Radio frequency identification systems and methods for waking up data storage devices for wireless communication

Abstract

A remote system includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag specifically identified by an RF identification signal. The specific RFID tag is associated with a particular remote data transfer device. When identified, the specific RFID tag changes the state of the associated remote data transfer device from a zero power state to an operational state. Limited power-capacity of a remote power supply is used solely for data transfer between the data transfer device and an administrator. Although many RFID signals may be transmitted over time to the location of many remote systems, each of which has an RFID tag, an RFID signal is only infrequently sent to a specific one of the RFID tags. Such an RFID signal is transmitted only to request a data transfer operation with the particular remote data transfer device that is associated with that specific RFID tag. At the end of the data transfer state of that particular remote data transfer device, the state of that data storage device is returned to the zero power state. Each RFID tag may be a passive beam-powered tag. The zero power state, the specificity and periodicity of the RFID signal, the return to the zero power state, and the use of the specific selected passive beam powered RFID tag, combine so that the zero power state is the primary state from a temporal standpoint and for substantial periods of time no power is drawn from the limited power-capacity of the remote power supply. The data storage device may be provided in many different electronic units, all of which may involve data transfer.