WO2008075123A1

WO2008075123A1 - Method and system for managing data locally associated with objects, for example with apparatuses of a telecommunications network

Info

Publication number: WO2008075123A1
Application number: PCT/IB2006/003715
Authority: WO
Inventors: Danilo Gotta; Daniela Long; Luca Trione; Alessandro Rigallo
Original assignee: Telecom Italia S.P.A.
Priority date: 2006-12-20
Filing date: 2006-12-20
Publication date: 2008-06-26

Abstract

A system for managing information locally associated to objects, for example to apparatuses of a telecommunications network, comprises at least one transponder device (300), preferably a RFID tag, adapted to be physically associated with an object (400) and to store object-related information; at least one mobile terminal (500), comprising un reading device (510) adapted to interact with the transponder device in a wireless way for reading said information; and a software module (OA), preferably an agent, associated with the mobile terminal and comprising a process engine (PE) adapted to execute workflows; wherein the software module and the reading device are configured for mutually interacting when executing a workflow.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING DATA LOCALLY ASSOCIATED WITH OBJECTS, FOR EXAMPLE WITH APPARATUSES OF A TELECOMMUNICATIONS

NETWORK

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and a system for managing information that are locally associated with objects, such as apparatuses of a telecommunications network. The present invention has been conceived in particular to be used as support of network operation and management in a telecommunications network, and provides innovative Operational Knowledge Management (OKM) functionalities, based on the automatic interaction between operation-supporting tools and geographically distributed apparatuses.

KNOWN PRIOR ART

In the current highly competitive market situation, the increase of efficacy and efficiency of activities performed by the labour force of any company providing services

(as can be a telecommunications manager) has now become a strategic objective, in order to allow reducing operating costs that are a relevant percentage of costs that every service company must face every year.

Solutions supporting the labour force provide a valid help for reaching such objective: in particular, the so-called Knowledge Management (KM), or better Operational Knowledge Management (OKM) systems falls within such field.

The term Knowledge Management (KM) means the set of solutions favouring the creation, diffusion and use of knowledge in an organisation. Among the various approaches to KM, companies generally prefer the local one, that is focused on managing part of the knowledge and on specific objectives (for example decision making, problem solving, etc.). The Operational Knowledge Management (OKM) is a local approach for managing the operating knowledge. This type of knowledge comprises the set of methodologies and techniques (operating modes) that are necessary for performing a particular work or a specific activity.

Patent Application US 2004/0044542 A1 ("Method and System for Sharing Knowledge") and Article by G. Valente, A. Rigallo, "Remoter: an Operational Knowledge Management System for telecommunication operators", Workshop on Knowledge Management and Organizational Memories, 16th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI) 2004, provide two examples of KM/OKM systems.

In particular, US 2004/0044542 A1 defines a method and a system for capturing and sharing knowledge between technical personnel of a company, between such personnel and users and between users and technical personnel of other companies. Such method and system can be applied to various domains, among which also the telecommunications services domain, and provide a support to problem-solving activities, using Case-Based Reasoning and Model-Based Reasoning techniques. The Article by Valente and Rigallo instead describes an Operational Knowledge

Management (OKM) system called Remoter, used in a telecommunications context for supporting technicians of a manager during their daily activities. In particular, the Remoter system has been used- and tested in the context of Provisioning and Assurance processes for ADSL services, in which the technicians must react quickly and choose the best solution. Purpose of the system is allowing the technicians to share, capture and apply their Operational Knowledge in order to take optimum decisions in real-time. Such system uses the Conversational Case-Based Reasoning technique as support for the problem-solving.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The Applicant has observed that, in case of intervention activities on network apparatuses (for example apparatuses of a telecommunications network), such as for example repair, maintenance or control interventions, currently known KM/OKM systems do not provide for any automatic and assisted interaction between systems themselves and apparatuses on which the labour force is called to operate, in particular no interaction that allows simply and directly accessing to a set of additional information about the apparatus itself, useful for performing a specific activity, and for knowing the apparatus "history", in terms of activities performed thereon.

Operations such as interactions with local apparatuses for information retrieval, collection of such information in a database, check of apparatus status, decision on possible interventions to be made on the apparatus, execution of such interventions, storage of results of such interventions, update of already existing information, etc., therefore imply a great use of time and resources, and their organisation is often scarcely efficient.

The Applicant has therefore dealt with the problem of providing a technique for supporting the execution, in a quick and efficient way, of maintenance, control and repair activities on apparatuses, machinery, devices, etc., distributed on the territory within an organisation or network. In particular, a solution has been searched that allows efficiently managing such activities in a telecommunications network.

The Applicant has found that, by conjugating an evolved OKM solution with the transponder technology (meant as devices that are able to receive information, store them and make them available for reading, such as for example RFID tags and Z-SIM), applied within apparatuses for which the labour force is competent (for example apparatuses of a telecommunications network), it is possible to obtain a complete solution supporting the labour force that, starting from evolved, flexible and scalable supporting platforms, introduces innovative OKM solutions, based on the automatic interaction between operation-supporting tools and apparatuses that are geographically distributed on the territory.

In literature there are already some examples of application of transponders for local information retrieval, for example within a network.

