The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 04, 2008
Filed:
Jan. 12, 2007
David Lee Eastburn, Cedar Rapids, IA (US);
David Lee Eastburn, Cedar Rapids, IA (US);
Intermec IP Corp., Everett, WA (US);
Abstract
A system and method is provided for implementing forced frequency 'hops' if the time it takes to perform a particular transaction is greater than the time available on a particular carrier frequency. In one embodiment of the present invention, a radio frequency identification (RFID) base station processor (in conjunction with program information stored in a base station memory) is adapted to (i) determine the amount of time available on a particular carrier frequency (e.g., pursuant to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI) regulations, etc.), (ii) determine the amount of time it would take to perform a particular transaction, and (iii) force the base station to 'hop' to another carrier frequency if the transaction time is longer than the available time. In one embodiment of the present invention, the time it would take to perform a particular transaction is the time it would take to perform the next transaction. In another embodiment of the present invention, the time it would take to perform a particular transaction is the time it would take to perform the longest (or “worst-case”) transaction. In alternate embodiments of the present invention, a transaction is defined as the transmission of information (e.g., data, commands, etc.) or both the transmission of information and the reception of related information.