Event boxcarring of RFID information sent from RFID edge server

• US 7,835,954 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2005
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Banerjee, Ashok
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): AN, IG TAI
• Application Number:
  US11/233,444
• Publication Number:
  US 20070044093A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,881 Days
• Field of Search: 705/30, 705/9, 340/572.1, 340/10.3, 235/375
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4505 using standardised directories; using standardised directory access protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

An RFID edge server using an application server allows for improvements in an RFID system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a RFID (radio frequency identification) edge server to associate with multiple RFID readers over two or more socket connections, the RFID edge server including an application server that filters communications from the RFID readers and boxcars event reports to a central server;

wherein the boxcaring of event reports comprises combining multiple application-level event (ALE) reports into a single boxcar message that is transmitted from the RFID edge server to the central server, wherein each of the multiple ALE reports included in the boxcar message contains a set of information that defines a high level event used by applications on the application server, said set of information having been filtered from the raw stream of data collected by the RFID readers, wherein the ALE reports are collected by an ALE processing engine on the RFID edge server, wherein the ALE processing engine allows said applications to obtain the ALE reports without interacting directly with the RFID readers; and

wherein the RFID edge server further includes a socket muxer that services the two or more socket connections, wherein the applications on the application server register with the socket muxer and issue asynchronous read requests to the socket muxer, and wherein the socket muxer performs network input/output (I/O) operations in the background by loading data directly into a buffer and wherein once the read operation is completed, the socket muxer notifies the applications via a completion callback; and

wherein the central server unboxcars the multiple ALE reports from the single boxcar message.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID edge server has TCP/IP socket connections with the multiple RFID readers, the RFID edge server having fewer access threads for the RFID readers than there are socket connections.

3. The system edge server of claim 1, wherein the RFID edge server and at least some of the RFID readers are interconnected using a local network.

4. The system edge server of claim 1, wherein the RFID edge server receives a RFID software package into an archive file and opens the archive file to install the RFID software package into the application server.

5. The system edge server of claim 1, wherein the application server uses a java connector to connect to ERP software.

6. The system edge server of claim 1, wherein the application server has a local JMS server to send messages to a central server.

7. The system edge server of claim 1, wherein the boxcared ALE reports are sent in a transactional manner.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID edge server maintains a copy of the single boxcar message until an acknowledgement is received from the central server or until a determination that a transaction including the single boxcar message is completed.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the boxcaring of said ALE reports reduces an amount of traffic that would be sent between the RFID edge server and the central server and thereby increases the number of other RFID edge servers that can interact with the central server.

8. A method comprising:

at a RFID edge server, receiving messages from RFID readers over two or more socket connections;

at the RFID edge server, filtering the messages from the RFID readers; and

at the RFID edge server, boxcaring event reports, including data from the messages, to a central server;

wherein the boxcaring of event reports compries combining multiple application-level event (ALE) reports into a single boxcar message that is transmitted from the RFID edge server to the central server, wherein each of the multiple ALE reports included in the boxcar message contains a set of information that defines a high level event used by applications on the application server, said set of information having been filtered from the raw stream of data collected by the RFID readers, wherein the ALE reports are collected by an ALE processing engine on the RFID edge server, wherein the ALE processing engine allows said applications to obtain the ALE reports without interacting directly with the RFID readers; and

wherein the RFID edge server further includes a socket muxer that services the two or more socket connections, wherein the applications on the application server register with the socket muxer and issue asynchronous read requests to the docket muxer, and wherein the socket muxer performs network input/output (I/O) operations in the background by loading data directly into a buffer and wherein once the read operation is completed, the socket muxer notifies the applications via a completion callback; and

wherein the multiple ALE reports are unboxcared from the single boxcar message at the central server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the RFID edge server has TCP/IP socket connections with the multiple RFID readers, the RFID edge server having a fewer access threads for the RFID readers than there are socket connections.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the RFID edge server and at least some of the RFID readers are interconnected using a local network.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the RFID edge server receives a RFID software package into an archive file and to open the archive file to install the RFID software package into the application server.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the application server uses a java connector to connect to ERP software.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the application server has a local JMS server to send messages to a central server.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the boxcared ALE reports are sent in a transactional manner.

15. A computer readable storage medium including instructions, wherein said instructions when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

at a RFID edge server, receiving messages from RFID readers over two or more socket connections;

at the RFID edge server, filtering the messages from the RFID readers; and

at the RFID edge server, boxcaring event reports, including data from the messages, to a central server;

wherein the boxcaring of event reports comprises combining multiple application-level event (ALE) reports into a single boxcar message that is transmitted from the RFID edge server to the central server, wherein each of the multiple ALE reports included in the boxcar message contains a set of information that defines a high level event used by applications on the application server, said set of information having been filtered from the raw stream of data collected by the RFID readers, wherein the ALE reports are collected by an ALE processing engine on the RFID edge server, wherein the ALE processing engine allows said applications to obtain the ALE reports without interacting directly with the RFID readers; and

wherein the RFID edge server further includes a socket muxer that services the two or more socket connections, wherein the applications on the application server register with the socket muxer and issue asynchronous read requests to the socket muxer, and wherein the socket muxer performs network input/output (I/O) operations in the background by loading data directly into a buffer and wherein once the read operation is completed, the socket muxer notifies the applications via a completion callback; and

wherein the multiple ALE reports are unboxcared from the single boxcar message at the central server.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the RFID edge server has TCP/IP socket connections with the multiple RFID readers, the RFID edge server having a fewer access threads for the RFID readers than there are socket connections.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the RFID edge server and at least some of the RFID readers are interconnected using a local network.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the RFID edge server receives a RFID software package into an archive file and to open the archive file to install the RFID software package into the application server.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the application server uses a java connector to connect to ERP software.