NOVADIB: a novel architecture for asynchronous, distributed, real-time banking modeled on loosely-coupled parallel processors

The author observes that the banking process may be mathematically mapped to a discrete-event simulation system wherein deposits, withdrawals, and transfers may be modeled as events that are introduced into the system asynchronously. An architecture, NOVADIB, is proposed for the check processing subsystem of the Federal Reserve System. It distributes the processing to multiple concurrent cooperating computers at many sites to achieve real-time transaction processing. A user's most recent account balance and the banking privileges of withdrawal, deposit, and transfer are available transparently at any bank within the USA. The ability to initiate multiple transactions corresponding to a single account, simultaneously in time, at different geographical points, is permitted by NOVADIB. NOVADIB guarantees the accuracy of every transaction. The NOVADIB architecture requires that the banking nodes be connected through a ring network. Performance analysis indicates that this approach achieves a very high throughput for transaction processing.<
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