Introduction to

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CONCERT - COUNTRY-WIDE NETWORK FOR COMPUTERIZED ENHANCED
RESERVATION AND TICKETING :
It is a fully automated passenger reservation system. It allows passengers to
do a booking from anywhere for a journey in any train in any class from
anywhere to anywhere across counter. Concert handles reservations,
modifications, cancellation/ refunds, 39 supervisory on-line functions ,and 30
on-line enquiries. It handles 265 concessions, 165 coach types and 40 types
of quotas
In current PRS network has more than 2600 POPs (points of presence i.e.
booking locations) spread across the country with around 9100 POS (points
of sale i.e. terminals).
Concert System makes fare calculation and accounting easy. Easy Enquiry
Distributed Architecture of PRS.
4 Sites (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata) which maintains data of different
trains
5th site is also included for disaster recovery.
Data is divided into two parts.
1) Static data: data which changes rarely. Such as fare data, train data etc.
This data is kept on each server
2) Dynamic data: data which changes continuously e.g. Passenger data, PNR
data. Current booking data. This data kept on single server. Location of
data is decided by train starting station. Or first digit of PNR Number.
RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) as Middleware: RTR is used to transfer
request to server.
Reservation based on the TDRC (Train, date, Route, Class): to do reservation
in particular train, one must know train number, Journey Date, Route (i.e.
Source and destination) and class.
ARP (advanced Reservation Period) Rules: Currently you can book ticket 120
days prior to date of journey.
Different Quota & Classes: there are 40 types of quotas and 7 classes.

This is the architecture of concert system. Concert system is act as interface

between outside world and database. It provides facility to do reservation from
counter, charting. Enquiry is done through telephone or touchscreen terminals
at railway stations. Internet clients also can do bookings using concert. On other
end of concert 5 data centres are placed, which are located at delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Kolkata and Secundrabad these 5 servers are connected to each other
in mesh topology.

Delivery channels Ticketing

Following are delivery channels for PRS System ticketing. From these channels
user can book tickets.
Counters/Terminals: counters are provided by railway on railway stations.
E-Reservation on Web site www.irctc.co.in . eticketing websites.
Post offices:
Mobile Van
NGeT : irctc website for ticket booking

 YTSK Terminals : terminals provided major railway stations.

Delivery channels Enquiry

From these channels user can do enquiry about availability and confirmation
status of tickets.
Interactive Voice Response System : telephone
Touch Screen : touch screen terminals provided at railway stations.
Reservation Availability Position Indicating Display (RAPID)
Press Availability :
POET
Internet Web Site with URL
www.indianrail.gov.in
Call Center :
SMS
IR Portal
NGeT
INTER-PRS Backbone Network

02 Mbps BSNL Link

As shown in diagram there are 4 servers available for booking

(NDLS,MAS,HWH,CSTM). These 4 servers are connected to each other using
mesh topology. 5th server is used for disaster recovery. It is connected to all other
servers. And backup of all servers is maintained in SC server. If any server fails,
then this server will up and do bookings for that server. Two lines ,railtel and
BSNL are used for if any line fails the other will be active.
6th server is CRIS i.e NGeT it takes input from NGeT website and routes request to
respective server.

The Technology used

PRS integration Layer & Centralised Server
OS: OpenVMS
Database: Flat File System
Server in C language
RTR as middleware to fetch the result of enquiry
NGeT
OS: redhat

 Database: Oracle
Java
JRTR to communicate with PRS

SERVERS

Sys Mgmt

Monitor

TP MANAGER

RTR

Accounting
Allocation
PNR

Performance

SECURITY WALL

Event log

BUS ARCHITECTURE
CLIENT

Archival

CLIENTS

Ext Interface

Reservation

IVRS

Cancellation

RAPID

Modification

MHS

Figure 6: Operational view of a distributed railway reservation system spread over

the entire country

Figure shows operational view of Servers. Servers can perform operations

like Accounting (fare calculation and accounting of login user), Allocation
berth allocation. And PNR status checking. Clients can do reservation,
cancel tickets or modify already booked ticket.
System management is performing monitoring operations. Performance,
and event logs.

Booking Flow :
Flow of booking process is as shown in diagram.
First user(i.e Counter Person) will fill the form with details Passenger name,
train no. Date of journey, source destination, class etc. System will validate
form. Is train running on given date. Source and destination belongs to
given train etc. If everything is ok, then system will generate PNR for given
transaction and calculate fare. After this transaction will start which includes

berth allocation and PNR updation. In berth allocation it will set bit of given
berth as 1 means allocated and in PNR updation it writes passenger details
in file. In this process it will lock records of file till both process finished. All
other restrictions are checked here e.g. passenger wants upper berth. Book
only if confirmed berth. Book in same coach.
After that it will commit all data. Here 2 phase commit is used i.e. if both
writes are successful then final commit will be processed else any commit
fails then both transactions will be rolled back.
Now details of tickets are displayed to user i.e. fare and berth. Now user is
asked to proceed or flush. If flush is selected then PNR is flushed and berth
is released.
Else accounting is done and ticket is printed. If ticket is not printed then
again PNR is flushed and berth is released and accounting is done. And if
ticket is printed successfully then control is returned to booking page. And
another booking will start.

File Structure:
File structure for booking process is as shown fig.
There are three file used for booking process.
1) Maintaining TDRC information and sequence of bits. TDRC is train number,
Date of journey, source and destination, and class. number of bits
corresponds to number of berths for given TDRC. If bit is set then berth is
booked else it is vacant. Here searching of record is done in O(1)

2) Next file is maintaining PNR number and passenger details.

3) Now we dont know which seat belongs to which passenger. Thats why
we are using third file which maintains PNR and TDRC details. now using
these three files we can get which berth is allocated to which passengers.
When user enters details,

PNR- Passanger DTLS

PNR- Passanger DTLS
PNR -Passanger DTLS
.
.
.
.

T D R C - PNR
T D R C - PNR
T D R C PNR
.
.
.
.
.

Introduction to NGeT
The main purpose of NGeT website is book ticket from website. NGeT is
complete interface software between the IRCTC front-end server and the back
end Alpha server. Complete e-reservation and enquiries back end
servers. Ticket printing and reset facilities in existing client. Accounting
reports for the IRCTC transactions. Next Generation e-Ticketing System. It is
one client to PRS. User Can book ticket from any location at any time. Easy to
generate reports for NGeT transactions Paperless ticket