Standardized mechanism for firmware upgrades of RFID devices

• US 8,245,219 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2007
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Agarwal, Abhishek, Gopalan, Krishnan, Venkatesh, Ramachandran, Ahmed, Mohamed Fakrudeen Ali, Sundaram, Jayaraman Kalyana, Kumar, Anush
• Primary Examiner(s): Tecklu, Isaac
• Application Number:
  US11/626,968
• Publication Number:
  US 20080184151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,028 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network. A radio frequency identification (RFID) network can include at least one device that receives data from a tag. An upgrade component can evaluate at least one device and identify an applicable portion of firmware for the device based on the evaluation, wherein the applicable portion of firmware can be independently deployed to the device.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network, comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) network that includes a plurality of devices each configured to receive data from an RFID tag;

an upgrade component configured to evaluate the plurality of devices and identify an applicable portion of firmware for each of the plurality of devices based on the evaluation, and, based on the identifying, to deploy applicable portions of firmware to each of the plurality of devices independently of each other;

a bulk component configured to enable concurrent streaming of the applicable portions of firmware to selected ones of the plurality of devices;

and

a presentation component configured to facilitate selecting the applicable portions of firmware and displaying information associated with the plurality of devices, including

an interface configured to

display available providers associated with the RFID network, the available providers including at least a first proprietary provider associated with a first legacy device, and a second proprietary provider associated with a second legacy device,

display, in a same window, one or more devices of the plurality of devices available for selection for a firmware upgrade from one or more of the available providers, a subset of selected devices, an image related to the firmware upgrade, an option to add a device to the subset of selected devices and an option to remove a device from the subset of selected devices, and

display an identifier of each of the subset of selected devices, a current version of firmware for each of the subset of selected devices, an applicability of upgrade firmware for each of the subset of selected devices, and a status of a deployment of the upgrade firmware for each of the subset of selected devices, based on whether the upgrade firmware is applicable or not.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the upgrade component is configured to identify, as the applicable portion of firmware for each of the plurality of devices, firmware that is disparate in comparison to firmware existent on each device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of devices include at least 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, further comprising a firmware resource configured to provide firmware data related to the plurality of devices.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the firmware resource includes at least one of a provider, a third-party, a service, a third-party service, a vendor, a manufacturer, a device-maker, a company, a web-service, a website, a database, an email, a data store, a local service, or a remote party.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the applicable portion of firmware for each of the plurality of devices is specific to at least one of a make, a model, a type, or a brand.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data is configured to be utilized with an RFID process.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the RFID process is configured 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;

or a security process.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the applicable portion of firmware for each of the plurality of devices includes at least one of a portion of applicable data related to the device, a portion of firmware, a portion of software, a portion of an application, a portion of code related to the device, an upgrade, a patch, a version, a software upgrade, a portion of disparate data not existent on the device, or a portion of data that corrects a defect.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface is further configured to automatically display the status in real time.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a search component configured to detect at least a portion of firmware utilized by each of the plurality of devices.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising an intelligent component configured to infer at least one of device data, device make, device model, device type, device characteristics, device settings, device brand, device firmware, a version of firmware or a deployment timing for at least one of the plurality of devices.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising an automatic upgrade component configured to employ an automatic monitoring of at least one update or portion of firmware that are available for the plurality of devices.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the automatic upgrade component is configured to utilize at least one of an automatic update check technique associated with an Operating System (OS), or an agent that executes within the RFID network to automatically identify a portion of applicable firmware to deploy.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation component is configured to facilitate interaction with the upgrade component.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein 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.

17. A computer-implemented method configured to facilitate managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network, comprising:

displaying, in an interface, available providers associated with an RFID network including a plurality of devices each capable of receiving data from an RFID tag, the available providers including at least a first proprietary provider associated with a first legacy device, and a second proprietary provider associated with a second legacy device;

further displaying, via the interface and in a same window, one or more of the plurality of devices available to be selected for a firmware upgrade from at least one of the available providers, a selected subset of the available devices, an image related to the firmware, an option to add a device to the selected subset of the available devices and an option to remove a device from the selected subset of the available devices;

identifying portions of applicable firmware for deployment to one or more of the selected subset of available devices;

concurrently streaming the portions of applicable firmware to the one or more of the selected subset of available devices; and

displaying an identifier of each of the subset of selected devices, a current version of firmware for each of the subset of selected devices, an applicability of upgrade firmware for each of the subset of selected devices, and a status of a deployment of the upgrade firmware for each of the selected subset of available devices, based on whether the upgrade firmware is applicable or not.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising detecting a brand, type, model, maker, corresponding provider, serial number, digital signature, reference name, and associated firmware for at least one of the plurality of devices.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing the status in real time.

20. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that if executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform the method of claim 17.