Maryanne Morrison

1
GROUP 7

• Maryanne Morrison
• Jeffrey Brown
• Brian Daniel
• Michael Shumate

2
ARCHER FREIGHT LINES

• A Regional Truck Freight company which its
  primary operation is the American Midwest.
• It has freight offices in 50 towns and cities in
  this area.
• The Company has experienced rapid growth over the
  last five years.

3
AFLs Rapid Growth

• This company has experienced rapid growth over
  the last five years
• The effects of this growth have been the erosion
  of AFLs cash position due to financing its
  expansion and a growing strain on the capacity of
  the computing system

4
CASE OBJECTIVE

• Micro-to-mainframe links
• Microcomputer data communications software for
  micro-to-mainframe links
• Mainframe data communications software for
  micro-to-mainframe links
• Microcomputer data communication hardware for
  micro-to-mainframe links.

5
Cost of Expansion

• To accommodate the companys growth, there has
  been great advancements in equipment, tractors,
  and trailers.
• AFL expansion has also affected computer usage.
• Over the years the hardware system has been
  upgraded with additional memory, data
  communication lines, disk drives, etc.

6
The Cost of Expansion

• Expanding AFLs computing capabilities will thus
  require a new, larger computer or additional
  computers.
• Upgrading to a larger system will incur one of
  those large expenses AFL is trying to avoid.
• Estimates exceed up to 500,000 for the hardware
  alone.

7
AFLs Current Computing System

• AFL started its systrem in 1968 with a relatively
  small mainframe computer.
• Its current system is a late model computer with
  over 125 terminals connected.
• At the peak processing load the number of active
  terminals is approx 70

8
AFLs Current Computing System

• During peak periods users have begun experiencing
  very long response times
• There are six categories to which applications
  fall into office administration, accounting and
  financial, mgmt information, scheduling and
  routing, fleet maintenance, and customer service.
  These are all through a variety of terminals.

9
Home Office Computing

• New equipment has been installed in the home
  offices.
• All of the newer terminals are terminals
  operating in synchronous or asynchronous mode.
• Terminals in the home operate at speeds of either
  9600bps or 19,200bps
• Home offices use a wider range of applications
  than remote users

10
Remote Office Computing

• Remote users are restricted in the applications
  they can use by lower line speed, the cost of
  transmission facilities, and in many cases by
  slow hard copy terminals.
• Remote users are looking for support in
  processing, database applications, scheduling,
  accounting, and spreadsheet analysis.

11
Analysis of AFLs Terminal Network

• Microcomputers will be in place of terminals
  which each computer will cost around 5,000 to be
  properly equipped with all its needs.
• There is around 125 terminals being used within
  the company
• A strategic replacement program however may be
  able to realize the goal of providing power where
  needed.

12
Archer Freight Lines

• At AFL, terminals can replaced with mirocomputers
  but the estimated cost of nearly 5000 for the
  125 units would equate that of a computer
  upgrade. Annette Palmisano has be given the
  project of analyzing the existing system and
  will recommend one or more solutions. Her report
  is divided into three sections details of the
  existing network, how microcomputers can be
  networked to a host system, and recommendations
  on how to proceed.

13
Archer Freight Lines Details of the existing
network

• Terminals at AFL are installed in all company
  locations, with the environment determining the
  types of certain systems. Remote freight offices
  are connected by an X.25 link because connection
  must be established throughout the workday. When
  AFL first started, traffic was insufficient to
  justify the cost of leased lines and individual
  phone calls would have been even more expensive
  than the X.25 service.

14
Archer Freight Lines Details of the existing
network

• Freight offices typically contact the home office
  in the morning and evening to report equipment
  status and obtain both shipping and route
  schedules. However, during business hours an
  office will connect to the home office to perform
  tasks such as tracking shipments, shipment
  updates, and basic e-mail services. Several of
  the freight offices only have one terminal that
  is an old, hard copy device.

15
Archer Freight Lines Details of the existing
network

• The following equipment list helps to summarize
  the problem
• Home Office 35-terminals, 23-smart
  synchronous, 5-smart asynchronous, 5-dumb CRT,
  2-dumb HC
• 3 Maint Shops 15-terminals, 3-smart
  synchronous,5- smart asynchronous, 4-dumb CRT,
  3-dumb HC
• 50 Remote Freight Offices 22- smart
  asynchronous, 6-dumb CRT, 34 sites only have one
  dumb HC terminal, 10-sites have multiple HC
  devices.

