web service for a physical device, which technology/protocols to use?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

(Please note that I am self-learning beginner)

I am developing a web server for a device that to be connected in a network. Its services will mostly be used in local large networks, not on Internet.

To be specific, the device is an Under Vehicle Inspection System (UVIS), that records video when vehicles pass and do some processing with it, then it will send it to a connected authorized local client to view and to a database (i.e. event based system).

First, I have searched for technology/protocols used by printer web services (network printers), and found that there are specific protocols for printers, and some are even specific to some manufacturers.

I came across the WS-* stack, (actually I have made a simple implementation for discovering IP-cameras using WS-Discovery and used SOAP with some functions defined by Onvif specifications), but I found this complex and not sure if it worth taking the risk of delving in this world. A little search about this revealed that this mostly used by windows systems (actually Microsoft is a major developer for these standards).

I am looking for other off-the-shelf technology/protocols, that has discovery features, simple to implement, integrable with other devices, wide-spread and future proof.

Can someone enlighten me on this?

Until now my plan is to use WS-Discovery (as it has IANA-reserved multi-cast address) to get a Websocket uri, and implement a simple protocol of my own on that. I chose websocket over normal socket as it has a chance to be used with browser applications.