SMART RFID READER/ROUTER

• US 20110156872A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wengrovitz, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/650,850
• Publication Number:
  US 20110156872A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A smart RFID reader/router is disclosed for connecting RFID readers to a data network. The smart RFID reader/router includes a plurality of connection ports for RFID readers, a plurality of data network ports for connection to a data network, and an internal processor for providing middleware and routing processing functionality. The smart RFID reader/router is particularly useful for moving RFID processing power to the edge of the network.

Claims

1. An apparatus for interconnecting an RFID reader to a data network comprising:

a router;

a data port on said router for connecting to said data network;

an interface port said router for connected to said RFID reader;

a processor, located within said router; and

an operating system for controlling said processor so as to provide interconnect functionality between said RFID reader and said data network.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said data port comprises a plurality of wireline ports.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said data port comprises a wireless access port.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said interface port comprises a Universal Serial Bus port.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said operating system comprises a LINUX operating system.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said interconnect functionality comprises at least one networking protocol from the group of UDP, TCP, HTTP, HTTPs Rest, and SOAP/XML protocols.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6,

wherein said interconnect functionality comprises provides firewall functionality.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising

additional instructions for processing data received from said RFID reader.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8,

wherein said additional instructions include using data received from said RFID reader to perform application-correlation against a predetermined set of tag/reader templates.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9,

using said application-correlation to select one of plurality of processing schemes.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9,

using said application-correlation to select one of plurality of routing schemes.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11,

wherein said routing schemes comprises at least one of the group of UDP, TCP, HTTP, HTTPs Rest, and SOAP/XML protocols.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9,

using said application-correlation to suitably modify at least one of the source and destination data network addresses of a packet containing the data received from said RFID reader.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9,

using said application-correlation to select an authentication protocol for use before transmitting packets containing the data received from said RFID reader.

15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9,

using said application-correlation to select an encryption protocol for use before transmitting packets containing the data received from said RFID reader.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8,

wherein said additional instructions include using data received from said RFID reader to select one of a plurality of data network ports on said router.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 16,

wherein said one of a plurality of data network ports comprises the wireless access port.