Pioneering the Industry: GBase Database’s Trailblazing Journey into Core Transportation Systems

"Before this, no Chinese database had ever been deployed in core business systems of the transportation sector; since then, Chinese database companies no longer need to prove that their technology can deliver."

GBase Database Pioneers Entry into Railway Core Systems

Going back to 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, and China Railway Corporation jointly issued the Medium- and Long-Term Railway Network Plan, outlining an ambitious blueprint for the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network in the new era. Against this backdrop, a railway entity in 2017 began upgrading and expanding its next-generation ticketing and electronic payment platforms—in other words,transforming the railway ticketing system that supports the travel and ticket purchases of countless passengers.

At that time, railway passenger business was booming, and data types were becoming more complex. The existing analytical systems built on Sybase databases were hitting performance bottlenecks, failing to meet daily operational needs in data querying, report generation, and more. Therefore, the customer urgently needed to introduce a mature, high-performance database to support business growth.

Such an opportunity to enter the core business system of the railway was before all database vendors, including well-known global tech giants and also GBase (General Data Technology), a Chinese database vendor that was gradually making its mark on the market.

As a critical service window for the railway, the ticketing system affects the work and lives of millions of citizens. Its business complexity and massive concurrency are rarely seen globally, leaving no room for error.

To win the opportunity to enter the core transportation system, the GBase team conducted multiple rounds of technical exchanges with the customer, gradually building awareness of Chinese databases. However,the customer couldn't help but question whether it could support such a complex and demanding core system.

A two-month real-world scenario test brought a turning point.

After extensive testing,the key performance indicators of GBase database surprisingly surpassed those of the original Sybase database by dozens of times, with average performance indicators exceeding by 5 to 10 times; the test results compared with Hadoop were also outstanding.Such stark performance contrast initially led the customer to suspect test errors. After multiple verifications confirmed accuracy, the customer truly experienced GBase's high performance, and the decision to cooperate with GBase was made without further doubt.
By the end of 2017, the railway entity officially adopted GBase database to support the upgrade and expansion of its next-generation ticketing and electronic payment platforms. GBase assembled a professional technical team to provide data migration and software adaptation support. Since the system went live after cutover in 2018, GBase database has been providing fast querying, analysis, and reporting services for the railway ticketing system. The database deployment has steadily expanded from a single cluster of over ten nodes to two clusters of nearly one hundred nodes. In the near future, beyond ticketing, GBase database will also serve more core railway systems. Every ticket purchase, a simple tap, is backed by computations in the background.

The smooth operation of the railway ticketing system proved the capabilities of Chinese databases to the industry and opened the door for GBase to enter more core systems in the transportation sector.

First Full-Stack Replacement of Core Rail Transit Systems

Unlike railways, a metro is the aorta of intra-city travel. Shenzhen, a first-tier city in China, has a metro mileage of 567.1 km, 17 urban rail lines, 393 stations, peak passenger flow of 10 million, and a passenger flow intensity of 18,300 trips per kilometer, ranking first among mainland cities with over 500 km of operational metro mileage.

Because of its long mileage, high passenger density, and stringent stability requirements, Shenzhen Metro’s existing systems were mostly built on Oracle databases. In particular, no Chinese database had ever been used in systems involving fund settlement and multi-line control centers.

In 2020, Shenzhen Metro Phase 2 project went out for public bidding. The domestic IT application innovation (Xinchuang) drive was flourishing at the time, and Shenzhen Metro was at the forefront of adopting homegrown technology, planning a large-scale deployment of a full-stack domestic software and hardware ecosystem, including the database.With Shenzhen Metro at such a scale, involving multiple intersecting lines and financial transaction settlement, could a Chinese database stand up to the challenge?

At the time, more than 10 metro lines nationwide had already adopted GBase databases for their Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) systems, a near-miracle for a Chinese database vendor, and this gave Shenzhen Metro confidence in choosing GBase. Through multiple rounds of technical exchanges and impressive preliminary test results, GBase database successfully gained entry into Shenzhen Metro's core systems.

In Shenzhen Metro Phase 2, the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system, the AFC Clearing Center (ACC), the Multi-line Central Computer System (CLC), and the Internet Ticketing Management System all adopted GBase databases as the underlying data store.

The GBase database lived up to expectations. Since going live in 2022, it has been running stably,supporting four lines of Shenzhen Metro, serving millions of citizens daily, and meeting the peak transaction volume requirement of 10 million per hour.
 
The Shenzhen Metro project was significant for GBase, achieving a historic breakthrough from single-line metro systems into the core fund-related transactions and multi-line control centers of the subway. Before this, no Chinese database had ever been deployed in such core rail transit systems; since then, Chinese database vendors no longer need to prove that their technology can deliver.

This project was the first time a Chinese database achieved a full-stack replacement with Chinese technology, from line-level to central-level systems, in a first-tier city.Since then, in the rail transit sector, more and more users have been willing to try building business information systems with Chinese databases. The door to core transportation systems was no longer monopolized by foreign vendors; Chinese databases had a precedent for competing head-to-head and surpassing them.

In the early days of adopting homegrown technology, the GBase database shattered doubts about Chinese software, leading the market education in the transportation sector, validating the availability and stability of Chinese databases, and paving the way for those who followed. Henceforth, the road to technology self-reliance was smooth and clear.