GATEWAY RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG SYSTEM

• US 20110156909A1
• Filed: 03/07/2011
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: RICE, CHRISTOPHER, Killian, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,164,459 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for transporting deterministic traffic in a gigabit passive optical network. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an Optical Line Termination (OLT) for exchanging data traffic in a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) having a controller programmed to generate a timeslot schedule for transport of a desired bandwidth of constant bit rate (CBR) data traffic by selecting one or more timeslots from periodic frame clusters operating according to a GPON Transmission Convergence (GTC) protocol. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for radio frequency identification tracking, comprising:

transmitting a first radio frequency identification signal by a first radio frequency identification reader to a first group of passive radio frequency identification tags;

receiving at the first radio frequency identification reader first data from the first group of passive radio frequency identification tags in response to the first radio frequency identification signal;

transmitting the first data by the first radio frequency identification reader to a gateway radio frequency identification tag;

transmitting a query by the first radio frequency identification reader requesting second data from the gateway radio frequency identification tag, wherein the second data was previously transmitted to the gateway radio frequency identification tag by a second radio frequency identification reader; and

receiving the second data from the gateway radio frequency identification tag by the first radio frequency identification reader.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second data comprises a response from a second group of passive radio frequency identification tags responding to a second radio frequency identification signal from the second radio frequency identification reader.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data and the second data are transmitted by the gateway radio frequency identification tag to a central database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data is received from the first group of passive radio frequency identification tags by the first radio frequency identification reader at a first radio frequency, and the first data is transmitted by the first radio frequency identification reader to the gateway radio frequency identification tag at a second radio frequency.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the query is transmitted at the second radio frequency.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the first data and the second data are transmitted from the gateway radio frequency identification tag to the central database via a wireless network.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the first data and the second data are transmitted from the gateway radio frequency identification tag to the central database via a wired network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the gateway radio frequency identification tag comprises an integrated circuit chip, a radio frequency transmitter, a radio frequency receiver, a power supply, and a radio frequency antenna.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data and second data are stored at the gateway radio frequency identification tag.

10. A radio frequency identification tracking system comprising:

a first passive radio frequency identification tag;

a gateway radio frequency identification tag;

a first radio frequency identification reader comprising;

a first radio frequency transmitter for transmitting a first radio frequency signal to the first passive radio frequency identification tag;

a first radio frequency receiver for receiving first tag data from the first passive radio frequency identification tag in response to the first radio frequency signal; and

wherein the first radio frequency transmitter is for transmitting the first tag data from the first passive radio frequency identification tag to the gateway radio frequency identification tag, and for transmitting a first query from the first radio frequency identification reader to the gateway radio frequency identification tag, wherein the first query comprises a first request for second data from the gateway radio frequency identification tag, wherein the second data was previously transmitted to the gateway radio frequency identification tag by a second radio frequency identification reader.

11. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 10, further comprising:

a second passive radio frequency identification tag;

the second radio frequency identification reader comprising;

a second radio frequency transmitter for transmitting a second radio frequency signal to the second passive radio frequency identification tag;

a second radio frequency receiver for receiving second tag data from the second passive radio frequency identification tag in response to the second radio frequency signal; and

wherein the second radio frequency transmitter is for transmitting the second tag data from the second passive radio frequency identification tag to the gateway radio frequency identification tag, and for transmitting a second query from the second radio frequency identification reader to the gateway radio frequency identification tag, wherein the second query comprises a second request for the first tag data from the gateway radio frequency identification tag.

12. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 11, wherein the gateway radio frequency identification tag comprising:

a third radio frequency receiver for receiving the first tag data, second tag data, the first query, and the second query from the first radio frequency identification reader and the second radio frequency identification reader;

a memory for storing the first tag data from the first radio frequency identification reader and the second tag data from the second radio frequency identification reader; and

a third radio frequency transmitter for transmitting to the first radio frequency identification reader, in response to the first query from the first radio frequency identification reader, the second tag data received from the second radio frequency identification reader, and transmitting to the second radio frequency identification reader, in response to the second query from the second radio frequency identification reader, the first tag data received from the first radio frequency identification reader.

13. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 10, further comprising:

a central database connected to the gateway radio frequency identification tag via a network.

14. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 10, wherein the first radio frequency transmitter for transmitting the first radio frequency signal to the first passive radio frequency identification tag operates at a first radio frequency, and the first radio frequency transmitter for transmitting the first tag data from the first radio frequency identification reader to the gateway radio frequency identification tag operates at a second radio frequency.

15. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 14, wherein the first radio frequency transmitter transmits the first query to the gateway radio frequency identification tag using the second radio frequency.

16. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 13, wherein the network is a wireless network.

17. The radio frequency identification tracking system of claim 13, wherein the network is a wired network.

18. A method for radio frequency identification tracking, comprising:

receiving first data by a gateway radio frequency identification tag from a first radio frequency identification reader, wherein the first data comprises a first response from a first group of passive radio frequency identification tags responding to a first radio frequency identification signal from the first radio frequency identification reader;

receiving second data by the gateway radio frequency identification tag from a second radio frequency identification reader, wherein the second data comprises a second response from a second group of passive radio frequency identification tags responding to a second radio frequency identification signal from the second radio frequency identification reader;

receiving a first request from the first radio frequency identification reader for the second data; and

transmitting the second data to the first radio frequency identification reader.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a second request from the second radio frequency identification reader for the first data; and

transmitting the first data to the second radio frequency identification reader.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting by gateway radio frequency identification tag the first data and the second data to a central database.