SYNCHRONOUS COMMAND MODEL FOR RFID-ENABLING APPLICATIONS

• US 20080001712A1
• Filed: 07/28/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sundaram, Jayaraman Kalyana, Agarwal, Abhishek, Sriram, Balasubramanian, Ahmed, Mohamed Fakrudeen Ali, Goteti, Janaki Ram, Venkatesh, Ramachandran, Kumar, Anush, Sonnathi, Kalyan Chakravarthy
• Granted Patent: US 7,675,418 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/02 Hybrid access

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates providing communication channels within a radio frequency identification (RFID) infrastructure. A radio frequency identification (RFID) network can include at least one device that can receive data from a tag. A mixed mode component can employ a synchronous command and an asynchronous event processing with the device.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates providing communication channels within a radio frequency identification (RFID) infrastructure, comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) network that includes at least one device that receives data from a tag; and

a mixed mode component that employs a synchronous command and an asynchronous event processing with the device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an RFID process that receives data via a communication channel associated with the asynchronous event processing.

3. The system of claim 2, the RFID process is a high-level object that forms together at least one entity to create a meaningful unit of execution that relates to at least one of the following:

an outbound process;

a manufacturing process;

a shipping process;

a receiving process;

a tracking process;

a data representation process;

a data manipulation process;

a security process; and

a process utilizing one of an RFID device service, a device collection, a tag read, an event, an event queue, a tag write, a device configuration, and a number count.

4. The system of claim 2, further comprising an event handler associated with the RFID process that utilizes the data.

5. The system of claim 4, the event handler is managed code running in the context of the RFID process that processes the data.

6. The system of claim 1, the device is one of the following:

an RFID reader;

an RFID writer;

an RFID printer;

a reader;

a writer;

an RFID transmitter;

an antenna;

a sensor;

a real-time device;

an RFID receiver;

a real-time sensor;

a device extensible to a web service; and

a real-time event generation system.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an application that utilizes a communication channel associated with the synchronous command.

8. The system of claim 1, the synchronous command is at least one of a print tag, a decommission tag, a read tag, a write tag, an add read filter, and a remove read filter.

9. The system of claim 1, the mixed mode component implements the synchronous command and the asynchronous event processing simultaneously on the same device.

10. The system of claim 1, the synchronous command is a request-response pattern.

11. The system of claim 1, the asynchronous event processing allows an RFID process to received data without polling the device.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a multi-command exclusive access to the device during the synchronous command.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising an administrative channel that can access the device during the synchronous command so the device is not locked out from control.

14. The system of claim 13, the administrative channel is simultaneously open with a synchronous command channel while still restricting an application without administrative access.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a uniform programming model utilized by the mixed mode component that is at least one of the following:

1) device agnostic for hardware to execute a synchronous command; and

     2) physical connection agnostic for an application to receive an asynchronous notification from the device while a synchronous command is performed on the device; and

the uniform programming model abstracts one physical connection to re-use for one or more multiple exclusive logical connections.

16. The system of claim 1, the RFID network comprises a collection of devices that form a sub-system which includes:

an RFID reader that receives an RFID signal; and

an RFID tag that transmits to at least one device.

17. A computer-implemented method that facilitates providing communication channels within a radio frequency identification (RFID) infrastructure, comprising:

receiving data from a device within an RFID network; and

simultaneously providing a synchronous command and an asynchronous event processing with the device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising initiating an exclusive access to the device during the synchronous command.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising implementing an administrative channel that can be opened during the synchronous command.

20. A computer-implemented system that facilitates providing communication channels within a radio frequency identification (RFID) infrastructure, comprising:

means for receiving data from a tag utilizing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network; and

means for employs a synchronous command and an asynchronous event processing with the device.