KR20060068567A - RFID management system and RFID tag location information management method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention manages location information of an RFID tag based on IPv6 and provides an RFID management system that is easy to interwork with an Internet service.

The RFID management system according to the present invention is an RFID management system for managing an RFID tag having a home address corresponding to an electronic product code (EPC), and includes a reader, an integrated proxy server, and a home agent. The reader has a unique IP address and reads RFID tag information through wireless communication with the RFID tag. The integrated proxy server receives the information of the RFID tag and the reader IP from the reader, generates an intermediate address indicating the current position of the RFID tag corresponding to the home address of the RFID tag, and generates the EPC, the reader IP, Store and manage home and intermediate addresses in correspondence with each other. The home agent is connected to the integrated proxy server through an internet network, generates and stores a home address of the RFID tag, and stores an intermediate address received from the integrated proxy server to correspond to the home address.

RFID, IPv6, Proxy Server, Home Agent, Reader, Bidirectional

Description

RFID management system and method for managing the position information of RFID tag

1 is a view showing the overall configuration of an RFID management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a view showing in order the method for storing the location information of the RFID tag in the RFID management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a method of sequentially providing location information of an RFID tag in an RFID management system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an RFID management system, and more particularly, to an RFID management system for managing a location of an RFID tag through IPv6.

RFID management system (radio frequency identification management system) is a system that can transmit and receive a variety of data in a wireless manner using a constant frequency band. Such RFID can overcome the disadvantage that the magnetic or barcode need a specific display and the recognition rate gradually decreases over time due to damage or damage. As a result, RFID is rapidly replacing the traditional barcode and magnetic card market, and is emerging as a new solution in various fields such as access control, commute management, logistics management and parking management.

However, since the conventional RFID management system establishes a separate server and implements a communication program between the servers for location management of the RFID tag, it may cause compatibility problems between different RFID management systems.

In order to solve this problem, the RFID tag-based logistics management system uses a home location register (HLR) and a visitor location register (VLR), which are location management servers in existing mobile phone networks, for location management. RFID utilizing the term "An Ubiquitous Architectural Framework and Protocol for Object Tracking using RFID tags" in Proc. By P. De, K. Basu, S. Das. It was introduced in ACM MobiQuitos 2004.

However, such a technique has a disadvantage of using an existing carrier's infrastructure, that is, HLR and VLR. In addition, the future communication network will evolve into an integrated network based on Internet Protocol version 6, and thus the location information of the RFID management system and the RFID tag that can manage the location of the RFID tag in such an IPv6-based network. Management methods are urgently needed.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to provide a RFID management system that is easy to interwork with the Internet service by managing the location information of the RFID tag based on IPv6.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for managing location information of an RFID tag that can store and track location information of an RFID tag based on IPv6.

An RFID management system according to an aspect of the present invention is an RFID management system for managing an RFID tag having a home address corresponding to an electronic product code (EPC).

A reader having a unique IP address and reading information of the RFID tag through wireless communication with the RFID tag;

Receives the information of the RFID tag and the reader IP from the reader, generates an intermediate address indicating the current location of the RFID tag corresponding to the home address of the RFID tag, and generates the EPC, reader IP, home address and intermediate address. Integrated proxy server for storing and managing the corresponding to each other; And

And a home agent connected to the integrated proxy server through an internet network, generating and storing a home address of the RFID tag, and storing an intermediate address received from the integrated proxy server corresponding to the home address.

The home agent may tunnel and transmit location information request data of an RFID tag received from an arbitrary terminal using the intermediate address of the RFID tag.

The integrated proxy server may receive data transmitted through tunneling from the home agent using an intermediate address through a neighbor search function in the Internet network.

The integrated proxy server may search the IP of the reader from which the RFID tag is read using the intermediate address and transmit the searched IP to the terminal that has transmitted the data.

The method may further include an object name service server that searches the EPC of the RFID tag and informs the home address of the RFID tag.

The SAVANT may further include a SAVANT that functions as a data router and manages an event occurring when the reader reads the RFID tag.

The intermediate address may be a care of address (CoA) that provides information on a current connection point of a subnet managed by the integrated proxy server.

The reader may transmit time information of reading the RFID tag to the integrated proxy server together with the information of the RFID tag and the reader IP.

