Patent ID: 8373545

Claim:
An electronic product code (EPC) provisioning system comprising: a central electronic product code (EPC) server that executes on one or more microprocessor and creates and maintains a pool of electronic product codes, wherein the pool of electronic product codes is divided into a plurality of EPC code blocks, each EPC code block adapted to be associated with a different product, and wherein the central EPC server assigns said plurality of EPC code blocks to multiple client sites according to a set of rules, and distributes the plurality of EPC code blocks to said multiple client sites; a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) edge servers being located at said multiple client sites, wherein each said RFID edge server includes a cache to store the plurality of EPC code blocks and is in communication with one or more RFID readers; wherein each RFID edge server reads a metadata-based description of a configuration of at least one of the one or more RFID readers, and wherein each of the one or more RFID readers has a configuration arrangement associated therewith that is defined in the metadata-based description, and wherein each of the one or more RFID readers uses a different metadata-based description; a console that includes a graphical user interface to manage the pool of electronic product codes and the one or more RFID readers; a local workflow at each client site, wherein when the local workflow detects a new product at a particular client site, the local workflow associates the new product with the cache of one of the one or more of said RFID edge servers, submits a checkout request to the central EPC server requesting one or more of the plurality of EPC code blocks for the new product, and wherein upon receiving the checkout request at the central EPC server, the central EPC server communicates the one or more of the plurality of EPC code blocks requested from the EPC server to the local workflow according to the set of rules; and wherein, based on the metadata-based description read by at least one RFID edge server, the graphical user interface is employed to update the configuration of at least one of the one or more RFID readers to receive data from the at least one RFID reader to the at least one RFID edge server without interruption to the at least one RFID edge server.