Totem 5G

5G totem for access control through NFC/RFID bracelets & recharges.

Comment

casfid bracelet

💡 Inspiration

Access control at large events is very important and must work quickly. Users wear an RFID/NFC bracelet that identifies them in access control. Currently, to carry out this access control, a local Wi-Fi network is usually configured at the event, which is complicated if it is a very large place. In addition, if the event has an "online recharges" system (users can upgrade their access or buy drinks over the Internet), then a synchronization system is also needed between the local network server and the cloud.

But if 5G is used, the response time of the access control system would be very fast and the infrastructure would also be greatly simplified: it would no longer be necessary to deploy a local Wi-Fi network and a synchronization between the cloud and the local server will no longer be necessary.

In addition, until now we used Android phones (connected to the local Wi-Fi network) to read the NFC/RFID bracelets in the access control. But now we are going to create a 5G totem that does the same function but can contain a super fast 5G modem.

🎟️ What it does

Electronic totem that allows super fast access control to event venues. Users wear an NFC/RFID bracelet and the totem reads them. In addition, the system allows users to reactivate their bracelets from a website through the internet. From a web panel the administrator manages the bracelets and checks the number of people inside.

On a technical level, the EC2 instance in AWS Wavelength responds super fast thanks to the connection with the 5G provider and thanks to an internal cache in EC2, which is asynchronously synchronized with the RDS database in the region. The totem uses colored light, sound and screen codes to indicate whether a bracelet can access the event venue or not.

The totem has an RFID/NFC reader on each side, for entrances and exits respectively. One side of the totem has an NFC reader to read the entrance of people and the other side has an NFC reader to read the exit of people from the event venue

🧩 How we built it

We have created an architecture with the following components:

  1. A web server (EC2) in AWS Wavelength, which contains a very fast cache with the information of what bracelets can enter or leave the event venue.

  2. A web server (EC2) in another availability zone, accessible from the internet, which allows:

-- Users to recharge their wristbands.

-- In addition, thanks to a web panel, administrators can register new bracelets and check the access log.

  1. An RDS database. The server in the Availability Zone reads and stores info in this database. The server in the wavelength zone synchronizes its internal cache with the RDS.

  2. A custom totem built with RFID/NFC readers, RGB leds, Android OS and to which we have added a 5G modem.

  3. An Android application, which runs on the Totem. This app reads the RFID/NFC chip of the bracelet, makes the request to the Wavelength server and shows the result quickly: light, beep and message on the screen.

-- 🟢 Green light and a beep if the wristband can access the event venue (for example, because it is a valid wristband and you have not yet accessed it).

-- 🟡 Yellow light and double beep, if the bracelet has just been read a few seconds ago.

-- 🔴 Red light if the bracelet is not valid (for example, if it is not a bracelet from this event or if said bracelet has already accessed and has not yet left the venue).

💪 Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenges have been testing the project in AWS Wavelength, since we are based in Spain and we did not have an AWS Wavelength zone nearby. But we were able to connect from another instance in the associated AWS region (eu-west-2, London).

Another challenge has been to persist the data in Wavelength quickly (cache) and synchronize it with the main RDS (outside of AWS Wavelength). We use a cron every minute for this, asynchronously. It doesn't affect the performance of the system, since the EC2 instance in Wavelength responds by looking at the fast cache.

🔝 Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of the result we have achieved in such a short time. We have learned very quickly to work with AWS Wavelength, we have created an elegant architecture, which allows to recharge the bracelets and carry out the access control. The result (5G) is faster than current solutions (Wi-Fi) and much easier because it saves the installation of the local Wi-Fi network and saves the local server and saves synchronization between cloud and local server. Also, the 5G totem avoids human errors. The teamwork has been awesome.

🧠 What we learned

We've learned to work with AWS wavelength. We've learned to design an architecture where fast processing is in the wavelength part with a cache, but the relational database (less fast) remains outside of wavelength. And we've learned to make a fast and efficient synchronization between both zones.

In addition, we've learned to turn on lights from an android app, which we have never done before.

We've learned to use the electronic board (Khadas brand) with an external 5G modem.

🔮 What's next for Totem 5G

In the future we want to complete the "bracelet recharge" functionality to support real payments as a condition to reactivate bracelets.

We also hope that we can make the totem cheaper to manufacture in the future, when 5G modems become cheaper.

In addition, we want to use the system to access control in a real event in London.

Share this project:

Updates