Interacting nrf51822 Beacon to simulate spreading of disease / record social network

Question

Hello,
I would like to simulate the spreading of a disease using the nrf51822 beacons. My question is if my envisioned project is possible as I'm completly new to nrf51822. 
 The beacons should communicate with each other and send their data to a central node (probably a NRF51822 dongle).
I see two options how to realize my project. 
 
 The beacons record contacts which are below a certain distance and this data can then be read with the central node. The disease would then only be simulated on a PC. 
 
 2.) (preferred) Each beacon transmits its status and upon being "close" (TBD) and for at least some time (TBD) to an infectious beacon, becomes infectious itself and changes its transmitted status. Bonus here would be the recording of the infect time and source. 
 Do you think this can be achieved using the nrf51822 beacons?
Can I use the nrf51822 dongle as central reader and use it to programm the beacons? 
 Thanks for your help in advance.
Tobias

tesc · Accepted Answer

Hi Tobias, 
 This sounds like a fun project, and yes it would be possible with nRF51822 Beacons. 
 It would be possible both with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or by using a simple proprietary protocol. Which one to use depends on what are your requirements and how much "help" you want from using ready-made features already existing for BLE. 
 Since the beacons have two states (healthy and diseased) you could let the diseased ones transmit ("broadcast" in BLE terms) and the healthy ones receive ("observe" in BLE terms). When the RSSI of the received disease broadcast is above a given threshold for a given period time, then the healthy node changes state from healthy to diseased (i.e. switches from receiving to transmitting). 
 You can record the source address (for the disease) and a timestamp at the point of switching, provided that you have code in place to keep track of time. You can also for instance broadcast the timestamp and the source as part of the disease broadcast, so that it can be read using a central node not part of the disease network. If you use BLE you can even have a smartphone app listening to those broadcasts and show the details, graphs and whatnot, on the phone. 
 To reset the beacon (or to toggle the disease status) you can use the buttons, and the rgb led can indicate disease status. 
 For reprogramming the beacons you can for instance use over-the-air direct firmware update (OTA DFU). In that case programming could also be done using Android and iOS phones, as well as by using an nRF dongle connected to a PC. 
 Again I think this sounds like a fun project, and I do hope to hear more about it along the way. 
 Regards, Terje

Interacting nrf51822 Beacon to simulate spreading of disease / record social network

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