System and method of transferring data through transaction process

• US 8,170,928 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2008
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mtrex Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mtrex Incorporated
• Inventors: Knowles, W. Jeffrey, Matthews, David J., Day, Russell Hales
• Primary Examiner(s): Ade, Garcia
• Application Number:
  US12/276,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,254 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/381 Currency conversion

Abstract

A transaction process system (10) provides for data transactions between parties. In a credit card transaction, the parties are the merchant (20), acquiring bank (24), card association (34), issuing bank (14), and cardholder (12). A transaction processing center (30) is positioned between the acquiring bank and the card association. The transaction processing center provides data processing channels for message-based processing (72) and filed-based processing (76). The file-based processing uses an incoming queue (80) and outgoing queue (84) to simplify the interface. The transaction processing center also provides for currency conversions and account reconciliation on a per transaction basis. The transaction processing center uses a scheduler (160) to efficiently manage the data processing resources.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of processing a plurality of credit card transactions through a transaction processing system, comprising:

receiving the credit card transactions over a first communication link from a plurality of data sources, the credit card transactions including first priority transactions for purchase authorization requests and purchase authorization confirmations, the credit card transactions further including second priority transactions for clearing and settlement, reporting, reconciliation requests, error corrections, refund transactions, and administrative functions;

separating the first priority transactions from the second priority transactions;

routing the first priority transactions over a second communication link to a data destination;

routing the second priority transactions to an incoming queue;

storing the second priority transactions in a register of the incoming queue as a plurality of transaction files each having data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction to describe credit card transactions for goods or services, the register accommodating variable length files with associated start and stop locations for each file;

providing a data processing system including a plurality of data processing units, each data processing unit being configured at a given time to process one type of transaction file in the incoming queue based on the data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction;

selecting a data processing unit to process a first type of transaction file from the incoming queue by matching the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file with the data processing unit which is configured to process the first type of transaction file;

processing the first type of transaction file in the data processing unit configured for the first type of transaction file, the data processing unit including software for parsing the data, performing currency conversions, error checking, adding data content, reformatting data content, and performing administrative functions;

re-configuring an idle data processing unit, originally configured for processing the data contents and file attributes of another type of transaction file, to process the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file if a plurality of the first type of transaction files are waiting in the incoming queue;

placing the second priority transactions in an outgoing queue after processing in the data processing system; and

routing the second priority transactions from the outgoing queue over a third communication link to the data destination.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further including routing the second priority transactions from the outgoing queue to the data destination upon receiving file ready for transfer instruction.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further including:

selecting a data processing unit to process a second type of transaction file from the incoming queue by matching the data contents and file attributes of the second type of transaction file with the data processing unit which is configured to process the second type of transaction file; and

processing the second type of transaction file in the data processing unit configured for the second type of transaction file, the data processing unit including software for parsing the data, performing currency conversions, error checking, adding data content, reformatting data content, and performing administrative functions.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first type of transaction file is identified by a value of a data field stored in the data contents of the first type of transaction file.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first type of transaction file is identified by a file attribute of the first type of transaction file.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the file attribute is a file extension name.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further including accessing a data storage medium during processing of the transaction files.

8. A computer implemented method of processing a plurality of credit card transactions through a transaction processing system, comprising:

receiving the credit card transactions over a first communication link from a plurality of data sources, the credit card transactions including first priority transactions for purchase authorization requests and purchase authorization confirmations, the credit card transactions further including second priority transactions for clearing and settlement, reporting, reconciliation requests, error corrections, refund transactions, and administrative functions;

separating the first priority transactions from the second priority transactions;

routing the first priority transactions over a second communication link to a data destination;

routing the second priority transactions to an incoming queue;

storing the second priority transactions in a register of the incoming queue as a plurality of transaction files each having data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction to describe credit card transactions for goods or services, the register accommodating variable length files with associated start and stop locations for each file;

providing a data processing system including a plurality of data processing units, each data processing unit being configured at a given time to process one type of transaction file in the incoming queue based on the data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction;