16
Archer Freight Lines Details of the existing
network

• Most locations at Archer Freight Lines operate at
  a mere 1200 bps, with the larger offices
  transmitting at speeds of 2400 bps. Remote
  offices would prefer to expand their services to
  include word processing, database management and
  scheduling applications. Hard copy terminals are
  too slow to support input and output needs. The
  hard copy devices are also incapable of
  supporting the page mode interface required by
  most of AFLs applications. In addition,
  training must accompany any additional
  capabilities provided.

17
Local Area Networks

• Part 2 of the report talks about how
  microcomputers are linked to AFLs system.
• Two ways she talks about are LANs and direct
  host and microcomputer links.

18
Local Area Networks

• The LAN can be connected to the AFL host computer
  in two ways.
• First, the host can act as the network file
  server or simply as another node on the LAN.
  This applies only to a LAN located in the home
  office complex

19
Micro-to-host links

• Second, is to provide a gateway between a remote
  LAN server and the host.
• This can be used for LANs in remote offices.

20
Need for Micro-to-host links

• Two of AFLs problems can be resolved by placing
  microcomputers in remote freight offices.
• This can provide computing power at a remote area
  without increasing the costs of data
  communications.
• Microcomputers in remote offices have the
  potential of reducing the reliance on host
  processing, and hence can decrease the processing
  load of the host system.

21
Single Terminal Offices

• Remote offices have two basic needs
• Additional computing power
• access to data programs on the host system.
• Both are available via terminals connected to the
  host.

22
Implementation

• Host to microcomputer links can be established in
  a variety of ways. Transmission to and from the
  host can use a synchronous or synchronous
  protocols. Under each of these protocols there
  are a number of ways that a microcomputer can
  represent itself to a host. These ways are
  referred to as terminal emulation.

23
Hardware

• The hardware necessary to connect a microcomputer
  to a host is a logic card that interfaces to the
  communications medium. The logic card occupies a
  microcomputers expansion slot or is combined
  with other logic cards on a multifunction board.

24
Software

• If the microcomputers only function during the
  connection is to run applications that can be run
  on a terminal, no special software is needed.
• Other software may be required for the remote
  offices operations.

25
Archer Freight Lines

• Extraction, Transfer, and Formatting

26
Extraction

• Certain types of data are needed to be extracted
  by various persons located within the company.
• The entire host database is too large to fit on
  to disks.
• Users look at what they need to look at and
  nothing else.

27
Extraction

• Three methods have been suggested
• A specific program written just for the company.
• A database manipulation language like SQL.
• Cooperating software on both a microcomputer and
  the host.

28
Extraction

• The third method is the best option for the
  company.
• This type of system allows extraction, transfer
  and formatting in one simple step.

29
Transfer

• Data must be moved across communication links to
  the microcomputer.
• Some common methods for doing so are Kermit,
  TCP/IP, Xmodem, and Ymodem.
• Data Transfer software must be present on both
  the microcomputer and the host.

30
Formatting

• Data must be reformatted to make it compatible
  for use on the microcomputer.
• A few examples are Changing data codes-EBCDIC to
  ASCII.
• Changing data formats-Packed decimal to Binary.
• Changing organization-database records format to
  a common delimited format for spreadsheets.

31
Additional Software

• A type of software that allows one microcomputer
  to control another over a communications link.
• Two parts to the software A Requester and a
  Server.
• With this type of software several functions are
  possible.

32
Conclusion

• If microcomputers are used, there are a few items
  that need to be resolved, such as
• Cost-must be low in order to avoid straining AFL.
  
• Security-Allow certain users access to certain
  files
• Control-Eliminate use of leisure time during work
  time.
• Training-Bring users update about software.
• Configurations at multi-terminal locations
• Data Communications Facilities
• Terminal emulation
• Transmission Protocol

33
Maryannes Question

• List the Categories to which applications fall
  into

34
Jeffs Question

• What are the two transmission speeds of Archer
  Freight Lines remote terminals and larger home
  offices?

35
Brians Question

• What hardware is necessary to connect a
  microcomputer to a host?

36
Michaels Question

• List some of the Items that need to be resolved
  in order for microcomputers to be used in this
  application.