Methods and apparatus for operating a radio device

• US 7,999,658 B1
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Issued: 08/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Novanta Corporation (Novanta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Reynolds, Matthew S., Tsai, Harry F., Richards, Joseph L., Pathare, Sumukh N., Post, E. Rehmatulla, Pappu, Ravikanth S., Schoner, Bernd, Maguire, Yael G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman; Brian A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan; Omer S
• Application Number:
  US11/455,508
• Time in Patent Office: 1,884 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.2
• US Class Current: 340/10.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10297 arrangements for handling protocols designed for non-contact record carriers such as RFIDs NFCs, e.g. ISO/IEC 14443 and 18092 cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; network security protocols H04L63/00; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; network protocols for data switching network services H04L67/00

Abstract

A radio device such as a wireless tag reader communicates with multiple types of wireless identification tags in a monitored region. The radio device includes a network interface to receive messages transmitted over a network. In response to receiving a message indicating to reconfigure the radio device to support an additional wireless tag protocol, the radio is reconfigured to support communications with a corresponding new type of wireless identification tag in a monitored region. Based on this technique of reconfiguring the radio device via network messages, the radio device optionally supports additional, new or latest versions of wireless tag protocols without having to physically reprogram or replace the radio device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

communicating over a respective network connection with a tag reader device, the tag reader device being in wireless communication with each of multiple types of wireless identification tags in a respective monitored region via use of multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

interleaving portions of the multiple different types of wireless communication protocols to communicate with the multiple wireless identification tags; and

in response to transmitting a query over the network connection to the tag reader device, receiving a response from the tag reader device over the network connection, the response including specific data requested for retrieval as identified by the query, receipt of the query by the tag reader prompting the tag reader to communicate with the multiple types of wireless identification tags and retrieve the specific data;

wherein the interleaving includes;

during a first time range, transmitting a respective first portion associated with a first protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

during a second time range following the first time range, transmitting a respective portion associated with a second protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols; and

during a third time range following the second time range, transmitting a respective second portion associated with the first protocol of the multiple different types of wireless protocols.

5. A method as in claim 1, further comprising coordinating scheduled interrogations of the multiple wireless identification tags to minimize interference amongst multiple tag readers communicating with the wireless identification tags.

2. A method comprising:

receiving filter criteria from a source residing at a remote location over a network;

to collect data, initiating communications with multiple wireless identification tags in a monitored region based on use of a corresponding at least one type of radio communication protocol; and

utilizing the filter criteria from the source to selectively filter which type of the data collected from the multiple wireless identification tags to transmit back to the source;

wherein initiating communications with multiple wireless identification tags in the monitored region includes initiating communications associated with each of multiple types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region via use of multiple different types of radio communication protocols, the method further comprising;

interleaving portions of the multiple different types of wireless communication protocols to communicate with the multiple wireless identification tags, the interleaving including;

during a first time range, transmitting a respective first portion associated with a first protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

during a second time range following the first time range, transmitting a respective portion associated with a second protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols; and

during a third time range following the second time range, transmitting a respective second portion associated with the first protocol of the multiple different types of wireless protocols.

3. A method as in claim 2 further comprising:

receiving messages from the source, the messages controlling a collection of data from the multiple wireless identification tags; and

wherein utilizing the filter criteria includes identifying a portion of the collected data to transmit back over the network to the source.

4. A method as in claim 2, further comprising coordinating scheduled interrogations of the multiple wireless identification tags to minimize interference amongst multiple tag readers communicating with the wireless identification tags.

6. A method as in claim 2, wherein initiating the communications includes:

scheduling a first duration of time in a transmit sequence associated with a transmitter to allot an amount of time for the transmitter to communicate with a respective first type of wireless identification tag in the region that understands the first radio communication protocol but not the second radio communication protocol; and

scheduling a second duration of time, following the first duration of time, in the transmit sequence associated with the transmitter to allot an amount of time for the transmitter to communicate with a respective second type of wireless identification tag in the region that understands the second first radio communication protocol but not the first radio communication protocol.

7. A method of operating a radio device that communicates with wireless identification tags in a monitored region, the method comprising:

communicating with multiple wireless identification tags in the monitored region based on use of a corresponding set of different radio communication protocols, comprising initiating communications associated with each of multiple types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region via use of multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

coordinating scheduled interrogations of the multiple wireless identification tags to minimize interference amongst multiple tag readers communicating with the wireless identification tags;

interleaving portions of the multiple different types of wireless communication protocols to communicate with the multiple wireless identification tags, the interleaving comprising;

during a first time range, transmitting a respective first portion associated with a first protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

during a second time range following the first time range, transmitting a respective portion associated with a second protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols; and

during a third time range following the second time range, transmitting a respective second portion associated with the first protocol of the multiple different types of wireless protocols.

11. A method as in claim 7, comprising:

receiving a radio frequency signal from a wireless identification tag present in the monitored region;

converting the received radio frequency signal to a baseband signal;

from the baseband signal, producing a digital signal that is encoded according to a common encoding format, the common encoding format used by the multiple different types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region to communicate data information to the radio device even though each of the multiple different types of wireless identification tags communicate with the radio device via a different respective radio communication protocol.

8. A method of operating a radio device that communicates with wireless identification tags, the method comprising:

communicating with multiple wireless identification tags in a region based on use of a corresponding set of radio communication protocols;

to improve the interoperability of a plurality of wireless tag readers that can interfere with each other, implementing a scheduler function in each of multiple tag readers to control at least one of a modulation type and operating frequency associated with the set of different radio communication protocols, comprising;

communicating with each of multiple types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region via use of multiple different types of radio communication protocols, comprising;

interleaving portions of the multiple different types of wireless communication protocols to communicate with the multiple wireless identification tags, the interleaving including;

during a first time range, transmitting a respective first portion associated with a first protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

during a second time range following the first time range, transmitting a respective portion associated with a second protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols; and

during a third time range following the second time range, transmitting a respective second portion associated with the first protocol of the multiple different types of wireless protocols.

9. A method comprising:

utilizing a respective wireless identification tag reader to at least occasionally perform a query to detect a presence of each of multiple types of wireless identification tags in a monitored region; and

for the identified types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region, utilizing the wireless identification tag reader to schedule additional wireless communications to only detected types of wireless identification tags and not unidentified types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region;

communicating with each of the multiple detected types of wireless identification tags in the monitored region via use of multiple different types of radio communication protocols, comprising;

interleaving portions of the multiple different types of wireless communication protocols to communicate with the multiple wireless identification tags, the interleaving comprising;

during a first time range, transmitting a respective first portion associated with a first protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols;

during a second time range following the first time range, transmitting a respective portion associated with a second protocol of the multiple different types of radio communication protocols; and

during a third time range following the second time range, transmitting a respective second portion associated with the first protocol of the multiple different types of wireless protocols.

10. A method as in claim 9, wherein utilizing the wireless identification tag reader to schedule additional wireless communications enables collection of information from the detected types of wireless identification tags.