REMOTE ANOMALY DIAGNOSIS AND RECONFIGURATION OF AN AUTOMATIC DATA COLLECTION DEVICE PLATFORM OVER A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

• US 20030014505A1
• Filed: 01/29/1999
• Published: 01/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: HUNT, JEFFREY M., RAMBERG, JON R., KATSANDRES, JAMES T., SHOEMAN, PAUL DAVID
• Granted Patent: US 6,857,013 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

The invention provides a system and method for remotely diagnosing and repairing a plurality of Automatic Data Collection (“ADC”) device platforms. A remote service technician utilizes a computing system having browsing software that communicates with a network of ADC platform devices. Diagnostic queries for particular ADC devices may be retrieved by the browsing software from a diagnostic server that sends Hypertext Mark-Up Language (“HTML”) documents, Dynamic Hypertext Mark-Up Language (“DHTML”) documents, and/or Extensible Mark-Up Language (“XML”) documents containing appropriate diagnostic applets. The remote technician sends diagnostic queries to a Simple Network Management Protocol (“SNMP”) master agent at the ADC device platform, and a translator translates the diagnostic queries sent to the ADC device platform into a format suitable for reception by its ADC devices in order to effect anomaly diagnosis and functionality restoration. Another translator translates data received from the ADC device into the SNMP format for transmission to the remote service technician in order for the remote service technician to perform diagnostic analysis. The SNMP master agent communicates with the remote computing system using the Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”), the User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol (“UDP/IP”), and/or the User Datagram Plus Protocol (“UDP+”). The ADC platform device may also utilize a wireless communication system for communicating with the remote service technician.

Claims

1. A system for diagnosing anomalies in an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a reportedly anomalous element, comprising;

a remote computing system that sends a diagnostic query over a communications network to the ADC device platform;

a Simple Network Management Protocol (“

SNMP”

) master agent in the ADC device platform that receives the diagnostic query, sends the diagnostic query to the reportedly anomalous element, receives a response to diagnostic query, and sends the response to the remote computing system; and

a diagnostic analysis unit in the remote computing system that analyzes the response and identifies an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a first translator in the ADC device platform that translates the diagnostic query into an appropriate format for retrieving performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element; and

a second translator in the ADC device platform that translates retrieved performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element into an appropriate communications format for transmission as the response to the remote computing system.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an anomaly reporting subsystem on the ADC device platform that sends an alert message to the remote computing system to report the reportedly anomalous element on the ADC device platform; and

a pre-diagnostic unit in the remote computing system that analyzes the alert message to identify an appropriate diagnostic query.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an anomaly reporting subsystem on the ADC device platform that alerts the remote computing system of the reportedly anomalous element on the ADC device platform by generating and sending the remote computing system an electronic mail message that identifies a reported anomaly.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the diagnostic analysis unit also suggests a recommended course of action to restore the reportedly anomalous element to proper operation.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a web browser in the remote computing system that directs communications to the ADC device platform;

a diagnostic analysis server containing Hypertext Markup Language (“

HTML”

) documents, Dynamic Hypertext Mark-Up Language (“

DHTML”

) documents, and Extensible Mark Up Language (“

XML”

) documents wherein the HTML documents, DHTML documents, and XML documents contain diagnostic application programs suitable for use with the ADC device platform; and

a diagnostic selector in the remote computing system that selects a document from the diagnostic analysis server and directs the web browser to load a diagnostic application program from the document wherein the diagnostic application program generates the diagnostic query.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the diagnostic analysis unit determines that the reportedly anomalous element is operating within expected parameters.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the response contains retrieved performance data from the reportedly anomalous element and wherein the diagnostic analysis unit analyzes the retrieved performance data by comparing the retrieved performance data against a set of performance characteristics for the reportedly anomalous element.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an ADC reader on the ADC device platform wherein the ADC reader has been identified as the reportedly anomalous element;

a test ADC pattern readable by the ADC reader when operating normally; and

a testing unit on the remote computing system that directs the ADC reader to read the test ACD pattern, receives data produced by the reading of the test ACD pattern, compares the received data against data normally generated by reading the test ADC pattern, and sends the comparison to the diagnostic analysis unit.

10. A system for identifying anomalies in an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a plurality of elements, comprising;

at least one remote computing system that receives anomaly data over at least one communications network from the ADC device platform;

at least one communications unit in the ADC device platform that formats the anomaly data for transmission over the at least one communications network and sends the anomaly data to the at least one remote computing system; and

at least one anomaly report generator that collects anomaly reporting data and forwards the anomaly reporting data as anomaly data to the at least one communications unit.

11. The system recited in claim 10, further comprising:

at least one anomaly detector that determines when an element of the plurality of elements cannot be conformed to operation within expected performance parameters and instructs the at least one anomaly report generator to compose an anomaly report for the element.

