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.