Support for batching of events, and shredding of batched events in the RFID infrastructure platform

• US 8,207,822 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2006
• Issued: 06/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Agarwal, Abhishek, Kumar, Anush, Sriram, Balasubramanian, Ahmed, Mohamed Fakrudeen Ali, Goteti, Janaki Ram, Sundaram, Jayaram Kalyana, Sonnathi, Kalyan Chakravarthy, Venkatesh, Ramachandran
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan, Omer S
• Application Number:
  US11/460,796
• Publication Number:
  US 20080001710A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,160 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/572.1, 709/201, 709/249, 709/250, 235/376
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates receiving data from at least one device. A radio frequency identification (RFID) network can include at least one device that receives data from a tag. A batcher component can collect the data based on a start boundary and an end boundary and communicate the batched data to an RFID process.

Claims

1. A system configured to facilitate receiving data from at least one device, the system comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) network that includes at least one device configured to receive data from a tag; and

a batcher component configured to;

collect at least a subset of the data from the at least one device from a start boundary to an end boundary defined by the batcher component;

transform the subset of the data, including appending metadata to the subset of the data prior to processing the subset of the data, the metadata being indicative of one or more parameters for processing a filtered subset of the data, and being defined at during design time the metadata is and compiled into one or more relational queries defining the start boundary and the end boundary at least one boundary condition that an RFID server executes on incoming reads;

receive the at least one boundary condition in accordance with a compiled RFID process, wherein the compiled RFID process provides a relational database query; and

communicate the subset of the data and the metadata to an RFID process.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID process is a high-level object configured to form at least one entity to create a 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;

or a process utilizing at least one of an RFID device service, a device collection, a tag read, an event, an event queue, a tag write, a device configuration or a number count.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one device is one of the following:

an RFID reader;

an RFID writer;

an RFID 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;

or a real-time event generation system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the start boundary is at least one of a unit of time, a time, a duration of time, a pre-determined number of reads, an amount of data capacity or a pre-determined amount of data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the end boundary is at least one of a unit of time, a time, a duration of time, a pre-determined number of reads, a pre-determined number of tag events, a pre-determined number of tag read events, an amount of data capacity or a pre-determined amount of data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the data is one of the following:

a read from the tag, a tag event, a tag read event or data transmitted from a tag.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the batcher component is configured to collect the subset of the data for a plurality of start boundaries and a plurality of end boundaries and communicate a plurality of the subset of the data to the RFID process.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a dedicated queue that includes the subset of the data received from the at least one device until boundary conditions are met.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a design-time-provided declarative construct that, upon being deployed, can be combined into a relational database query, wherein the relational database query is a sequential query language (SQL).

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of the following:

the batcher component being further configured to examine an event processing pipeline to ascertain batching primitives to receive relevant batched data;

or a declarative construct configured to specify the batching primitive on an event processing pipeline.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the batcher component further comprises a boundary component configured to:

receive at least one of a cycle or a boundary condition in accordance with a compiled RFID process; and

generate a relational database query configured to cause the batcher component to provide the compiled RFID process with appropriate batched data collected by the batcher component.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the batcher component is further configured to push a declarative construct to at least one of the at least one device or a server side based, at least, on capabilities of the at least one device.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the data at the batcher component is configured to be processed by integrating a declaratively declared construct into a query and executing the construct on the subset of the data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the declaratively declared construct is at least one of the following:

a filter that is a condition of interest to a deployer;

or an aggregation that is a grouping of the subset of the data prior to routing to the RFID process.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presentation component configured to provide at least one user interface configured to facilitate interaction between a user and the batcher component.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID network comprises a collection of devices that form a sub-system that includes:

an RFID reader configured to receive an RFID signal; and

an RFID tag configured to transmit to at least one device.

17. A computer-implemented method that facilitates providing data to a radio frequency identification (RFID) process, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a start boundary and an end boundary associated with the RFID process;

batching data read from an RFID tag, the batching being performed by a batcher component and from the start boundary to the end boundary, and the data being read by an RFID device;

performing a transformation on batched data, the performing the transformation comprising adding metadata to the batched data prior to processing the batched data, the metadata being indicative of one or more parameters for processing filtered batched data, and being defined at during design time the metadata is and compiled into one or more relational queries defining the start boundary and the end boundary at least one boundary condition that an RFID server executes on incoming reads;

receiving the at least one boundary condition in accordance with a compiled RFID process, wherein the compiled RFID process provides a relational database query;

and

routing the batched data to the RFID process.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising applying at least one of a filter or an aggregation to the batched data, the applying the at least one of the filter or the aggregation being in accordance with the RFID process.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

utilizing a declarative construct to generate a relational database query, the declarative construct being created at design time and is associated with the RFID process.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a start boundary and an end boundary associated with the RFID process;

batching data read from an RFID tag, the batching being performed by a batcher component and from the start boundary to the end boundary, and the data being read by an RFID device;

performing a transformation on batched data, the performing the transformation comprising adding metadata to the batched data prior to processing the batched data, the metadata being indicative of one or more parameters for processing filtered batched data, and being defined at during design time the metadata is and compiled into one or more relational queries defining the start boundary and the end boundary at least one boundary condition that an RFID server executes on incoming reads;

receive the at least one boundary condition in accordance with a compiled RFID process, wherein the compiled RFID process provides a relational database query; and

routing the batched data to the RFID process.