12. The system recited in claim 10, further comprising:

at least one automated distress unit that invokes the at least one anomaly report generator to retrieve a prepared anomaly report and forward the anomaly report to the at least one communications unit for transmission to the remote computing system.

13. The system recited in claim 10 wherein the at least one anomaly report generator includes at least one electronic mail message composition unit that receives input data pertaining to an anomaly condition in the ADC device platform, constructs at least one electronic mail message containing the data and forwards the electronic mail message as anomaly data to the at least one communications unit.

14. The system recited in claim 10 wherein in response to receiving the anomaly data, the remote computing system sends at least one diagnostic query over the at least one communications network to the ADC device platform, the system further comprising:

at least one first translator in the ADC device platform that translates the at least one diagnostic query into an appropriate format for retrieving performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element;

at least one second translator in the ADC device platform that translates retrieved performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element into an appropriate communications format for transmission to the remote computing system; and

at least one diagnostic analysis unit in the remote computing system that analyzes the retrieved performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element and identifies an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

at least one pre-diagnostic unit in the remote computing system that analyzes received anomaly data and identifies an element of the plurality of elements associated with the reported anomaly.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

at least one web browser in the remote computing system that communicates with the ADC device platform;

at least one diagnostic analysis server containing Hypertext Markup Language (“

HTML”

) documents, Dynamic Hypertext Mark-Up Language (“

DHTML”

) documents, and Extensible Mark Up Language (“

XML”

) documents wherein the HTML documents, DHTML documents, and XML documents contain diagnostic application programs suitable for use with the ADC device platform; and

at least one diagnostic selector in the remote computing system that uses received anomaly data to select an appropriate document from the at least one diagnostic analysis server and directs the at least one web browser to load a diagnostic application program from the document wherein the diagnostic application program allows a diagnostic query to be sent over the communications network to the ADC device platform.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

at least one diagnostic analysis unit in the remote computing system that analyzes the anomaly data and identifies an anomaly associated with a reportedly anomalous element of the plurality of elements by comparing performance data for the reportedly anomalous element against a set of performance characteristics for the reportedly anomalous element.

19. The computing system of claim 18 wherein the reconfiguration instructions reconfigure another element of the computing platform.

20. The computing system of claim 18, further comprising:

a second communications unit in the computing platform that receives the reconfiguration instructions from the reconfiguration unit, translates the reconfiguration instructions into a computing platform command, and sends the translated reconfiguration instructions to an element of the computing platform.

21. The computing system of claim 18, further comprising:

an instruction generator that retrieves instructions for repair of the anomaly if repair is a recommended solution for resolving the anomaly.

22. The computing system of claim 21 wherein the retrieved instructions include a video clip illustrating a recommended repair procedure.

23. The computing system of claim 18, further comprising:

a pre-diagnostic unit that analyzes a reported anomaly message from the computing platform and identifies an element of the computing platform associated with the reported anomaly message; and

an anomaly reporting subsystem on the computing platform that generates and sends the reported anomaly message to the pre-diagnostic unit.

24. The computing system of claim 18, further comprising:

an anomaly reporting subsystem on the computing platform that alerts the communications unit of a reportedly anomalous element on the computing platform by sending the communications unit an electronic mail message that identifies a reported anomaly.

25. The computing system of claim 18 wherein the diagnostic analysis unit analyzes the received performance data by comparing the received performance data against a set of performance characteristics for the reportedly anomalous element.

26. The computing system of claim 18 wherein the computing platform resides in a network of computing platforms and the communications unit may receive performance data from another computing platform.

27. The computing system of claim 18, further comprising:

an Automatic Data Collection (“

ADC”

) reader on the computing platform wherein the ADC reader has been identified as a reportedly anomalous element;

a test ADC pattern readable by the ADC reader when operating normally; and

a testing unit that directs the ADC reader to read the test ACD pattern and sends test data produced by the ADC reader to the diagnostic analysis unit wherein the diagnostic analysis unit compares the test data against data normally generated by reading the test ADC pattern.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the reconfiguration data includes a translation key for translating data between the standardized communication protocol for external communications and the first communications format of the automatic data collection device.

30. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

a Simple Network Management Protocol (“

SNMP”

) subagent created by the ADC device manager using the reconfiguration data.

18. A computing system for a computing platform having a reportedly anomalous element, comprising:

a communications unit that receives performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element of the computing platform;

a diagnostic analysis unit that analyzes the received performance data and identifies an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element; and

a reconfiguration unit that sends reconfiguration instructions to the computing platform to resolve the anomaly.

28. A system for reconfiguring an element of an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a plurality of elements, comprising;

a communications manager located on the ADC device platform that receives reconfiguration data for the element; and

an ADC device manager that manages the element using the reconfiguration data.

