GBASE Wins Award in the "First Information System Compatibility Innovation Application Competition – AFC Special Competition"
On January 2, 2020, the final review of the "First Information System Compatibility Innovation Application Competition – AFC Special Competition" was held in Beijing. GBase by General Data Technology won an award for the project "Replacement and Application of Chinese Databases in Metro AFC Systems".
The "First Information System Compatibility Innovation Application Competition" is an industry contest organized by the China Information Industry Association to promote the development of core national technologies and accelerate the compatibility, adaptation, and innovative application of domestic and international IT systems. The AFC Special Competition was hosted by the Association's Automatic Fare Collection System Committee and launched in October 2019. Following the launch, 25 projects from 22 organizations registered. All submitted projects and participating organizations were publicly displayed on the website. On December 9, 2019, the competition office organized expert judges to conduct the first-round evaluation of the 25 projects, selecting 14 to advance to the final and publicizing the list without objection. The Association then assembled an expert panel from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, metro operators, design institutes, testing agencies, and universities for the final evaluation. Through a scoring process, nine outstanding winning projects were selected and were scheduled to be announced at the China Information Industry Innovation and Development Conference in Beijing on January 12, 2020.
● Project Background:
The metro AFC (Automatic Fare Collection) system is an automated system based on computer, communication, network, and automatic control technologies that handles the entire process of rail transit ticketing, ticket inspection, billing, charging, statistics, clearing, and management. It automates metro ticket sales and fare collection, provides flexible charging methods and management tools, and enables passenger flow analysis and revenue analysis to supply data for operational decisions. China is in an era of rapid urban rail transit development: 31 cities now have metro systems, with a total mileage exceeding 4,500 km and an annual growth rate of around 20%. Using advanced metro automation systems to reduce staff workload and to obtain first-hand data on urban rail transit operational benefits to ensure investor returns has become a focus for system operators and investors.
● Project Requirements:
Driven by localization requirements, the metro AFC system needed to replace the original Oracle database with a Chinese database and migrate Oracle Proc and PL/SQL programs to GBase 8s ESQL/C and stored procedures. The goal was to match the functionality and stability of the original Oracle database, ensure business continuity with automatic failover in seconds without manual intervention, and meet performance and capacity needs for real-time ticketing transactions and storage.
This award recognizes GBase technology by the transportation sector. The GBase 8s product has already been applied in projects such as Chongqing Rail Transit Line 5, Xi’an Airport Line, Shenyang Line 10, Zhengzhou Suburban Line, and Sichuan Guang’an Line.
● Case Study – Chongqing Metro AFC Project – Solution
Database migration was carried out by using GBase 8s ESQL/C to replace the original Oracle Proc code and GBase 8s stored procedures to replace PL/SQL code. Regression testing and stress testing validated that functionality and stability met the same level as the original Oracle database.
A shared-storage-based dual-server cluster was built with GBase 8s to achieve high availability through operating system HA software, efficiently handling tables with hundreds of millions of rows. In the event of a failure, the system automatically switches nodes to ensure stability and high availability, meeting business continuity requirements.
User feedback: Since the system went live in 2017, it has operated stably without any production issues affecting business, maintaining overall smooth performance.
● Case Study – Chongqing Metro AFC Project – System Architecture
● Case Study – Chongqing Metro AFC Project – Value Delivered
High Performance:
The first domestically developed general-purpose database system that is technologically on par with global solutions, independently built by leveraging the authorized source code of a mature, enterprise-class database from a top international vendor.
High Stability:
Supports 24×7 business operation requirements.
High Availability:
GBase 8s SDS shared-storage cluster high-availability solution eliminates synchronization errors found in the original database, ensuring fare accuracy down to the cent.
Customization:
GBase 8s provides localized customization services that other commercial or open-source databases cannot match, enabling rapid and optimal database-level solutions to meet users' custom requirements.
GBase 8s is independently developed by General Data Technology with full intellectual property rights and a proprietary security architecture. It is powerful, efficient, stable, and easy to use.
It has been widely deployed in classified information systems, information systems at or above Level 3 as defined in the national Information System Security Classified Protection requirements, core information systems of key national economic sectors, and other systems demanding high data management security.
GBase 8s is historically the first domestically developed, general-purpose secure database that matches global technology standards. It has been showcased for two consecutive years at the "Exhibition of Achievements in Military-Civilian Integration Development of High-Tech Equipment" and has achieved national Information Security Classified Protection Level 4 qualification. Going forward, its high performance, high availability, high security, and ease of use will continue to drive the digital development of industries such as transportation, power, and finance.