Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) is a government-owned enterprise overseen by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, established with the goal of providing convenient railway services to the public.
During peak holiday periods, such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day), train travel becomes the most popular means of transportation for people returning to their hometowns, making train ticket reservations a significant event.
In 2004, KORAIL introduced an online train ticket reservation service, hoping to provide seamless service by leasing an additional 25 Unix servers to supplement their existing infrastructure. However, a sudden surge in traffic caused system resources to exceed 100%, leading to a system failure. This prompted them to consider using NetFUNNEL to manage the traffic surge
To handle the traffic surge, NetFUNNEL was implemented from the initial entry point up to the login button within the holiday train ticket reservation site. They also adjusted the session retention time to disconnect automatically after 60 seconds of inactivity or 3 minutes of non-use, ensuring that system resource usage remained under 80%, allowing for stable service operations without server downtime or service interruptions.
KORAIL, 1 billion passengers over 19 years
- The ticket reservation service was provided to over 620,000 users without interruption.
- The number of customer complaints, which used to reach 500 a day, dropped by more than 90% to 50%.
- The train ticket reservation rate, which had been in the 50% range, increased by more than 10%.
- The best solution was provided for the ongoing traffic overload issue, even with server expansion.
When the service was launched, approximately 420,000 and 200,000 individuals were waiting in line for the Gyeongbu Line and Honam Line, respectively. However, they were able to handle the surge in traffic, and the service operated normally within 2 and 1 hour, respectively, with no waiting customers. Furthermore, the number of complaints, which previously averaged 500 per day, dropped by over 90% to less than 50.
Most notably, the train ticket reservation rate, which was previously around 50%, increased by 10% to the 60% range, proving that traffic control not only ensured stable service and customer experience, but also achieved traffic monetization
What is NetFUNNEL, the Virtual Waiting Room
NetFUNNEL is the virtual waiting room for massive online traffic. Clients can protect your service from traffic spike and ensure seamless service. NetFUNNEL enables cost savings by reducing potential expenses caused by downtime and enhance the customer service experience.
To explain our virtual waiting room solution, effectively preventing downtime caused by unexpected traffic spike, resulting in potential cost savings of up to $300,000 per hour. Successfully defending against traffic surges and ensuring smooth service even during high-demand periods. Improving user experience and enhancing brand reliability by maintaining service availability.
We're STCLab, building a VWR solution called NetFUNNEL. NetFUNNEL has provided VWR solutions to 450 enterprise clients in the South Korean market and currently holds the largest market share. Stay tuned for more information on NetFUNNEL.
