Edge Bridges

Edge bridges let Vistralio reach devices on remote LANs without inbound port-forwarding.

Current model

There are now two related objects:

• Areas: logical locations used by devices and dashboard grouping
• Edge Routers: actual bridge identities/tokens/devices

An edge router has:

• one primary area
• optional additional areas
• a pinned device fingerprint
• a live metrics payload

Enrolment flow

1. Create the Area
2. Create the Edge Router
3. Assign one or more areas to that router
4. Copy the full install command shown in the admin panel — it includes the server URL and token pre-filled
5. Run the install command on the bridge device

New edge routers connect through wss://connect.vistralio.co.uk/api/edge/ws. The install command in Admin → Setup → Edge Routers always reflects the current API hostname setting.

Metrics and health

The bridge reports:

• hostname / platform
• public IP
• internal IP
• latency
• CPU / RAM / disk metrics

These are surfaced in the dashboard and edge router admin pages.

Stream handling

Bridge streaming is split from the main API:

• vistralio-media (:8200) manages bridge tunnel lifecycle
• the bridge host authenticates to the remote device
• the central server consumes a local proxy URL
• latest frames are written atomically to /dev/shm/vistralio/cam_{id}.jpg — live view clients read the shared file instead of opening a third RTSP connection (most bridge cameras allow max 2 simultaneous connections)

This is important for devices that do not behave well when the server tries to negotiate RTSP auth directly across the WAN path.

Recovery behavior

Bridge camera recovery now runs on both sides:

• the bridge detects stalled camera streams
• the media service detects stale local frames
• either side can force a fresh tunnel/session

Reconnect timing on the bridge is:

• attempts 1-30: every 5 seconds
• attempts 31-60: every 15 seconds
• attempts 61+: every 30 seconds

Two-way audio

Talkback for supported device types also works over the bridge path. Vistralio opens the configured talkback path through the bridge instead of opening it directly from the main server.

Doorbells

Bridge-connected doorbells can report doorbell_press events back into the main event pipeline.

Remote commands

From Admin → Edge Routers, you can send remote commands to a connected bridge. Commands are only available when the router is online.

Command	Effect
update	Pull latest bridge software update
restart	Restart the bridge agent
reboot	Full device reboot

Command sending requires the sites.command permission.

Metrics snapshot

Click Download metrics on any edge router in the admin panel to download a JSON snapshot of its current metrics, system information, and connection data. This is useful for support diagnostics.

The snapshot is available via GET /api/edge-routers/{id}/metrics-snapshot and requires sites.view.

Live stream architecture

All cameras (bridge and direct) write detect frames to /dev/shm/vistralio/cam_{id}.jpg using shared memory. The live viewer reads this shared file instead of opening a new RTSP connection. This is important for bridge cameras, which typically allow a maximum of two simultaneous RTSP connections.

Related API endpoints

• GET /api/sites
• POST /api/sites
• DELETE /api/sites/{id}
• GET /api/edge-routers
• POST /api/edge-routers
• PUT /api/edge-routers/{id}
• POST /api/edge-routers/{id}/rotate-token
• POST /api/edge-routers/{id}/command — send update/restart/reboot command (requires sites.command)
• GET /api/edge-routers/{id}/metrics-snapshot — download JSON metrics snapshot (requires sites.view)
• DELETE /api/edge-routers/{id}
• WS /api/edge/ws