Barr Systems Provides First-Class Host Communications Solutions for Major Airline
The story begins several years ago when administrators at a major airline faced a difficult undertaking: How to update their aging, legacy-based network, which had been used for years to access flight reservations and operations, with a more modern system.
Boarding—At the Gate to the Mainframe
Most mainframes reside in large enterprises, where the success of the company may entirely depend upon integrating legacy systems with newer and still evolving technology, such as e-business applications. This means setting up new architecture in order to get data into and out of the host in a timely and efficient manner. And when you're talking about major airline networks that provide extremely high-volume, mission-critical access to a wide array of host applications, the stakes become even higher. Airline network access involves tens of millions of transactions that must be processed every day—usually while customers and flights wait.
Most of the data and applications for this airline reside on mainframe complexes in its data center. The conduits to these mainframes rely upon controllers that were custom-developed by a third party in the mid-1980s to replace the then-outdated IBM 3705 controllers. By the late 1990s, these controllers had, themselves, become antiquated, with the third-party support quickly waning.
To bring their system up to date, the airline organized a team of middleware developers and network experts to re-engineer the network. The main goal was to make the new system work without a hitch, since mission-critical data and customer confidence were at stake. This overriding need for stability prompted the airline to be wary of significant changes to the host systems. Although the original channel interface specification adequately supported the carrier's performance requirements, the interface adapter was becoming outdated. Therefore, airline officials decided to replace the channel interface modules with ones using newer and more supportable hardware. This presented a challenge, as the interface specification was unique, with no off-the-shelf device emulation available.
The Barr Solution
Barr Systems specializes in this area, providing Software Development Kits (SDKs) that allow companies to build custom solutions for attachment directly to the mainframe channel. The adapter cards used with the Barr SDK support throughput at rated channel speeds, and allow for emulation on relatively inexpensive and readily available platform hardware.
Without this key feature, changes to the host configuration is necessary—a task to be avoided if at all possible. It soon became evident to the airline that the Barr solution offered the best features for their stringent requirements. The team selected the BARR/CHANNEL with Bus & Tag connection as the host communications solution. This allowed the airline to provide TCP/IP connectivity right up to the point of channel connection with the host, allowing the host to focus on airline applications while letting the network handle the message routing.
Cliff Goolsby, the independent contractor who worked closely with the airline to connect its new network to the mainframe, says the Barr SDK enabled the project to go forward at a time when their options seemed to be running out. One of the main roadblocks was the lack of an exact protocol fit with the mainframe. "The Barr SDK let us match the required channel protocol exactly, at a fraction of the cost, while fitting in nicely with the rest of the network architecture," Goolsby says.
Return Flight-Barr's Own Frequent-Flyers
But the story doesn't end there. Now, Goolsby and the airline's support team have come back to Barr to update their SDK solution with the latest technology. Considering their requirements hadn't changed and their reliability concerns remained top priority, they made it a point to return to the trusted leader that had provided them with a working solution when they needed it most.
Interested in achieving even greater speeds without disrupting the successful performance of their current Barr solution, the airline decided to upgrade to Barr's ESCON connection. This would more than double the throughput that the Bus & Tag connection provided, while requiring very little changes to their current system. And, in the process, they would attain a complete fiber-optic link directly from the host to the network, simplifying their connection and increasing over-all flexibility and reliability.
If you're looking for proof of concept for a high-speed device emulation product, a major airline's high-volume, time-sensitive operations are surely a proving ground of choice. With more than 50,000 thousand terminals accessing the system from points worldwide, it's probably fair to say that the success of these systems is of global economic concern. Luckily for everyone, Barr ensured that this airline's critical connection was made at the critical time—enabling passengers, and data, to get to the right destination safely and reliably.
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