Linux-Based Thin-Client Point Of Sale Systems With Mobile Application and Interactive Voice Response System

Abstract

A POS will be built for Adventist University of the Philippines cafeteria to replace the paper meal tickets. The reason for this is to remove ticket printing cost which is currently Php 120,000 for two semesters. It will make use of the currently available barcodes in the IDs of the students. The system will use SMS, WAP, and IVRS inquiry capabilities. To keep costs down, free and opensource systems/softwares/packages like the Linux OS, PostgreSQL ORDBMS, Glade UI Desinger, GNU C/C++ compiler, OpenSSH Secure Tunnel, Linux Terminal Server Project, Linux NFS, Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server, tftp, Etherboot, gnokii, Apache, and IVRS.pm packages will be utilized. Hardware redundancy will be managed in Linux High Availability style which includes drbd - raid over the network, heartbeat server monitoring, mon - service monitor and alert, stonith (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) - power control software and hardware. The Spiral Model will be used to guide development of the system towards a mature and reliable system. Data will be exposed on the cost of research, design, development, implementation, and maintenance; and operational reliability, uptime/downtime, backup server takeover time, security resistance, and overall system availability. The project results will be used in the AUP Cafeteria and the findings will help IT decision makers consider linux-based POSes.