Hot swap and plug-and-play for RFID devices

• US 7,382,260 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2005
• Issued: 06/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Agarwal, Abhishek, Sriram, Balasubramanian, Ahmed, Mohamed Fakrudeen Ali, Goteti, Janaki Ram, Kumar, Anush
• Primary Examiner(s): GOINS, DAVETTA WOODS
• Application Number:
  US11/140,726
• Publication Number:
  US 20060047787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/568.1, 340/568.4, 340/310.11, 340/310.18, 340/10.5, 340/10.52, 340/825.69, 700/221, 700/224, 700/115, 709/250
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

The subject invention provides a system and/or a method that facilitates adding a device to an RFID network and associated a process to such device. An interface can receive a new device and/or related identification data that is to be incorporated into an RFID network. A hot swap component can seamlessly adds the new device to a process within the RFID network based at least in part upon the identification data. The new device can be incorporated into the RFID network without the process stopping, restarting, and/or reconfiguring.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates incorporating a device into an RFID network, comprising:

an interface that receives a new device and related identification data;

a hot swap component that seamlessly adds the new device to a process currently being executed within the RFID network based at least in part upon the identification data;

a match component that provides an association of the new device to the process during execution based at least in part upon the identification data utilizing a wildcard technique wherein the new device is matched to a device collection utilizing a wildcard-ed device identification and adds the new device online to the device collection of the RFID process by adding an event from a newly matched device to a queue of events that is processed by the RFID process.

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

an RFID reader;

an RFID writer;

an RFID printer;

a 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.

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

a device introduced into the RFID network;

a device re-introduced into the RFID network;

a newly added device;

a replacement device;

a device previously removed;

a repaired device; and

a re-located device.

4. The system of claim 1, the identification data is at least one of a unique identification number, a device name, a serial number, an uniform resource identifier (URI), an uniform resource locator (URL), a map point, a location, and an Internet protocol (IP) address.

5. The system of claim 1, the 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.

6. The system of claim 5, the event is one of the following:

a tag read;

a tag read error, a device up event;

a device down event; and

a management event.

7. 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.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a detector component that can discover the new device by at least one of an automatic discovery and a manual discovery.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an analyzer component that analyzes at least one of the new device, a new device name, a device identification, a device process, a new device type, a new device brand, a new device configuration, a characteristic of the new device, a process related to the new device, an event list associated with the new device, and a new device capability.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a traffic component that maintains the collection of data related to the device within the RFID network during a downtime of the process.

11. The system of claim 10, the traffic component maintains a flow of data collection between the new device and the process within the RFID network during a hot swap.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a health component that determines at least one of a deterioration of a device and maintenance of a device within the RFID network.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component that provides at least one security attribute in association with the addition of the new device.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a management component that manages identification data of the device collection by utilizing a batch technique.

15. A computer readable medium having stored thereon the components of the system of claim 1.

19. The system of claim 14, the management component dynamically changes the device collection identification data in accordance with a process to be executed.

16. A computer-implemented method that facilitates incorporating a device into an RFID network, comprising:

detecting at least a new device within the RFID network;

receiving wild card-ed identification data of the new device;

including the new device with a device collection by matching the wild card-ed identification data of the new device with identification data of the device collection; and

;

employing the new device in execution of at least one ongoing process by including events from the new device into an event queue being processed within the ongoing process.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising dynamically changing the identification data associated with the device collection utilizing batch techniques in accordance with a process to be executed by the device collection.

17. A computer-implemented system that facilitates incorporating a device into an RFID network, comprising:

means for detecting a new device;

means for receiving the new device and related wild card identification data;

means for including the new device within a device collection by matching the identification data of the new device with wild card identification data of the device collection; and

means for seamlessly adding the new device to an ongoing process within the RFID network based at least in part upon the identification data by including events from the new device into an event queue that is executed within the ongoing process.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising means to facilitate communication and data collection during the seamless addition of the new device to the ongoing process.