Systems and methods for providing quality of service to RFID

• US 8,284,031 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2011
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Golba LLC
• Original Assignee: Golba LLC
• Inventors: Moshfeghi, Mehran
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): RUSHING, MARK S
• Application Number:
  US13/180,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20110267175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 456 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/10.1, 340/10.2, 340/10.3, 340/10.4, 370/314, 370/329, 370/348, 370/455, 709/207
• US Class Current: 340/10.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10009 sensing by radiation using wavelengths larger than 0.1 mm, e.g. radio-waves or microwaves
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10227 loading programming parameters or programs into the interrogator, e.g. for configuring the interrogator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2491 Mapping quality of service [QoS] requirements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods for providing Quality of service to RFID. In one embodiment the present invention includes a method of providing quality of service in an RFID network comprising storing RFID priority information corresponding to the RFID network, wherein the RFID network comprises one or more tags and one or more readers mapping the RFID priority information into priority information corresponding to a second network.

Claims

1. A system for providing quality of service, the system comprising:

an RFID first network; and

a second network communicatively coupled to the RFID first network;

the RFID first network comprising;

a set of tags; and

a set of readers, each reader configured to;

receive data from one or more tags;

retrieve RFID priority information corresponding to said RFID first network;

determine an RFID priority level corresponding to the RFID first network for the data received from each tag based on the retrieved RFID priority information;

map the RFID priority level for the data received from each tag into an associated priority level corresponding to the second network, wherein the RFID priority level for one or more tags is different than the tags associated priority levels corresponding to the second network; and

send, to the second network, an RFID response for each tag comprising the data received from the tag and the associated priority level corresponding to the second network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein retrieving the RFID priority information comprises retrieving the RFID priority information stored on one or more tags.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein each reader is further configured to modify the RFID priority information stored on a tag.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each reader is further configured to transmit the modified RFID priority information on the tag to one or more other readers of the RFID first network.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein retrieving the RFID priority information comprises retrieving the RFID priority information stored on a reader.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein each reader is further configured to update RFID priority information stored on the reader with the retrieved RFID priority information when the retrieved RFID priority information is different from the RFID priority information stored on the reader.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID priority information comprises a priority level of a tag and a priority level of a reader, wherein retrieving the RFID priority information comprises retrieving the priority level of the tag and the priority level of the reader.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein determining the RFID priority level comprises performing a calculation based on the priority level of the tag and the priority level of the reader.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the RFID priority level is a higher of the priority level of the tag and the priority level of the reader.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the RFID priority level is an average of the priority level of the tag and the priority level of the reader.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein retrieving the RFID priority information comprises retrieving the RFID priority information stored on the second network.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the RFID priority information stored on the second network is cached on an access point in the second network.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID priority information is stored on one or more readers.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID priority information is based on attributes of the RFID first network.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the attributes of the RFID first network include a location of a reader, a time, or an application type that is supported by the reader.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the second network is a wired local area network, a wireless local area network, or a cellular network.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein mapping the RFID priority level to the associated priority level corresponding to the second network comprises converting the RFID priority level to a priority level of the second network by applying a mapping algorithm to the RFID priority level.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID priority level is mapped to the associated priority level corresponding to the second network based on the RFID priority level determined for the data received, a number of RFID priority levels available on the RFID first network, and a number of available priority levels on the second network.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the second network comprises a set of access points and routers, wherein the access points and routers are configured to process a plurality of RFID responses in an order based on second network priority levels associated with the plurality of RFID responses.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID priority level for the data received from each tag is set to give a higher prioritization to time consuming operations within the RFID first network or the second network in order to speed up sending time-sensitive data to their destinations.

21. A method of providing quality of service in an RFID first network comprising a set of tags and a set of readers, the RFID first network communicatively coupled to a second network, the method comprising:

at a reader, receiving a request from the second network for reading data from a plurality of tags in the set of tags;

retrieving priority information corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags;

determining a priority level corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags based on the retrieved priority information; and

at the reader, reading data from each tag in the plurality of tags by interrogating each tag in the plurality of tags based on the determined priority levels.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

associating a priority level to the data read from each particular tag by mapping the determined priority level corresponding to each tag to a priority level associated with the second network; and

sending the data read from each tag to the second network based on the corresponding priority level associated with the second network.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein retrieving the priority information corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags comprises retrieving priority information stored on the RFID first network.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the priority information that is stored on the RFID first network is stored on the reader.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the priority information corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags is not stored in the RFID first network, wherein determining the priority level corresponding to each tag comprises using priority information received from the second network.

26. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

associating a priority level to the data read from each particular tag by combining the determined priority level corresponding to the particular tag and a priority level for the reader;

mapping the combined priority level for data read from each tag to a priority level associated with the second network; and

sending the data read from each tag to the second network based on the corresponding priority level associated with the second network.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the priority level corresponding to each tag is set to give a higher prioritization to time consuming operations within the RFID first network or the second network in order to speed up sending time-sensitive data to their destinations.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the data read from one or more tags comprises a priority level stored in the tag, the method further comprising:

when the priority level received from a particular tag is different from the determined priority level corresponding to the particular tag, storing the priority level received from the particular tag in the RFID first network as the priority level corresponding to the particular tag.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the second network comprises a set of wireless access points, wherein at least one access point filters duplicate data read from a same tag by different readers.

30. A system for providing quality of service, the system comprising:

an RFID first network;

a second network communicatively coupled to the RFID first network;

the RFID first network comprising;

a set of tags; and

a set of readers, each reader configured to;

receive a request from the second network for reading data from a plurality of tags in the set of tags;

retrieve priority information corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags;

determine a priority level corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags based on the retrieved priority information; and

read data from each tag in the plurality of tags by interrogating each tag in the plurality of tags based on the determined priority levels.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein each reader is further configured to:

associate a priority level to the data read from each particular tag by mapping the determined priority level corresponding to each tag to a priority level associated with the second network; and

send the data read from each tag to the second network based on the corresponding priority level associated with the second network.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein each reader is further configured to:

associate a priority level to the data read from each particular tag by combining the determined priority level for the particular tag and a priority level for the reader;

map the combined priority level for data read from each tag to a priority level associated with the second network; and

send the data read from each tag to the second network based on the corresponding priority level associated with the second network.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the priority level corresponding to each tag is set to give a higher prioritization to time consuming operations within the RFID first network or the second network in order to speed up sending time-sensitive data to their destinations.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein retrieving the priority information corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags comprises retrieving priority information stored on the RFID first network.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the priority information that is stored on the RFID first network is stored on the reader.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the priority information corresponding to each tag in the plurality of tags is not stored in the RFID first network, wherein determining the priority level corresponding to each tag comprises using priority information received from the second network.

37. The system of claim 30, wherein the data read from one or more tags comprises a priority level stored in the tag, wherein each reader is further configured to store, when the priority level received from a particular tag is different from the determined priority level corresponding to the particular tag, the priority level received from the particular tag in the RFID first network as the priority level corresponding to the particular tag.

38. The system of claim 30, wherein the second network comprises a set of wireless access points, wherein at least one access point filters duplicate data read from a same tag by different readers.