Hi. I have a business application for a closed peer-to-peer network
and I was hoping that the folk here could make some recommendations.
I operate a small vending route, and I'd like for my vending machines
to be networked. I can source PC104 boards capable of running Linux
for under $50 each, and hard drives on the open market. I can
afford internet service (or share it with a store proprietor) for
just a few machines; and I'm wondering what kind of hardware and
software I'd need to deploy to make each installed machine on
the network extend that network to make it available for
further machines.
It needs to scale to the size of vending machine installations in
a large strip mall; hundreds of machines spread over an area 50
or 60 times the radius of a typical wifi network. It needs
to be fault-tolerant (route intelligently or just store packets
for later transmission when someone turns on a vacuum cleaner
and the ten nearest wifi links become unusable) and handle fairly
large bandwidth (surveillence camera footage) on-demand.
The devices on the network should be individually addressable by
each other; a vending machine that gets a bump/tilt input (and may
be under attack by vandals or thieves) or a failed-sale detection
(machine failed to distribute merchandise) should be able to notify
a security-camera unit to look at it and record what's going on in
real-time, whether or not either can access the larger internet
at that moment.
It should be "reasonably" secure that random members of the public
don't get access to it, but should allow restricted access by
people with keys (police, store owners and mall security for
example will want access to the recorded data and video footage).
The Internet gateways should have a different key (ie, even the
cops don't get to surf through my network to locations outside
of it), but the machines should be able to upload their data
to my central server through the internet so I know which ones
need restocked or repaired, etc, before I set out in the morning.
I'm willing to spend a couple hundred dollars and do a bit of
electronic assembly for each machine, and I have off-the-shelf
hardware and software that collects and, for now, just stores
most of the data I'm interested in networking -- bump/tilt
sensors, security cameras, sale/inventory reports, etc. I'm a
reasonably competent linux sysadmin with skills from a
computer-programming career that I'm leaving behind, but never
dealt with mesh networking professionally.
What hardware, software, or protocols would you recommend for
this application?
Bear
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