to receive their kith
ad kin.
• Don’t have to waste time in locating platform of train, retiring room, clock room and other
facilities
• Can easily know about catering services, circular journey tickets and fares
• Can find out about refund rules for unused tickets, special trains and holiday special trains
• Can monitor the movement of trains in real time and punctuality of trains
• Can know about various concessions and their percentages
• Can know about reservation rules
• Can find out about break journey rules
• Can know about offences and penalties
• Can enquire about scheduled arrival and departure time of trains
• Can know about train fares
IMPORTANCE
Replication Server implementation using Sybase

The data at all the five sites is replicated to all the other sites. The Sybase Replication Server maintains
replicated data in multiple databases. It provides clients using databases in the replication system with
local database access, thereby reducing load on the network. Each site has its own replication server.
These replication servers communicate to the local database via connection. The replication servers
communicate amongst themselves via user defined routes. There are two types of replication servers
namely the primary replication server and the replicate replication server. The primary Replication
Server sends data to the replicate replication server through one or more user defined routes. The user
creates a replication definition at the primary Replication Server which specifies the information (like
columns) to be replicated . The Replication Server uses a basic publish and subscribe model for
replicating the data across the network. The user creates a publication of the data that is to be
replicated to the other sites and the other sites subscribe to that publication for the delivery of data.
Changes in data as well as stored procedures can be replicated across the network. The replication of
data occurs asynchronously, that is updates to data at the primary are transferred to replicate
databases in transactions separate from the update itself.

ORIGINALITY

SUCCESS
In reality, everyone from railway passenger, railway management benefit from the innovative NTES
technology. Currently, the technology’s planned reach is more than 10 million passengers per day.
The following are just a few quotes from those who have been touched by the NTES technology.

“NTES has been a good system to keep track on the arrival/ departure of the trains for more than 5
years now”
--Sh. S.Jha, CCM/PM, Northern Railway, India.

“ With Web-enabling of NTES, our reach has increased beyond the national boundries to serve the
humaity at large! ”

--P. Verma, Regional Manager/CRIS/Delhi, INDIA

DIFFICULTY