Agent-Based Device Management in RFID Middleware

As an important part of RFID (radio frequency identification) middleware, device management has a direct impact on the stability of RFID system. This paper proposes an agent-based device management approach in RFID middleware. We design two types of agents: control agent and device agent. Control agent manages and maintains the life cycle of each Device Agent, and coordinates the work of multiple device agents. Device agent lies between the RFID middleware and the physical device. It provides a common operating interface for RFID middleware, implements remote configuration and grouping management for RFID devices, monitors the real-time state of RFID devices, deals with unexpected events, and carries out fault-tolerant processing when necessary. Through the collaboration of multiple device agents, we can dynamically schedule jobs for different devices to optimize the allocation of system resources. Applying agent technology in device management reduces the coupling between RFID middleware and physical devices, therefore, increases the flexibility and scalability of RFID system.