A method of managing location information of an RFID tag according to another aspect of the present invention is a method of managing location information of an RFID tag having a home address registered in a home agent.

a) receiving an EPC of the RFID tag and an IP of the reader read from the reader of the RFID tag through wireless communication;

b) generating an intermediate address indicating the current location of the RFID tag based on the IP of the EPC and the reader; And

c) registering the intermediate address with the home agent using the home address and the EPC.

After the step a), the method may further include transmitting a response message for receiving the EPC of the RFID tag and the IP of the reader to the reader.

After step c), the method may further include receiving a response message for receiving the intermediate address from the home agent.

In step b), the intermediate address may be stored corresponding to the home address of the RFID tag.

In step a), together with the EPC of the RFID tag and the IP of the reader may receive the time information for reading the RFID tag in the reader.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing location information of an RFID tag, comprising: providing a terminal with location information of an RFID tag having a home address registered in a home agent;

a) transmitting, by the arbitrary terminal, data asking for location information of an RFID tag to the home agent using the home address;

b) searching, at the home agent, an intermediate address indicating a current location of the RFID tag using a home address of the RFID tag and transmitting the data to an integrated proxy server using the intermediate address; And

c) the integrated proxy server receiving the data transmitted from the home agent, transmitting the location information of the RFID tag to the terminal.

In step b), the home agent may transmit the data by tunneling the data using the intermediate address.

In step c), the integrated proxy server may receive the data tunneled from the home agent by using a neighbor search function of an IP network.

The intermediate address may be a care of address (CoA) that provides information on a current connection point of a subnet managed by the integrated proxy server.

The location information of the RFID tag may include the IP of the reader from which the RFID tag is read.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention. Like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the specification.

First, an RFID management system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1.

1 is a view showing the overall configuration of an RFID management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The RFID management system may include an RFID tag 100, a reader 200, an integration proxy server (hereinafter referred to as IPS) 300, an object name survice server (hereinafter referred to as ONS 400). , A savant 500, a home agent 600, and a terminal 700.

The RFID tag 100 is a tag in which the automatic recognition means includes radio frequency identification (RFID), that is, an electronic product code (EPC), and the EPC recorded in the RFID tag 100 may be wirelessly transmitted using microwave or long wave. Can be. Therefore, the RFID tag 100 provides only a simple identification function and does not have a function for sending data to an external network such as the Internet.

The reader 200 receives and recognizes an EPC transmitted from the RFID tag 100 through an antenna to obtain unique information of an article on which the RFID tag 100 is mounted. Reader 200 also has a unique IP address that includes, for example, the prefix "R ::".

The IPS 300 is in charge of an integration process in one subnet, that is, one management area, is connected to a plurality of connected readers 200 to manage the leaders 200, and the leader 200. Using the EPC of the RFID tag 100 received from the serves to send a registration message for the location of the current tag to the HA 600 in place of the RFID tag 100. In addition, since the RFID tag 100 has only the EPC for the identification function, it also plays a role of changing the EPC to an IP address which is an address on the Internet. In addition, when the IPS 300 moves from the previous IPS-managed subnet to the subnet managed by the current IPS 300, the IPS 300 moves the current IPS 300 of the new mobile node. Create a care of address (CoA), which is an intermediate address that provides information about a connection point. Therefore, CoA includes information about the location of the RFID tag 100. The generated CoA is registered in the HA 600 by the IPS 300 and stored to correspond to each other along with a home address (HoA).

 The ONS 400 performs a function similar to a DNS (Domain Naming Service) for converting a domain name into an IP address in the Internet network 10. The ONS 400 includes information on the EPC of the RFID tag 100 It converts the URL which is the IP address of the server. The ONS 400 searches the electronic product code (EPC) of the RFID tag 100 to know information such as the address where the information about the EPC is stored, for example, the home address (HoA) of the EPC. have.

The SAVANT 500 is middleware located between the reader 200 and an enterprise application to manage the role of a data router and an event generated when the reader 200 reads the RFID tag 100. . Specifically, as a data router, data is managed by capturing and monitoring data, transmitting data, and performing redundant filtering, aggregation, and counting to reduce redundant data.

