Architecture
Sends GPS positions and other data to the Node.js application. This could be an Android application or any other form of GPS device.
Interface for the system administrators for assigning tracker IDs to the vehicles. All the other administrative actions are done with this interface.
Interface for the general public. Consumes the RESTful service and maps data onto a map. Fetch data from RESTful service every 10 seconds.
Node.js Application processes the raw GPS data and stores in a MongoDB database. Thousands of reads and writes of non relational data could happen in real-time. In a possible scenario, hundreds of GPS units could send raw GPS data to the server every 10 seconds.
Part of the Node.js application works as the RESTful service. In a possible scenario, hundreds of clients may be consuming the RESTful service in real-time, sending hundreds of requests per second. Therefore Node.js is used for this data-intensive real-time application.
This handles the administrative works. Scalability is the main idea; system should be able to adopt new requirements as demanded.