MPTE Walrus Smart Card

[First Class]

RE: MPTE walrus smart card

(26/12/2012 19:51)Bevan Price Wrote:  

(26/12/2012 15:31)First Class Wrote:  The All Zone TRIO is already for sale at Merseytravel ticket centres and is working without any problems whatsoever, (other than letting people travel to Chester/Ormskirk/Ellesmere Port when not supposed to).

The All Zone Railpass will be being sold at selected rail stations in Spring 2013.

ITSO is a very reliable technology, and improvements are continually in development. Millions of bus ITSO passes are in circulation in the form of OAP and Disabled concession passes.

The problem with Merseytravel was that instead of just sticking with one supplier/manufacturer for all ITSO/Walrus related equipment, they went for the cheapest, resulting in a variety of manufacturers.

My ITSO pass works OK on Merseyrail ticket gates, and on many buses locally, and elsewhere in England, but it often gives error (pass not valid, etc.) messages on some operators' buses. Strangely, on Stagecoach Manchester, it seems to work on all buses except those from Stockport depot.

The most common reasons for an ITSO card failing to "register" is a fault with the iSAM Card contained within whatever is reading the card, (e.g. ticket barrier/ticket machine etc).

It is basically a bit bigger than a normal SIM card and allows the device to communicate with the ITSO card securely. The iSAM cards automatically "expire" if they can't sync with the central server every 56 days. If there is a network problem, it can cause the iSAMs to expire, and they will cease to operate until they can be re-synced. It is a security measure so any that are stolen to be "exploited" automatically deactivate.

In your particular example, it would appear that the network connection between Stockport Depot and the Central "HOPS" server is not functional for whatever reason, which have caused the iSAMs to expire. Once the local network connection is resolved, and the iSAMs either replaced or synced, it will be back to normal.

If the iSAM is damaged or the network connection cannot be fixed, you are pretty much screwed for months as the iSAM cards are like hens teeth to obtain, (due to various security requirements) which is why defective equipment can take a while to replace.

As I alluded to earlier, although the ITSO format is very reliable, it is dependent on a number of other potentially unreliable systems, (like typical workplace networks), which cause the problems.



(ITSO Security Application Modules - iSAM)