RFID enhanced operating system (EOS) framework

1. A radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader comprising:

a hardware platform, the hardware platform including:

a transceiver, the transceiver arranged to receive communication signals from at least one RFID tag;

an input/output interface;

a controller communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the input/output interface, the controller controlling operation of the RFID reader; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the controller, the memory containing:

a software development framework for developing a software application that is executable on the hardware platform, the framework including a plurality of predefined encapsulated functional components that interact with at least one of the transceiver and the input/output interface to allow the software application to operate in a manner that is independent of a specific embodiment of the RFID reader hardware platform, the functional components including a set of core components, the set of core components enabling the software application to operate; wherein the set of core components includes:

a reader interface, the reader interface operating and managing the RFID reader;

a tag state handler, the tag state handler filtering responses received from RFID tags according to a current state;

a version manager, the version manager maintaining and supporting RFID reader software version information;

a license support manager, the license support manager issuing and monitoring a license for the software development framework; and

a set of operating system wrappers, the operating system wrappers implementing a consistent usage policy for operating system functions.

2. The RFID reader of claim 1 , wherein the functional components further include at least one auxiliary component.

3. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is at least one of an RF control component, a trigger control component, a notification channels manager, a general purpose output controller, a command handler, a configuration manager, a network management component, a message display component, and an application utility.

4. The RFID reader of claim 3 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is an application utility, the application utility including at least one of a base agent, a deliverer class, a log utility, an MD5 hash utility, a notifier utility, a queue class, a TCP socket utility, a time conversion utility, and a type conversion utility.

5. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is an RF control component, the RF control component processing RF schedules, RF searches and schedules tag searches.

6. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a trigger control component, the trigger control component processing triggers, each trigger including an input trigger and a set of actions to perform.

7. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a notification channels manager, the notification channels manager managing notification channels to deliver tag event data to host computers.

8. The RFID reader of claim 7 , wherein the tag event data contains at least one of an event type, a tag state, a tag source name, a tag identifier, an air protocol, a trigger, and a tag detection time.

9. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the hardware platform further includes an input/output port controlled by the input/output interface, wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a general purpose output controller, the general purpose output controller controlling a state of the input/output port.

10. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a command handler, the command handler processing commands from a host computer.

11. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a configuration manager, the configuration manager extracting component configuration parameters from configuration files of the software development framework.

12. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a network management component, the network management component reporting outage events and delivering alerts and performance statistics.

13. The RFID reader of claim 2 , wherein the at least one auxiliary component is a message display component, the message display component outputting application messages for presentation.

14. A method for developing software applications residing on a radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader, the RFID reader including a memory, the method comprising:

storing a software development framework in the memory of the RFID reader, the software development framework including a plurality of predefined functional components that interact with the RFID reader in a manner that is independent of RFID reader hardware, the functional components include a set of core components, the set of core components enabling the software application to operate, wherein the set of core components includes:

a reader interface, the reader interface operating and managing the RFID reader;

a tag state handler, the tag state handler filtering responses received from RFID tags according to a current state;

a version manager, the version manager maintaining and supporting RFID reader software version information;

a license support manager, the license support manager issuing and monitoring a license for the software development framework; and

a set of operating system wrappers, the operating system wrappers implementing a consistent usage policy for operating system functions.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the functional components further include at least one auxiliary component.

16. A system for developing radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader-resident applications, the system comprising:

an RFID reader, the RFID reader having a hardware platform including a memory for storing at least one software application; and

a host computer communicatively coupled to the RFID reader, the host computer including:

a software development framework for developing the at least one software application, the framework including predefined encapsulated functional components that interact with the RFID reader hardware platform to allow the at least one software application to operate in a manner that is independent of a specific embodiment of the RFID reader hardware platform, the functional components including a set of core components, the set of core components enabling the software application to operate, wherein the set of core components includes:

a reader interface, the reader interface operating and managing the RFID reader;

a tag state handler, the tag state handler filtering responses received from RFID tags according to a current state;

a version manager, the version manager maintaining and supporting RFID reader software version information;

a license support manager, the license support manager issuing and monitoring a license for the software development framework; and

a set of operating system wrappers, the operating system wrappers implementing a consistent usage policy for operating system functions.