System and method of monitoring an enterprise wide RFID deployment using standards based JMX technology

• US 7,904,548 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2006
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Shah, Mayur Suresh, Munjal, Sumant
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele; Krista M
• Assistant Examiner(s): GEORGANDELLIS, ANDREW C
• Application Number:
  US11/381,882
• Publication Number:
  US 20070233829A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,768 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/220, 709/221, 709/223, 715/736
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

An RFID administration server can provide administration and monitoring for the multiple RFID edge servers. An RFID Management console can allow a user to administer the multiple RFID edge servers.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system comprising:

a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) edge servers, each RFID edge server being associated with one or more RFID readers;

an RFID administration server, comprising a memory and a processor, that provides administration and monitoring for the RFID edge servers;

a data structure that stores at least data for the one or more RFID readers and an event cycle specification that specifies the event cycle and reports that are generated from said event cycle for each of said RFID edge servers;

an RFID bridge residing on the RFID administration server, said RFID bridge including a an event poller, a notification engine, an event listener engine, wherein the event poller periodically polls the RFID edge servers to monitor the health of the one or more RFID readers, detects a change in operation of an RFID reader specified by the event cycle specification and sends an event to the notification engine, wherein the notification engine broadcasts the event to the at least one management application registered to receive the event and wherein the event listener engine receives the event from the notification engine and stores the event to the data structure to collect the event;

an RFID management console used to administer the RFID edge servers, wherein the RFID management console queries each of the plurality of RFID edge servers to determine available operating metrics for said each RFID edge server;

wherein the RFID management console receives a selection of at least one of said available operating metrics by detecting a dragging and dropping of the selected operating metric onto a particular RFID edge server on said RFID management console; and

wherein the RFID administration server obtains data associated with the at least one selected operating metric from the data structure and produces a graphical interface that displays the obtained data plotted versus time.

2. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the RFID edge servers implement application level events (ALE) protocol.

3. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the RFID administration server uses simple object access protocol (SOAP) to communicate with the RFID edge servers.

4. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the RFID administration server maintains a hierarchical data structure to store the data for the RFID edge servers.

5. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein:

the RFID bridge translates management messages to simple object access protocol (SOAP) messages for application level event (ALE) units at the plurality of RFID edge servers, such that the RFID Management console employs the RFID bridge to manage the plurality of RFID edge servers.

6. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein an MBean hierarchy is used to store management information associated with the plurality of RFID edge servers.

7. The computer implemented system of claim 6, further comprising:

one or more composite readers that combine two or more of the RFID readers as a single group, wherein the one or more composite readers are represented as MBeans.

8. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of RFID edge servers has an associated workflow.

9. A method for monitoring an enterprise-side radio frequency identification (RFID) deployment, said method comprising:

providing an RFID administration server, comprising a memory and a processor, for administration and monitoring of a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) edge servers, each said RFID edge server being associated with one or more RFID readers; and

storing, into a data structure, data for the one or more RFID readers and an event cycle specification that specifies the event cycle and reports that are generated from said event cycle for each of said RFID edge servers;

providing an RFID bridge residing on the RFID administration server, said RFID bridge including an event poller, a notification engine, an event listener engine, wherein the event poller periodically polls the RFID edge servers to monitor the health of the one or more RFID readers, detects a change in operation of an RFID reader specified by the event cycle specification and sends an event to the notification engine, wherein the notification engine broadcasts the event to the at least one management application registered to receive the event and wherein the event listener engine receives the event from the notification engine and stores the event to the data structure to collect the event;

employing an RFID Management console to administer the RFID edge servers, wherein the RFID Management console queries each of the plurality of RFID edge servers to determine available operating metrics for said each RFID edge server;

receiving a selection of at least one of said available operating metrics by the RFID Management console detecting a dragging and dropping of the selected operating metric onto a particular RFID edge server; and

wherein the RFID administration server obtains data associated with the at least one selected operating metric from the data structure and produces a graphical interface that displays the obtained data plotted versus time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the RFID edge servers implement application level events (ALE) protocol.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the RFID administration server uses simple object access protocol (SOAP) to communicate with the RFID edge servers.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the RFID administration server maintains a hierarchical data structure to store the data for the RFID edge servers.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the RFID bridge translates management messages to simple object access protocol (SOAP) messages for application level event (ALE) units at the plurality of RFID edge servers, such that the RFID Management console employs the RFID bridge to manage the plurality of RFID edge servers.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein an MBean hierarchy is used to store management information associated with the plurality of RFID edge servers.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing one or more composite readers that combine two or more of the RFID readers as a single group, wherein the one or more composite readers are represented as MBeans.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of

RFID edge servers has an associated workflow.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, wherein said instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

providing an RFID administration server for administration and monitoring of a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) edge servers, each said RFID edge server being associated with one or more RFID readers; and

storing, into a data structure, data for the one or more RFID readers and an event cycle specification that specifies the event cycle and reports that are generated from said event cycle for each of said RFID edge servers;

providing an RFID bridge residing on the RFID administration server, said RFID bridge including an event poller, a notification engine, an event listener engine, wherein the event poller periodically polls the RFID edge servers to monitor the health of the one or more RFID readers, detects a change in operation of an RFID reader specified by the event cycle specification and sends an event to the notification engine, wherein the notification engine broadcasts the event to the at least one management application registered to receive the event and wherein the event listener engine receives the event from the notification engine and stores the event to the data structure to collect the event;

employing an RFID Management console to administer the RFID edge servers, wherein the RFID Management console queries each of the plurality of RFID edge servers to determine available operating metrics for said each RFID edge server;

receiving a selection of at least one of said available operating metrics by the RFID Management console detecting a dragging and dropping of the selected operating metric onto a particular RFID edge server; and

wherein the RFID administration server obtains data associated with the at least one selected operating metric from the data structure and produces a graphical interface that displays the obtained data plotted versus time.