STANDARDIZED MECHANISM FOR FIRMWARE UPGRADES OF RFID DEVICES

• US 20080184151A1
• Filed: 01/25/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sundaram, Jayaraman Kalyana, Agarwal, Abhishek, Gopalan, Krishnan, Ahmed, Mohamed Fakrudeen Ali, Venkatesh, Ramachandran, Kumar, Anush
• Granted Patent: US 8,245,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/772
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network. A radio frequency identification (RFID) network can include at least one device that receives data from a tag. An upgrade component can evaluate at least one device and identify an applicable portion of firmware for the device based on the evaluation, wherein the applicable portion of firmware can be independently deployed to the device.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network, comprising:

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

an upgrade component that evaluates at least one device and identifies an applicable portion of firmware for the device based on the evaluation, the applicable portion of firmware is independently deployed to the device.

2. The system of claim 1, the upgrade component identifies the applicable portion of firmware that is disparate in comparison to firmware existent on the device.

3. 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;

or a real-time event generation system.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a firmware resource that provides a portion of firmware data related to the device.

5. The system of claim 4, the firmware resource is at least one of a provider, a third-party, a service, a third-party service, a vendor, a manufacturer, a device-maker, a company, a web-service, a website, a database, an email, a data store, a local service, or a remote party.

6. The system of claim 1, the applicable portion of firmware is specific to the device having at least one of a make, a model, a type, or a brand.

7. The system of claim 1, the data collected from the device is utilized with an RFID process.

8. The system of claim 7, 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, or a number count.

9. The system of claim 1, the applicable portion of firmware is at least one of a portion of applicable data related to the device, a portion of firmware, a portion of software, a portion of an application, a portion of code related to the device, an upgrade, a patch, a version, a software upgrade, a portion of disparate data not existent on the device, or a portion of data that corrects a defect.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a user interface (UI) and/or a graphical user interface (GUI) to automatically display at least a portion of real-time status update.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a search component that detects at least one of a portion of firmware utilized by the device, a portion of firmware that is not up-to-date, or a portion of firmware that is disparate and compatible with existent firmware on the device.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a bulk component that facilitates identifying and deploying the portion of applicable firmware to a plurality of devices in an independent and concurrent manner.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising an automatic upgrade component that employs an automatic monitoring at least one update or portion of firmware that are available for the device.

14. The system of claim 13, the automatic upgrade component utilizes at least one of an automatic update check technique associated with an Operating System (OS), or an agent that executes within the RFID network to automatically identify a portion of applicable firmware to deploy.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presentation component that provides at least one user interface to facilitate interaction between a user and the upgrade component.

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 managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network, comprising:

selecting a device within an RFID network;

identifying a portion of applicable firmware based on the selected device; and

deploying the portion of applicable firmware to the device.

18. The method of claim 17, the applicable portion of firmware is disparate in comparison to firmware existent on the device.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

providing a status related to at least one of the identification or the deployment of the portion of applicable firmware; and

independently deploying the portion of applicable firmware to two or more devices.

20. A computer-implemented system that facilitates managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network, comprising:

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

means for evaluating at least one device;

means for identifying an applicable portion of firmware for the device based on the evaluation; and

means for independently deploying the applicable portion of firmware to the device.