System Architecture

System Architecture

XCAM is the camera edge node inside the MKME X stack. It does not replace XTOC, XCOM, XNODE, an NVR, or a hardened commercial camera system. It gives the local network small camera endpoints that XTOC can view, label, and operationalize.

Logical layers

Layer	Products	Responsibility
Command and shared picture	XTOC	Video ISR, packet archive, map overlays, Sentinel ingest, shared operational context, and bridge workflows.
Camera edge	XCAM	ESP32 camera capture, RTSP, MJPEG, snapshot, browser setup, local status, and optional Sentinel motion alerts.
Field operator software	XCOM	Offline field packet, map, radio, and import/export workflows.
Wearable/handheld endpoint	XNODE	Watch/T-Deck alerts, maps, GPS, mesh, SOS, CheckIn, and synced operator context.
Passive intel and analysis	XINTEL, XCORE	Local radio-intel monitoring and offline analysis around the same operational data.

Video data flow

The common XCAM video flow is:

Camera sensor
  -> ESP32 camera driver
  -> XCAM firmware
  -> RTSP, MJPEG, or snapshot URL
  -> trusted LAN or field LAN
  -> XTOC Video ISR tile or compatible local viewer

The operator-facing URLs are:

rtsp://<thing-name>.local:554/mjpeg/1
http://<thing-name>.local/stream
http://<thing-name>.local/snapshot

The status page also exposes IPv4 versions of each URL for networks where .local name resolution is unavailable.

Motion-alert data flow

When enabled, motion alerts follow this flow:

Camera frame
  -> 8x8 visual digest
  -> changed-percent score
  -> threshold and consecutive-hit check
  -> XTOC T=11 SENTINEL packet text
  -> HTTP POST to local MANET bridge /send endpoint
  -> XTOC Sentinel ingest

The bridge URL is configured in the browser setup page. A typical local target is:

http://<xtoc-laptop-lan-ip>:8095/send

XCAM normalizes the configured bridge URL by trimming trailing slashes and appending /send when needed.

Device identity model

Each device starts with a unique default thing name:

xcam-<six-hex-character-suffix>

Operators should rename cameras to the physical location or role the TOC will use, for example:

xcam-front-gate
xcam-yard-north
xcam-drone-bench
xcam-radio-room

That name drives the local hostname and the URL labels operators copy into XTOC.

Runtime model

The firmware is built on:

• PlatformIO with Arduino ESP32.
• IotWebConf for provisioning, configuration storage, captive portal behavior, and config forms.
• ESP32 camera driver through the OV2640 camera wrapper.
• Micro-RTSP for RTSP serving.
• WebServer routes for status, config, stream, snapshot, restart, and optional flash LED control.
• mDNS for friendly local discovery.
• Embedded status HTML from html/index.min.html.

Current implementation anchors

• PlatformIO environments: platformio.ini
• Board definitions: boards/*.json
• Main firmware loop and routes: src/main.cpp
• Status page template: html/index.html
• Motion-alert packet helpers: include/motion_alert.h
• Host regression test: test/motion_alert_host_test.cpp
• Host test runner: scripts/run-host-tests.py