A three tier rapid mass programming method

Various research activities require the programming of a large numbers of devices. This programming can be difficult to co-ordinate and organise, and requires considerable labour time. These issues often mean that testing on real hardware is abandoned or taken only to small scale implementation thus limiting the real-world findings. The method described in this paper adopts a three-tiered approach to programming large numbers of devices. Tier 1 is comprised of a single Master Controller which is networked to individual tower modules, these towers form the final 2 tiers with the Local Controller as tier 2 and up-to 15 target devices forming tier 3. The Master Controller co-ordinates and distributes the code for each device to the Local Controller which then programs the target devices. In the domain of networking this allows for: • Large networks of varied protocols to be programmed quickly, since towers are programmed in parallel, additional towers don’t extend programming times. • Distributed networks are possible since towers are controlled over Ethernet. • Dramatically reduced labour time and defect rates due to human error in setting up devices. • This paper presents the implementation of this method for IoT Networking research with ESP-01 Target devices.