PAYMENT PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR USE IN A RETAIL ENVIRONMENT HAVING SEGMENTED ARCHITECTURE

摘要

A retail fueling environment (300) having a secure LAN portion including a plurality of fuel dispensers (102), each fuel dispenser (102) generating non-sensitive transaction data and having a customer interface with a dispenser card reader (105) and a PIN pad (110) to receive sensitive payment information from a customer, characterized in that the retail fueling environment (300) includes:
(a) a store LAN portion of the retail fueling environment (300) comprising a server workstation (106) having a cashier work station (124) that provides means for effecting a transaction for one or more items offered for sale by the retail fueling environment (300), the store LAN portion of the retail fueling environment (300) does not handle sensitive payment information and is segmented from the secure LAN portion that handles the sensitive payment information; and,
(b) at least one customer card reader (116) for receiving the sensitive payment information from the customer, the customer card reader (116) being a part of the secure LAN portion of the retail fueling environment (300) and associated with the server workstation (106);
(c) an enhanced dispenser hub (302) that is part of the secure LAN portion of the retail fueling environment (300), the enhanced dispenser hub device (302):
(i) receives the sensitive payment information from the dispenser card reader (105) or from the at least one customer card reader (116);
(ii) receives the non-sensitive transaction data from the fuel dispensers (102);
(iii) comprises a network payment module (128) and transmits the sensitive payment information and non-sensitive transaction data such that the:
- sensitive payment information is not transmitted to the store LAN portion of the retail fueling environment and is transmitted to a financial institution for validation of the transaction using the network payment module (128); and,
- non-sensitive transaction data is transmitted to the server workstation (106); and,
(iv) comprises a forecourt module (126) that controls the operation of the fuel dispensers (102).