Introduction

Project Deadlock: RFID Physical Access Control System

... for opening doors and more.

This project aims to create an open-source system for our university that will allow ISO/IEC 14443a compatible cards (like International Student/Teacher Identification Cards) to be used for accessing doors. We want this system to be:

  • Reliable and secure. The access will be granted when and only when it should be.
  • Easy to use and maintain. Access rules configuration should be fast and simple. Potential failures of certain components should be quick and easy to fix.
  • Fast to deploy and configure. Minimal overhead should be included in deploying this system (cables, etc...)
  • Available. Hardware parts should be cheap to manufacture and components for them should either be available in the future or painlessly replaceable by their newer alternatives.
  • Extensible. The whole system, including the hardware components, should be extensible to perform some function not needed right now in the future.
  • Done. The project is about a year overdue. We really want this system to be done.

(I am sorry, I sound like a businessman. That’s not intentional and I’ll stop that right now.)

We will provide a complete system for managing access rules (integrated with the university’s electronic info system), and the embedded hardware and software.

(OK, I mean it this time. No more businessman)

For a more thorough discussion of the requirements see [[Requirements]].

To better understand these you can read about the [[motivation and history]] of the project here.

Under development

The whole system is under active* development. Some things we are talking about here do not exist yet, do no longer exist, have never existed or may never exist.

(* for the proper definition of the word active. But hey, we are doing what we can!)

Here is a Trello board you can use to monitor the development progress: https://trello.com/b/eUShodyG