The HA 600 generates and stores an identifiable HoA of the RFID tag 100 in response to the EPC of the RFID tag 100. In this way, when someone outside wants to communicate with the mobile node, the HA 600 first sends a packet using a HoA that can identify the user, and the HA 600 finds the CoA and tunnels it to a location corresponding to the CoA to transmit the packet. It will be possible. The transmitted packet is received by the IPS 300 by the neighbor discovery function of IPv6. Here, the HA 600 may be connected to the Internet network 10 through the router 610.

The terminal 700 may obtain the location information of the RFID tag 100 by accessing the HA 600 and the ONS 400 through the IPv6 Internet network 10.

Next, the operation of the RFID management system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

2 is a view showing a method of storing the position information of the RFID tag 100 in the RFID management system according to an embodiment of the present invention in order.

First, the reader 200 is wirelessly connected to the RFID tag 100 to read the EPC of the RFID tag 100 (S110).

The EPC of the RFID tag 100 read from the reader 200 is filtered by the SAVANT 500 and transmitted to the IPS 300 together with the IP address (Reader_ID) and the read time information (time stamp) of the reader 200 (S120). ).

When the IPS 300 receives the reading update information including the EPC of the RFID tag 100, the IP address Reader_ID of the reader 200, and the time stamp read, the IPS 300 receives the reading update information. In response to the response message (Reading Ack) to the reader 200 (S130).

Then, the IPS 300 is prefixed with the IPv6 home address of the RFID tag 100 stored in the HA 600 starting with the prefix "E ::" based on the EPC of the RFID tag 100 with the prefix "X ::". Configures the CoA address on the current IP subnet from which it starts. For example, in the case of "1" of the EPC of the RFID tag 100, the home address (E :: 1) and the CoA address (X :: 1) of the RFID tag 100 are configured (S140).

The IPS 300 then has a source address (Src) of CoA address (X :: 1), a destination address (Destination; Dst) of HA (600), and a home address (HoA) of E :: 1. The binding updater (Src = X :: 1, Dst = HA address, HoA option = E :: 1) for updating the location information of the RFID tag 100 is transmitted to the HA 600. The IPS 300 maintains mapping information on the CoA address (X :: 1) and the reader address (R :: 1) (S150).

The HA 600 receiving the binding update message transmits a response message (Binding Ask) indicating that the binding updater has been received to the IPS 300 (S160), and the home address (E :: 1) of the RFID tag 100 and the like. CoA addresses (X :: 1) are stored to correspond to each other and the entry of (E :: 1⇔X :: 1) is maintained (S170).

In this way, the position information of the RFID tag 100 is stored in the HA 600.

Next, a process of obtaining location information of the RFID tag 100 in the terminal 700 will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

3 is a diagram illustrating a method of sequentially providing location information of an RFID tag in an RFID management system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The terminal 700 may track the position of the RFID tag 100 using the EPC of the RFID tag 100.

First, the terminal 700 may access the ONS 400 through the IPv6 Internet network 10 and search for a HoA corresponding to the EPC of the RFID tag 100 (S210). If the HoA corresponding to the EPC of the RFID tag 100 is known, this step (S210) may be omitted.

Next, the terminal 700 first searches its binding cache to obtain the location information of the RFID tag 100. If there is no location information of the RFID tag 100 in the binding cache, the HA 600 transmits arbitrary data D asking for the location information of the RFID tag 100 (S220).

Then, the HA 600 tunnels and sends a question D asking for location information of the RFID tag 100 to CoA (X :: 1) corresponding to HoA (E :: 1) of the EPC of the RFID tag 100. . The data D tunneled by CoA (X :: 1) is received by the IPS 300 through the neighbor discovery function of the mobile IP (S230).

The IPS 300 searches for an address R :: 1 of the current reader 200 of the RFID tag 100 by referring to the stored mapping table (S240). The location information of the RFID tag 100 including the address (R :: 1) of the reader 200 is bound to the binding update message (Src = R :: 1, Dst: terminal address, HoA option = E :: 1). It is sent to the terminal 700 through the (S250).

The terminal 700 receiving the binding update sent from the IPS 300 stores the HoA (E :: 1) of the RFID tag 100 and the address (R :: 1) of the reader 200 so as to correspond (E :: 1_R :: 1) keep the information in its own binding cache (S260).

After a specific time (T) time after the data (D) transmission, the terminal 700 searches for its own binding cache, and if the location of the RFID tag 100 exists, the location search is ended, and the RFID tag ( The position of 100 is obtained (S270).

