Virtual readers for scalable RFID infrastructures

• US 8,113,418 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Howarth, Arthur G., Saville, Roland, Miriyala, Prasad
• Primary Examiner(s): Hess, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANDLER, MICHAEL S
• Application Number:
  US11/496,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20060266832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,024 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/491
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

Some implementations of the invention involve forming “logical” or “virtual” devices by aggregating a plurality of physical devices. The physical devices may be, for example, controllers, RFID readers and/or storage devices. Some logical devices comprise components of physical devices, such as individual antennas from a plurality of RFID readers. The physical devices may be located near one another or may be distributed over a wide geographical area. Logical device definitions can also be concatenated to include devices having two or more levels of logical device definitions. A single logical device grouping may include physical devices at differing levels of a network hierarchy.

Claims

1. A networking method, comprising:

receiving, from a requesting device, a first request for information regarding a virtual radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) reader;

translating the first request into second requests for data from a first plurality of devices aggregated as a first logical RFID reader, the first plurality of devices comprising a first plurality of controllers;

wherein a plurality of physical RFID readers are associated with the first plurality of controllers by automatically updating a domain name server (DNS) entry of each of the plurality of RFID readers such that the DNS entry identifies a domain name of a corresponding one of the first plurality of controllers;

wherein the first plurality of controllers are associated with one or more middleware servers by automatically updating domain name server (“

DNS”

) entries;

sending at least one of the second requests to the first plurality of controllers;

receiving RFID data from the first plurality of controllers responsive to the second requests; and

sending at least some of the RFID data to the requesting device in response to the first request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first plurality of controllers translates the second request into a third request for RFID data from a second plurality of devices aggregated as a second logical RFID reader of two or more logical RFID readers, the two or more logical readers including the first logical reader.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the second plurality of devices comprises at least one antenna of an RFID reader.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the second plurality of devices includes at least one antenna of each of multiple RFID readers aggregated as the second logical RFID reader.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the RFID data from the first plurality of controllers comprises current RFID tag read data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one device of the first plurality of devices comprises a storage device, further comprising the step of receiving stored RFID tag read data from the storage device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of filtering the RFID data according to parameters of the first request prior to sending at least some of the RFID data to the requesting device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first request comprises a request for information regarding products of a first enterprise and wherein the filtering step comprises filtering out RFID data not involving products of the first enterprise.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of devices is aggregated as a first logical RFID reader according to requirements of the ECSpec.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of physical devices are distributed among more than one geographic location.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting device comprises an EPC server.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical RFID reader is configured with middleware.

13. The networking method of claim 1, wherein the domain name server (DNS) entry of each of the plurality of RFID readers is updated such that the DNS entry includes a text record identifying the domain name of the corresponding one of the first plurality of controllers.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first plurality of controllers is configured to request a middleware server.

14. A network, comprising:

a plurality of RFID devices in various locations of a site;

a plurality of controllers associated with the site;

a plurality of middleware servers associated with the site;

a DNS server configured to maintain network addresses and corresponding location and site information;

an application server configured to create, automatically, an entry in the DNS server corresponding to all registered devices of a site; and

an assigner configured to assign RFID devices to controllers and to assign controllers to middleware servers,

wherein each of the plurality of RFID devices is provisioned with an RFID device network address, an assigner network address and instructions to send a request to the assigner for a controller, and wherein the assigner is configured to assign an RFID device to a controller in response to the request; and

wherein each of the plurality of the controllers is provisioned with a controller network address, an assigner network address and instructions to send a request to the assigner for a middleware server, and wherein the assigner is configured to assign a controller to a middleware server in response to the request;

wherein each of the plurality of RFID devices is associated with one of the plurality of controllers by automatically updating a domain name server (DNS) entry of each of the plurality of RFID devices such that the DNS entry identifies a domain name of a corresponding one of the plurality of controllers; and

wherein the plurality of controllers are associated with the plurality of middleware servers by automatically updating DNS entries.

15. The network of claim 14, wherein the assigner comprises a load balancer.

16. The network of claim 14, wherein the application server is configured to send requests to a middleware server and wherein the middleware server retrieves controller location information and provides the controller location information to the application server in response to the application server'"'"'s request.

17. The network of claim 14, wherein the application server is configured to send requests to a controller and wherein the controller retrieves RFID reader location information and provides the RFID reader location information to the application server in response to the application server'"'"'s request.

18. The network of claim 14, wherein the middleware servers are configured to do the following:

receive a request from a requesting device for RFID data regarding a single enterprise;

filter RFID tag reads according to the request; and

return RFID data regarding the single enterprise to the requesting device.

19. A network, comprising:

means for receiving, from a requesting device, a first request for information regarding a virtual radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) reader;

means for translating the first request into second requests for data from a first plurality of devices aggregated as a first logical RFID reader, the first plurality of devices comprising a first plurality of controllers;

means for automatically associating RFID readers with the first plurality of controllers by automatically updating a domain name server (DNS) entry of each of the RFID readers such that the DNS entry identifies a domain name of a corresponding one of the first plurality of controllers;

means for automatically associating middleware servers with the first plurality of controllers by automatically updating domain name server (DNS) entries;

means for sending at least one of the second requests to the first plurality of controllers;

means for receiving RFID data from the first plurality of controllers responsive to the second requests; and

means for sending at least some of the RFID data to the requesting device in response to the first request.

20. Software stored on a machine-readable medium, the software comprising instructions for controlling one or more devices in a network to perform the following steps:

receive, from a requesting device, a first request for information regarding a virtual radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) reader;

translate the first request into second requests for data from a first plurality of devices aggregated as a first logical RFID reader, the first plurality of devices comprising a first plurality of controllers;

associate RFID devices with the first plurality of controllers by automatically updating domain name server (DNS) entries of the RFID devices such that each of the DNS entries identifies a domain name of a corresponding one of the first plurality of controllers;

associate a middleware server with the first plurality of controllers by automatically updating (DNS) entries;

send at least one of the second requests to the first plurality of controllers;

receive RFID data from the first plurality of controllers responsive to the second requests; and

send at least some of the RFID data to the requesting device in response to the first request.