selecting a data processing unit to process a first type of transaction file from the incoming queue by matching the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file with the data processing unit which is configured to process the first type of transaction file;

processing the first type of transaction file in the data processing unit configured for the first type of transaction file;

placing the second priority transactions in an outgoing queue after processing in the data processing system; and

routing the second priority transactions from the outgoing queue over a third communication link to the data destination.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, further including re-configuring an idle data processing unit, originally configured for processing the data contents and file attributes of another type of transaction file, to process the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file if a plurality of the first type of transaction files is waiting in the incoming queue.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the data processing unit includes software for parsing the data, performing currency conversions, error checking, adding data content, reformatting data content, and performing administrative functions.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the first type of transaction file is identified by a value of a data field stored in the data contents of the first type of transaction file.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the first type of transaction file is identified by a file attribute of the first type of transaction file.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein the file attribute is a file extension name.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 8, further including accessing a data storage medium during processing of the transaction files.

15. A computer implemented method of processing a plurality of credit card transactions through a transaction processing system, comprising:

receiving the credit card transactions over a first communication link from a plurality of data sources, the credit card transactions including first priority transactions and second priority transactions, the first priority transactions being higher priority than the second priority transactions;

separating the first priority transactions from the second priority transactions;

routing the first priority transactions over a second communication link to a data destination;

routing the second priority transactions to an incoming queue;

storing the second priority transactions in a register of the incoming queue as a plurality of transaction files each having data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction to describe credit card transactions for goods or services;

providing a data processing system including a plurality of data processing units, each data processing unit being configured at a given time to process one type of transaction file in the incoming queue based on the data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction;

selecting a data processing unit to process a first type of transaction file from the incoming queue by matching the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file with the data processing unit which is configured to process the first type of transaction file;

processing the first type of transaction file in the data processing unit configured for the first type of transaction file;

placing the second priority transactions in an outgoing queue after processing in the data processing system; and

routing the second priority transactions from the outgoing queue over a third communication link to the data destination.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first priority transactions include purchase authorization requests and purchase authorization confirmations and the second priority transactions include clearing and settlement, reporting, reconciliation requests, error corrections, refund transactions, and administrative functions.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the register accommodates variable length files with associated start and stop locations for each file.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 15, further including re-configuring an idle data processing unit, originally configured for processing the data contents and file attributes of another type of transaction file, to process the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file if a plurality of the first type of transaction files are waiting in the incoming queue.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the data processing unit including software for parsing the data, performing currency conversions, error checking, adding data content, reformatting data content, and performing administrative functions.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first type of transaction file is identified by a value of a data field stored in the data contents of the first type of transaction file.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first type of transaction file is identified by a file attribute of the first type of transaction file.

22. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for processing data through a transaction processing system comprising:

receiving the credit card transactions over a first communication link from a plurality of data sources, the credit card transactions including first priority transactions for purchase authorization requests and purchase authorization confirmations, the credit card transactions further including second priority transactions for clearing and settlement, reporting, reconciliation requests, error corrections, refund transactions, and administrative functions;

separating the first priority transactions from the second priority transactions;

routing the first priority transactions over a second communication link to a data destination;

routing the second priority transactions to an incoming queue;

storing the second priority transactions in a register of the incoming queue as a plurality of transaction files each having data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction to describe credit card transactions for goods or services, the register accommodating variable length files with associated start and stop locations for each file;

providing a data processing system including a plurality of data processing units, each data processing unit being configured at a given time to process one type of transaction file in the incoming queue based on the data contents and file attributes as defined by the data source which originated the second priority transaction;

selecting a data processing unit to process a first type of transaction file from the incoming queue by matching the data contents and file attributes of the first type of transaction file with the data processing unit which is configured to process the first type of transaction file;

processing the first type of transaction file in the data processing unit configured for the first type of transaction file;

placing the second priority transactions in an outgoing queue after processing in the data processing system; and

routing the second priority transactions from the outgoing queue over a third communication link to the data destination.