31. A method for diagnosing anomalies in an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a reportedly anomalous element, comprising;

sending a diagnostic query over a communications network to the ADC device platform from a remote computing system;

receiving the diagnostic query at a simple network management protocol (“

SNMP”

) master agent in the ADC device platform;

sending the diagnostic query from the SNMP master agent to the reportedly anomalous element;

receiving a response to the diagnostic query;

sending the response to the remote computing system; and

analyzing the response in a diagnostic analysis unit in the remote computing system to identify an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

sending an alert message from an anomaly reporting subsystem on the ADC platform to the remote computing system to report the reportedly anomalous element on the ADC platform; and

analyzing the alert message in a prediagnostic unit in the remote computing system to identify an appropriate diagnostic query.

33. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

alerting the remote computing system of a reportedly anomalous element on the ADC device platform by generating and sending the remote computing system an electronic mail message that identifies the unreported anomaly.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

providing a recommended course of action to restore the reportedly anomalous element to proper operation.

35. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

selecting a document from a diagnostic analysis server and loading a diagnostic application program from the document into the remote computing system, wherein the diagnostic application program generates the diagnostic query.

36. The method of claim 31 wherein the response contains retrieved performance data from the reportedly anomalous element, further comprising;

analyzing the retrieved performance data by comparing the retrieved performance against a set of performance characteristics for the reportedly anomalous element.

37. The method of claim 31 wherein an ADC reader on the ADC device platform has been identified as the reportedly anomalous element, further comprising:

directing an ADC reader to read a test ADC pattern;

receiving data produced by the reading of the test ADC pattern;

comparing the received data against data normally generated by reading the test ADC pattern; and

sending the comparison to the diagnostic analysis unit.

38. The method of claim 31, further comprising;

selecting a document from a diagnostic analysis server;

loading an analytical application program from the document into the remote computing system, wherein the analytical application program provides the diagnostic analysis unit with analytical tools appropriate for the reportedly anomalous element.

40. The method recited in claim 39, further comprising:

determining in an anomaly detector when an element of the plurality of elements cannot be conformed to operation within expected parameters; and

instructing the anomaly report generator to compose an anomaly report for the element.

41. The method recited in claim 39, further comprising:

invoking the anomaly report generator to retrieve a prepared anomaly report by an automated distress unit; and

forwarding the anomaly report to the communications unit for transmission to the remote computing system.

42. The method recited in claim 39 wherein the anomaly report generator includes an electronic mail message composition unit that receives input data pertaining to an anomaly condition in the ADC device, further comprising;

constructing an electronic mail message containing the data; and

forwarding the electronic mail message as an anomaly report to the communications unit.

43. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

analyzing in a prediagnostic unit in the remote computing system received anomaly reports and identifying an element of the plurality of elements associated with the reported anomaly.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising:

sending a diagnostic query over the communications network to the ADC device platform in response to analysis by the prediagnostic unit;

translating the diagnostic query into an appropriate format for retrieving performance data associated with the identified elements;

translating retrieved performance data associated with the identified element into an appropriate communications format for transmission to the remote computing system; and

analyzing the retrieved performance data associated with the identified element in a diagnostic analysis unit in the remote computing system and identifying an anomaly associated with the identified element.

45. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

selecting an appropriate document from a diagnostic analysis server based upon the received anomaly report; and

loading a diagnostic application program from the document, wherein the diagnostic application program allows a diagnostic query to be sent over the communications network to the ADC device platform.

46. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

analyzing in a diagnostic analysis unit in the remote computing system the anomaly reports and identifying an anomaly associated with a reportedly anomalous element of the plurality of elements by comparing performance data for the reportedly anomalous element against a set of performance characteristics for the reportedly anomalous element.

49. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

retrieving instructions by an instruction generator for repair of the anomaly if repair is a recommended solution for resolving the anomaly.

39. A method for reporting anomalies in an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a plurality of elements, comprising;

receiving anomaly reports in a remote computing system over a communications network from the ADC device platform;

formatting the anomaly reports for transmission over the communication network and sending the anomaly reports to the remote computing; and

collecting anomaly reporting data and forwarding the anomaly reporting as an anomaly report to the communications unit.

47. A method for diagnosing and correcting anomalies in an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a reportedly anomalous element, comprising;

receiving in a communications unit performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element of the ADC device platform;

analyzing the received performance data in a diagnostic analysis unit and identifying an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element; and

sending reconfiguration instructions from a reconfiguration unit to the ADC device platform to resolve the anomaly.

48. The method of claim 70, further comprising:

reconfiguring another element of the ADC device platform using the reconfiguration instructions.

50. In a computing system for diagnosing and correcting anomalies in an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device platform having a plurality of elements, a computer-readable medium having a data structure, comprising;

an analysis field containing computer programming instructions that analyze performance data associated with an element of the plurality of elements; and

a diagnostic analysis field containing computer programming instructions that identify an anomaly associated with the ADC device platform based on input data.