Do Visa and MasterCard operate private payment networks, and why don’t they rely solely on the public internet?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot12/Feb/20131 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 12/Feb/2013
VISA and Mastercard both do own their network, and in most case lease network access points to securely tunnel via their nodes to their data centers.
I can highlight a bit about VISANet:
VISANet has nodes physically in all the large markets they are in and some virtual nodes in markets where they currently don't deem a physical presence necessary. VISANet leases and owns about 1.2 Million miles of fiber optic network and operates 3 datacenters on in USA and Europe.
They process payments via their VISA Node in each location. Transactions piggy back on financial institution networks (aka Banks, etc.) and then transact with the VISA node for the transactions to be routed and processed.
Most physical (swipe) transactions ride on front-end networks and tunnel their way to the core nodes in each location. Some locations have ancillary nodes that connect to the Internet and process Internet based transactions. Transactions that are out-of-station, but want to take advantage of the VISA Logo (network), simply come on board via a front-end institution and are then routed on the VISANet to the appropriate VISA node for processing (this is how you are able to use your VISA card anywhere in the world where the VISA sign is displayed).
So all in all VISANet connects to both wired, wireless and also the Internet for processing. They do about 10,000 transactions per second, and on any given day average about 130 million transactions, with holiday season and other peak days averaging between 200 to 230 million transactions daily.
In short, depending on how the transaction is done by the end user, it can be routed over a private (closed) network or via the Internet to their again closed network for onward processing.
Source: http://corporate.visa.com/about-...
I can highlight a bit about VISANet:
VISANet has nodes physically in all the large markets they are in and some virtual nodes in markets where they currently don't deem a physical presence necessary. VISANet leases and owns about 1.2 Million miles of fiber optic network and operates 3 datacenters on in USA and Europe.
They process payments via their VISA Node in each location. Transactions piggy back on financial institution networks (aka Banks, etc.) and then transact with the VISA node for the transactions to be routed and processed.
Most physical (swipe) transactions ride on front-end networks and tunnel their way to the core nodes in each location. Some locations have ancillary nodes that connect to the Internet and process Internet based transactions. Transactions that are out-of-station, but want to take advantage of the VISA Logo (network), simply come on board via a front-end institution and are then routed on the VISANet to the appropriate VISA node for processing (this is how you are able to use your VISA card anywhere in the world where the VISA sign is displayed).
So all in all VISANet connects to both wired, wireless and also the Internet for processing. They do about 10,000 transactions per second, and on any given day average about 130 million transactions, with holiday season and other peak days averaging between 200 to 230 million transactions daily.
In short, depending on how the transaction is done by the end user, it can be routed over a private (closed) network or via the Internet to their again closed network for onward processing.
Source: http://corporate.visa.com/about-...