We're about to design an inhouse industry network consisting basically of the following: 1 server connected via wire to up to 100 proprietary RF access points (basically embedded devices), which each can be connected via radio to up to 100 endpoint embedded devices. Something like this:
Now, I'm wondering about some design decisions that we need to take and I'm sure there are plenty of similar designs out there and lots of folks with experiences of them, both good and bad. Maybe you can chime in?
All endpoint devices are independent and will communicate their own unique data to the server, and the other way around. The server therefore needs to be able to target each endpoint device individually. Each endpoint device pairs itself with 1 access point and then talks a proprietary RF protocol to it, TCP/IP is not an option there.
The server will know which endpoint device is paired with which access point, so when the server needs to talk to an individual endpoint device, the communication must go through the paired access point. Hence, the server needs to directly address the access point.
Question: Considering the limited resources available in the proprietary access point, is TCP/IP between server and access point recommended for this scenario? Or would you suggest something entirely different?