If the terminal 700 searches its binding cache and the location of the RFID tag 100 does not exist, the location search fails, and any data (D) asking the HA 600 of the location of the RFID tag 100 again. ) Can be sent.

As such, the location of the RFID tag 100 may be tracked by the arbitrary terminal 700 through the IPv6 Internet network 10.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various other changes and modifications are possible.

 In the RFID management system according to the present invention, based on MIPv6, which is a location management protocol of an IPv6 network, RFID is effectively used by using a newly proposed Integration Proxy Server (IPS) without modifying an existing MIPv6 or an existing EPC management system. Manage the location of tags.

In particular, the integrated proxy server not only registers the location information of the RFID tag with the home agent, but also provides the location information of the RFID tag to any terminal that wants to know the location information, that is, operates in both directions, thereby providing one integrated proxy. In the management area managed by the server, i.e., in one IP subnet area, even if the location of the tag moves, the need to register with the home agent can reduce the cost of registering the location with the home agent.

Claims (18)

An RFID management system for managing an RFID tag having a home address corresponding to an electronic product code (EPC), A reader having a unique IP address and reading information of the RFID tag through wireless communication with the RFID tag; Receives the information of the RFID tag and the reader IP from the reader, generates an intermediate address indicating the current location of the RFID tag corresponding to the home address of the RFID tag, and generates the EPC, reader IP, home address and intermediate address. Integrated proxy server for storing and managing the corresponding to each other; And A home agent connected to the integrated proxy server through an internet network, generates and stores a home address of the RFID tag, and stores an intermediate address received from the integrated proxy server corresponding to the home address. RFID management system comprising a. The method of claim 1, The home agent tunnels and transmits the location information request data of the RFID tag received from any terminal by using the intermediate address of the RFID tag. The method of claim 2, The integrated proxy server receives the data sent tunneled from the home agent using the intermediate address through the neighbor search function in the Internet network. The method of claim 3, The integrated proxy server retrieves the IP of the reader from which the RFID tag is read using the intermediate address and transmits the data to the terminal that has transmitted the data. The method of claim 1, And an object name service server for searching the EPC of the RFID tag and informing the home address of the RFID tag. The method of claim 1, And a SAVANT that serves as a data router and manages an event occurring when the reader reads the RFID tag. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, The intermediate address is a RFID management system CoA (Care of Address) for providing information about the current connection point of the subnet managed by the integrated proxy server. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, And the reader transmits time information of reading the RFID tag to the integrated proxy server together with the information of the RFID tag and the reader IP. In the method for managing location information of an RFID tag having a home address registered in a home agent, a) receiving an EPC of the RFID tag and an IP of the reader read from the reader of the RFID tag through wireless communication; b) generating an intermediate address indicating the current location of the RFID tag based on the IP of the EPC and the reader; And c) registering the intermediate address with the home agent using the home address and the EPC Location information management method of the RFID tag comprising a. The method of claim 9, After step a), And transmitting a response message for receiving the EPC of the RFID tag and the IP of the reader to the reader. The method of claim 9, After step c), And receiving a response message for receiving the intermediate address from the home agent. The method of claim 9, In step b), And the intermediate address is stored corresponding to the home address of the RFID tag. The method of claim 9, In step a), And location information management method for receiving the RFID tag together with the EPC of the RFID tag and the IP of the reader. In the method for providing the location information of the RFID tag having a home address registered in the home agent to any terminal, a) transmitting, by the arbitrary terminal, data asking for location information of an RFID tag to the home agent using the home address; b) searching, at the home agent, an intermediate address indicating a current location of the RFID tag using a home address of the RFID tag and transmitting the data to an integrated proxy server using the intermediate address; And c) the integrated proxy server receiving the data transmitted from the home agent, transmitting location information of the RFID tag to the terminal; Position information providing method of the RFID tag comprising a. The method of claim 14, In step b), the home agent tunnels the data using the intermediate address and transmits the location information of the RFID tag. The method of claim 14, In step c), the integrated proxy server provides the location information of the RFID tag to receive the data tunneled from the home agent using the neighbor search function of the IP network. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, The intermediate address is a location information of the RFID tag is a CoA (Care of Address) for providing information about the current connection point of the subnet managed by the integrated proxy server. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, The location information of the RFID tag includes the location information of the RFID tag including the IP of the reader from which the RFID tag is read.

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