Technologies Toward High Performance and High Reliability in Suica System

Abstract

Railway transportation is required to serve without rest every day. In Japan trains and platforms are terribly crowded every morning and evening, so that the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) Systems need high performance. On the other hand, the systems need high reliability since the tickets they process are equivalent to cash. This paper introduces Autonomous Cooperative Processing Technology for high performance and Autonomous Decentralized Data Consistency Technology for high reliability. These technologies are applied to Suica System, an AFC system in East Japan Railway Company. The system has been running for about ten years, and serious troubles are not filed. That is, the technologies are proven to be effective.