To turn this vision into reality, CUSS defines a system architecture as well as technical and administrative processes to build a platform that can be used by any application that adheres to the defined standard.

• The system architecture is as open as possible but defines fixed interfaces using the CORBA standard which allows system independence and interoperability between different implementation languages.
• Administrative processes contain service-level agreements between service and platform providers to ensure a nearly 100% availability of service.
• Certification ensures that platforms and applications follow the defined processes and specification and verifies that a specific platform can operate multiple applications - or a specific application runs on different platforms. This certification is done by an independent, IATA controlled process.

The CUSS standard defines

Application Manager    to control the launch screen and the kiosk applications
Applications                to provide services to the customer
Device components     provide access to hardware devices in kiosks
System Management   supervision of CUSS network and control of single kiosks

Platform parts:

• Device components
• Application Manager
• System Management

Platform at airports:

• Network
• Kiosks
• System Management

Connection to Airline Systems:

• Internet as transport medium
• Airline Business Logic Servers
• Airline Hosts