Patent ID: 7660890

Claim:
An RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) edge server comprising: at least one processor to associate with multiple RFID readers at a location; and an application server to run applications; and socket connections with the multiple RFID readers, the RFID edge server having fewer access threads for the RFID readers than there are said socket connections, wherein at least one single access thread is used to service multiple socket connections; and at least one upper protocol layer that establishes a completion-based contract with the socket connections by registering with a socket muxer, wherein after registering, the upper protocol layer issues asynchronous read requests to the socket muxer according to the completion-based contract, and wherein the socket muxer performs network input/output (I/O) operations in the background by loading data directly into a buffer of said upper protocol layer and wherein once the read operation is completed, the socket muxer notifies the upper protocol layer via a completion callback according to the completion-based contract.