Opticon EBS-50, Спецификация устройства

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1 Overview
The EBS-50 is a base station, equipped with two 2.4GHz radios for data communication with
Opticon’s electronic shelf labels (ESLs) plus a built-in computer that runs the Opticon ESL
server. The EBS-50 allows for a very compact ESL system. Everything needed for a running
system is the EBS-50 itself, a power supply, and an Ethernet connection (Wi-Fi is optional) plus
of course the ESLs themselves.
The product uses Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum RF technology that allows for an ultra-low
power consumption combined with a reduced sensitivity to background noise. That means less
interference by other radios that operate in the 2.4GHz band. The radio protocol that is used is
based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard that specifies the physical layer and media access control
for low-rate wireless personal area networks.
The base station can run a local price/article database on its own flash disk that can be updated
remotely, either manually or automatically with database triggers, or it can be configured to use
an external database. With the information from the database, the EBS-50 can create images
for the ESLs that are connected to it and send those to the corresponding ESLs. Having the
option to run the database either locally or externally allows for a very flexible setup of the ESL
system, from a very small stand-alone system to very large cloud-based system where the EBS-
50 is then the gateway in the shop to the Internet. In that case, a central dashboard server is
required where the EBS-50 can upload status information.
The EBS-50 can be controlled via a web browser on any device that connects to the same
network. There is no need to connect a keyboard and/or monitor to it, which makes it easier to
install the EBS-50 in the most convenient location. Maintenance and configuration to the EBS-
50 can then be done from any location provided that that location is connected to the same
network as the EBS-50. It is even possible to do that from a remote location but in that case, a
VPN tunnel is required because of safety concerns. The EBS-50 can setup that VPN tunnel by
itself, provided that the remote location already has a VPN server running but this is usually not
needed. The EBS-50s can download configuration and maintenance files from a central server
and will store its status information there.