Intermec IP Corporation

Endress+hauserse+co. Kg

Patrick Deuber

Roland Kueng

Christian Seiler

The present disclosure relates to a measuring device for measuring a fill level of a material in a container based on time of flight principles, including components that serve to generate, transmit and receive a measurement signal and further serve to convert said measurement signal into an analog intermediate frequency signal having an expected signal frequency within a predetermined frequency range, said intermediate frequency signal including information corresponding to the fill level of the material in the container, wherein an analog to digital converter is provided that serves to subsequently sample the intermediate frequency signal, said analog to digital converter employing a sampling frequency less than the expected signal frequency of intermediate frequency signal.

Fill level measurement device

The invention relates to a method for operating an RFID network consisting of a number of read-write stations (, N-N), for which a reader service signal () is modulated onto a read-write signal that is required to process a number of electronic labels (). According to the invention, the following steps are carried out: at least one read-write station (, N-N) is entrusted with the function of a master () that has stored a network structure () comprising structure data and a co-ordination plan containing co-ordination data; the master or masters transmit(s) () at least corresponding data for an organized synchronous network operation to the read-write stations (, N-N) periodically and/or on demand, so that the read-write stations (, N-N) do not interfere with one another during the read-write operation. This is achieved using a number of time slots () and a number of frequency channels (), a service frequency channel (reader service channel, RSK) and/or a service time slot (reader service time, RST) being available and used to synchronize and modify the structure and co-ordination data between the master () and the read-write stations (, N-N).

Method for operating an RFID network

The invention relates to a method for implementing an RFID network, comprising the following steps: each read-write station transmits at least one test signal; each read-write station (, N-N) receives the (receivable) test signals of neighboring read-write stations (, N-N), said signals comprising a station address, a frequency channel number and a measured signal intensity of each receivable neighboring read-write station (, N-N); a network structure () comprising structure data and a co-ordination plan comprising co-ordination data are calculated using a number of time slots () and a number of frequency channels (), a service frequency channel (reader service channel, RSK) and/or a service time slot (reader service time, RST) being defined and used by the read-write stations (, N-N) for service purposes; and at least corresponding structure data and co-ordination data for an organized, synchronous network operation is transmitted to the read-write stations (, N-N) so that said stations (, N-N) do not interfere with one another.

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Siebnen, Switzerland

Patrick Deuber