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Telephone
Banking
C Programming
TCP/IP
Interface
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A
new version of the Rabobank's Telephone banking system (Rabofoon)
implemented its telephony and voice response functionality on RS6000
hardware, running AIX. All database & banking functionality
was still performed on the Tandem server systems. Each
user telephone call to the Rabofoon system required a connection/session
to be established between the RS6000 and Tandem platforms.
The
implementation of an interface between the AIX system and the Rabofoon
Tandem was initially intended to be a Standard TCP/IP based Remote
Server Call environment.
However, some software version incompatibility problems arose between the IBM and
Tandem systems. These problems were encountered at a crucial stage
of system integration and testing. Tony assisted in formulating an
alternative approach. The original approach
was modified slightly and required Rabo to custom build a PSUEDO-RSC
interface. The
PSUEDO-RSC interface was actually a custom built based Pathway
environment which ran many server processes.
Each server provides a dedicated TCP/IP socket connection between
the AIX and the Tandem. When one of these servers needs to pass data on
to the existing Rabofoon/EDB system, it uses standard PATHSEND functions
to initiate Inter-Process messages. The approach meant NO changes were
required to the Rabofoon Telebanking application, and only minor changes
to the newly developed Telephony application.
Some test software was available, but
with very limited functionality. Tony debugged and corrected various
problems in the test software and used it as a single session interface,
to help crucial testing and integration to proceed without delay. Tony then
designed and programmed the more production orientated PSUEDO RSC TCP/IP socket
server interface for connecting the two systems. This interface offered multi session functionality,
and included much greater configuration flexibility, event
logging, etc.
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