JP2015019295A - Rfid communication device, rfid recording medium issuance device and communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an RFID communication device, RFID recording medium issuance device and communication method, capable of preventing generation of a collision of a communication frequency while communicating with a plurality of RFID recording mediums.SOLUTION: The RFID communication device includes a plurality of reader writer RW1-RW15 that communicate with an RFID recording medium while performing frequency hopping, and a frequency management section 60 that instructs each of a plurality of reader writers RW1-RW15 not to overlap a frequency which the reader writers use for communication and a frequency which the reader writers use at the same time with each other.

Description

  The present invention relates to an RFID communication apparatus, an RFID recording medium issuing apparatus, and a communication method for communicating with an RFID recording medium using a plurality of reader / writers.

  Conventionally, frequency hopping control has been used for communication with an RFID recording medium (for example, Patent Document 1). The frequency hopping control is a mechanism provided for efficiently performing communication within a limited number of wireless channels between a plurality of wireless devices. When communication is performed by frequency hopping control, if the wireless channels used between multiple wireless devices overlap, the wireless device switches to the next wireless channel and performs communication to switch to the wireless channel. Collisions can be avoided.

JP 2008-160317 A

  However, in the conventional frequency hopping control, when wireless channels used between multiple wireless devices overlap, the time until switching to the next wireless channel is very short, but communication is not possible Has occurred. In a situation where a large number of RFID recording media are issued continuously, there is a problem that the time loss as a whole increases if this occurs frequently even in this short time.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an RFID communication apparatus, an RFID recording medium issuing apparatus, and a communication method that do not cause a collision of communication frequencies when communicating with a plurality of RFID recording media.

  The present invention solves the above problems by the following means.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of communication units (RW1 to RW15) that communicate with the RFID recording medium (2) while performing frequency hopping, and frequencies used by the plurality of communication units for communication are communicated between the communication units. It is an RFID communication device comprising a frequency management unit (60) that instructs each communication unit so that frequencies used simultaneously do not overlap.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the RFID communication apparatus according to the first aspect, the frequency management unit (60) generates a frequency hopping pattern used by the plurality of communication units (RW1 to RW15), and the plurality of communication The unit is characterized in that each of the plurality of communication units synchronizes with each other according to the frequency hopping pattern generated by the frequency management unit, and the plurality of communication units simultaneously communicate with the RFID recording medium (2). RFID communication apparatus.

  The invention of claim 3 is an RFID recording medium issuing device (100) comprising the RFID communication device according to claim 1 or claim 2 and a printing unit (40) for printing on the RFID recording medium (2). It is.

  The invention of claim 4 is a communication method using a plurality of communication units (RW1 to RW15) that communicate with the RFID recording medium (2) while performing frequency hopping, and the frequency management unit (60) uses the plurality of communication units. The communication method is characterized by instructing each communication unit so that the frequency used by the communication unit for communication does not overlap between the communication units at the same time.

  According to the present invention, when communicating with a plurality of RFID recording media, there is no collision of communication frequencies, and time loss can be eliminated.

It is a figure which shows embodiment of the RFID recording-medium issuing apparatus 100 using the RFID communication apparatus by this invention. 3 is a plan view of the medium sheet 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the frequency hopping pattern which the frequency management part 60 produces | generates.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an RFID recording medium issuing device 100 using an RFID communication device according to the present invention.
In addition, each figure shown below including FIG. 1 is the figure shown typically, and the magnitude | size and shape of each part are exaggerated suitably for easy understanding.
In the following description, specific numerical values, shapes, materials, and the like are shown and described, but these can be changed as appropriate.

  The RFID recording medium issuing device 100 includes a transport unit 10, a synchronization control unit 20, a hub 30, a printing unit 40, a mark unit 50, a frequency management unit 60, and reader / writers RW1 to RW15. The frequency management unit 60 and the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 constitute an RFID communication device.

The transport unit 10 includes a roller (not shown) and various guides for transporting the medium sheet 1. Here, the medium sheet 1 will be described.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the medium sheet 1.
A large number of RFID recording media 2 are arranged in a grid on the medium sheet 1.
The RFID recording medium 2 is provided with an inlay 3, and the inlay 3 is provided with an IC chip 4 and an antenna 5.
Five rows of RFID recording media 2 are arranged in the width direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the medium sheet 1. This number of columns may also be another number of columns such as 10 columns.
In the present embodiment, the medium sheet 1 has a so-called fan fold shape in which a single sheet is continuous in the transport direction and can be bent at a connection portion. It may be in the form of a continuous body.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the synchronization control unit 20 performs control so as to synchronize the timing of the operation of the transport unit 10, the operation of the printing unit 40, the operation of the mark unit 50, and the operations of the reader / writers RW1 to RW15. Do. The synchronization control unit 20 can be configured by, for example, a PLC (programmable logic controller).

  The hub 30 connects the synchronization control unit 20, the printing unit 40, the frequency management unit 60, and the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 so that they can communicate with each other.

  The printing unit 40 is a printer that prints various information on the RFID recording medium 2. In the present specification and claims, output of various information by a printer is described as “printing” as a normal usage by those skilled in the art. However, as described above, “printing” refers to the output of information by a printer, and has a broad meaning including not only the output of characters but also the output of graphics such as barcodes and images. Shall.

