RFID system performance monitoring
First Claim
1. A method of monitoring the performance of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system operating to track the movement of articles through a supply chain, the method comprising:
- receiving first information that identifies each individual RFID tag being used in the RFID system, wherein an individual article moving through the supply chain may be tracked by its association with the received first information of an RFID tag that is encoded with the received first information and attached to the article;
receiving second information generated by RFID readers and comprising the results of one or more attempts to read RFID tags as they pass by reader stations at one or more points in the supply chain, wherein the received second information comprises information about performance results of individual tags;
associating at least some of the second information with the first information; and
,completing the first and second information and their associations into a database.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for monitoring and tracking performance of an RFID system collects information about parameters that may impact the performance of an RFID system. In various embodiments, the system may collect information from multiple nodes in the system. The system may perform statistical operations on the collected information to determine their impact on system performance. RFID system performance may be monitored at various nodes in the system, including, for example, individual reader units, environmental sensors, and programming stations. All collected information may be analyzed for the purpose of identifying parameters that contribute to reduced reliability of RFID system performance.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method of monitoring the performance of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system operating to track the movement of articles through a supply chain, the method comprising:
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receiving first information that identifies each individual RFID tag being used in the RFID system, wherein an individual article moving through the supply chain may be tracked by its association with the received first information of an RFID tag that is encoded with the received first information and attached to the article; receiving second information generated by RFID readers and comprising the results of one or more attempts to read RFID tags as they pass by reader stations at one or more points in the supply chain, wherein the received second information comprises information about performance results of individual tags; associating at least some of the second information with the first information; and
,completing the first and second information and their associations into a database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system for monitoring the performance of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system operating to track the movement of articles through a supply chain, the system comprising:
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a first database; and
,a processor operably coupled to a program storage device to receive instructions stored in the program storage device, wherein when the processor executes the received instructions, the processor performs the following operations; receive first information that identifies each individual RFID tag being used in the RFID system, wherein an individual article moving through the supply chain may be tracked by its association with the received first information of an RFID tag that is encoded with the received first information and attached to the article; receive second information generated by RFID readers and comprising the results of one or more attempts to read RFID tags as they pass by reader stations at one or more points in the supply chain, wherein the received second information comprises information about performance results of individual tags; associate at least some of the second information with the first information; and
,compile the first and second information and their associations into the first database. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A computer program product (CPP) tangibly embodied in a computer readable medium and containing instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations to monitor the performance of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system operating to track the movement of articles through a supply chain, the operations comprising:
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receive first information that identifies each individual RFID tag being used in the RFID system, wherein an individual article moving through the supply chain may be tracked by its association with the received first information of an RFID tag that is encoded with the received first information and attached to the article; receive second information generated by RFID readers and comprising the results of one or more attempts to read RFID tags as they pass by reader stations at one or more points in the supply chain, wherein the received second information comprises information about performance results of individual tags; associate at least some of the second information with the first information; and
,compile the first and second information and their associations into a database. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40)
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Specification