Patent ID: 8760316
Filing Date: 2014-06-24
Classification: G07B

Abstract:
1. A method of directing communications with transponders in moving vehicles in a roadway, the roadway having a plurality of antennas having a combined coverage area that includes at least a portion of the roadway, the antennas to operate in a time division multiplexed sequence, the time division multiplexed sequence being comprised of successive superframes, each superframe being comprised of a series of frames, each frame corresponding to communications on one of the antennas, each superframe having a fixed number of frames available for reading data from a memory of the transponder and a fixed number of frames available for writing data to the memory of the transponder, the method comprising: determining which of the transponders need to be programmed; selecting for immediate programming at least some of the transponders that need to be programmed based on the fixed number of frames available for writing data; determining which of the antennas to use for communicating with the transponders that need to be programmed; determining which frames correspond to the antennas to be used; allocating the frames of a first superframe which have been determined to correspond to the antennas to be used as writing slots, for writing data to the memory of the transponder; and allocating a number of the unallocated frames of the superframe as reading slots, the frames allocated as reading slots not being used as writing slots.