  The mark unit 50 adds a mark that indicates an error to the RFID recording medium 2 in which an error has occurred by a final reading check by the reader / writers RW11 to RW15 described later. As a mark by the mark unit 50, for example, a hole may be formed in the RFID recording medium 2 in error, or a stamp indicating that an error has occurred may be stamped.

  The frequency manager 60 uses the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 so that the frequencies used by the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 for communication with the RFID recording medium 2 do not overlap at the same time in each of the reader / writers RW1 to RW15. Instructions are given to each of the above. Specifically, the frequency management unit 60 generates a frequency hopping pattern (table) used by each of the reader / writers RW1 to RW15, and transmits the generated frequency hopping pattern to each of the reader / writers RW1 to RW15. The generated frequency hopping pattern is generated so that the frequencies used simultaneously in each of the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 do not overlap.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a frequency hopping pattern generated by the frequency management unit 60.
In FIG. 3, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6,... Indicate a very short period (for example, 0.1 second) in which communication is performed at a specific frequency. In this same period, the frequency used by each reader / writer is set so that the frequency (wireless channel) used by each reader / writer does not overlap each other. For example, at t1, the reader / writer RW1 uses the frequency A, the reader / writer RW2 uses the frequency C, the reader / writer RW3 uses the frequency E, the reader / writer RW4 uses the frequency G, and the reader / writer RW5 The frequency I is used. Similarly, other reader / writers are set so that the frequencies do not overlap. This combination of used frequencies is changed every time frequency hopping is performed, that is, every time the frequency is switched from t1 to t2, for example, but is set so that the same frequency is not used by a plurality of reader / writers.

The reader / writers RW1 to RW15 are communication units that communicate with the RFID recording medium 2 while performing frequency hopping.
The reader / writers RW1, RW2, RW3, RW4, and RW5 read data from the RFID recording medium 2 before issue.
The reader / writers RW 6, RW 7, RW 8, RW 9, RW 10 write data to the RFID recording medium 2.
When an error occurs in reading data by the reader / writers RW1 to RW5 or writing data by the reader / writers RW6 to RW10, the downstream printing unit 40 is used for the RFID recording medium 2 in which the error has occurred. An error code or the like is printed without performing normal printing.
Whether the reader / writers RW11, RW12, RW13, RW14, and RW15 can correctly read information from the RFID recording medium 2 issued through the reader / writer RW1 and RW10 and the printing unit 40 (whether or not the information is correctly written). In order to check ()), data is read from the RFID recording medium 2. In addition, marking is performed by the mark unit 50 on the RFID recording medium 2 whose data has not been correctly read by the reader / writers RW11 to RW15.

  The reader / writers RW1 to RW15 communicate with the respective RFID recording media 2 while performing frequency hopping according to the frequency hopping pattern generated by the frequency management unit 60. The timing of frequency hopping of each reader / writer is synchronized by the synchronization control unit 20. Therefore, the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 can simultaneously communicate using different frequencies, and the frequencies (wireless channels) do not collide. Therefore, there is no time loss conventionally caused by the use frequency colliding and the reader / writer switching the frequency.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, according to the frequency hopping pattern generated by the frequency management unit 60, the reader / writers RW1 to RW15 perform communication at different frequencies simultaneously in synchronization. Therefore, there is no time loss due to the collision of the operating frequency of the RFID recording medium issuing apparatus 100, and communication can be performed at high speed, whereby the RFID recording medium 2 can be issued efficiently and at high speed.

(Deformation)
The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and various modifications and changes are possible, and these are also within the scope of the present invention.

  In the present embodiment, the example in which the frequency management unit 60 generates the frequency hopping pattern has been described for all of the reader / writers RW1 to RW15. For example, the reader / writers RW1 to RW10 and the reader / writers RW11 to RW15 are spaced apart from each other, and therefore frequency hopping patterns may be generated separately for these.

  In the present embodiment, the RFID recording medium issuing device has been described as an example. The present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention may be applied to other devices as long as a plurality of communications are performed simultaneously.

  In addition, although this embodiment and modification can also be used in combination as appropriate, detailed description is abbreviate | omitted. Further, the present invention is not limited by the embodiments described above.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Medium sheet 2 ID recording medium 3 Inlay 4 IC chip 5 Antenna 10 Conveyance part 20 Synchronization control part 30 Hub 40 Printing part 50 Mark part 60 Frequency management part 100 ID recording medium issuing apparatus

Claims (4)

A plurality of communication units that communicate with the RFID recording medium while performing frequency hopping;
A frequency management unit that instructs each communication unit so that the frequencies used for communication by the plurality of communication units do not overlap with each other at the same time;
An RFID communication device comprising: The RFID communication device according to claim 1, wherein
The frequency management unit generates a frequency hopping pattern used by the plurality of communication units,
The plurality of communication units are synchronized with each other according to the frequency hopping pattern generated by the frequency management unit, and the plurality of communication units simultaneously communicate with the RFID recording medium;
RFID communication device characterized by the above. The RFID communication device according to claim 1 or 2,
A printing unit for printing on the RFID recording medium;
An RFID recording medium issuing device comprising: A communication method using a plurality of communication units that communicate with an RFID recording medium while performing frequency hopping,
Instructing each communication unit by the frequency management unit so that the frequencies used for communication by the plurality of communication units do not overlap with each other at the same time,
A communication method characterized by the above.

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