Article by C. Seidler, "RFID Opportunities for mobile telecommunication services", ITU-T Lighthouse Technical Paper, May 2005, ITU-T Technology Watch, provides for example a description of the RFID technology, of related standards and of application environments (among which the "Information Retrieval", also as support for technicians). The RFID technology provides for the use of RFID tags (also called transponders or transceivers) and RFID readers. The RFID tag is a small device that can be applied to objects and is provided with a microchip that contains data and an antenna. Such device can be passive (namely lacking power supply) or active. The RFID reader can be installed in a cellular phone. In this way, services based on mobile telecommunication can be provided, namely services that provide information about objects equipped with RFID tag through a telecommunications network. For example, data related to an object can be transmitted to a centralised database. Patent Application EP 1455550 A2 ("Network Mapping System") describes a system for building a network map, using transponders equipped with a storage device and associated with local stations of a geographically distributed network (such as the mains or a telecommunications network), and at least one palmtop unit, for reading/writing data on transponders and transmitting read data to a centralised processing unit. The described system, aimed to increase the population of a database with data about local stations of a network of interest and to create a network map, therefore provides for the use of an ad hoc device for reading data from transponders but do not offer specific tools supporting the labour force.

The Applicant has however observed that such solutions offer limited functionalities and do not allow a complete and efficient management of control, maintenance and repair activities required in a network with apparatuses distributed on the territory. The Applicant has therefore attempted a more functional and efficient solution for performing such activities, in particular a solution that allows realising numerous functionalities with a high degree of automation and with great flexibility.

The Applicant has found that such improvements can be obtained by associating to terminals embedding a RFID reading device, software agents provided with process engines, in particular workflow engines and/or rule engines, that are able to introduce pre-established automatic functionalities, that can be flexibly managed, related to interactions with RFID tags and management of information exchanged with such tags. Such agents can be uploaded on the terminal or be accessible through a telecommunications network. Moreover, such agents can be managed by a suitable platform (that can also house the agents themselves), that is able, among other things, to distribute to agents all necessary workflows and/or rules for performing their tasks, and modify them when needed.

The present invention provides in particular for the use of transponders associated with apparatuses whose information have to be managed, portable devices used by field technicians (for example a cellular phone) provided with an information reader (preferably a reading/writing device) that is able to interact with the transponder, a network platform with management and control functionalities, a telecommunications network through which the portable devices interact with the central platform, and software agents able to make the portable devices perform tasks regulated by workflows and/or rules (of the "if/then" type), with the help of process engines (workflow engines and/or rule engines).

The Applicant has then found that the transponder devices, already used for providing information about objects on which the device itself is assembled, can be efficiently integrated in a global activity managing system on apparatuses distributed on the territory, comprising a distributed platform with agents using process engines, thereby providing the chance of flexibly automating some important functionalities and of implementing new ones, making the whole process globally more efficient. The present invention does not require the introduction of specific devices for interacting with transponders, but uses normal devices used by the labour force, enriched with readers for transponders embedded in the devices themselves (therefore in a transparent way for the device user). The system is thereby simple and particularly versatile and flexible. The examined solution can make available also functionalities that affect, in addition to the operating context (activities performed by the labour force), also the management context, meant as competence environment for systems/databases of a company, in which a description is contained of interesting characteristics of various apparatuses to be managed. Though the present invention is described with particular reference to intervention activities within a telecommunications network, it is clear that it can be applied to any type of network of apparatuses, devices or objects, and more generally in all cases in which it is necessary to interact with apparatuses, devices or objects distributed in a certain territory for using information associated with such apparatuses, devices or objects.

In a first aspect thereof, the present invention is therefore related to a method for managing information locally associated with objects, comprising:

- physically associating with an object a transponder device adapted to store information; - storing object-related information into the transponder device; and

- executing a process comprising a plurality of steps, wherein said plurality of steps comprise reading object-related information through a mobile terminal that is able to interact in a wireless way with the transponder device, and wherein executing said process comprises executing a workflow defining at least part of said plurality of steps. Preferably the method comprises executing said workflow through a software agent comprising a workflow engine.

The software agent can be installed on the mobile terminal; alternatively, the software agent can be installed on a remote platform. The method can also comprise choosing the workflow among a plurality of workflows available in a database.

Moreover, the method can comprise downloading the workflow from remote to the mobile terminal. The method can comprise executing at least one step of said plurality of steps through a rule engine.

The above plurality of steps can comprise showing on a display of the mobile terminal at least part of said information.

The method can further comprise storing in a database further information related to said object, and accessing said database through the terminal.

Such further information can be associated with a code stored on said transponder device.

The method can comprise storing in an internet site further information related to said object, and accessing the internet site through the terminal. It is possible to store in a database a link to said internet site; in such case, the step of accessing the internet site comprises receiving from the transponder device a code associated with the link, accessing the database, and identifying the link through the code.

It is further possible to download such further information on the terminal. The method can further comprise writing additional information in the transponder device through the terminal.

Additional information written on the transponder device can be the further information downloaded on the terminal.

Preferably, the transponder device is a RFID tag. The present invention is further related to a system for managing information locally associated with objects, comprising:

- at least one transponder device, adapted to be physically associated with an object and to store object-related information;

- at least one mobile terminal, comprising un reading device adapted to interact with the transponder device in a wireless way to read said information;

- a software module associated with the mobile terminal and comprising a process engine adapted to execute workflows; wherein the software module and the reading device are configured for mutually interacting when executing a workflow.

The transponder device is preferably a RFID tag.

The software module is preferably a software agent.

The software agent can be installed on the mobile terminal. Preferably, the system also comprises a managing platform adapted to communicate with the mobile terminal, and a telecommunications network for communicating between the mobile terminal and the managing platform.

In such case, the software agent can stay on the platform.

In a preferred embodiment, the system comprises: - a plurality of transponder devices, adapted to be physically associated with respective objects and to store information related to such objects;

- a plurality of mobile terminals, each one comprising a reading device adapted to interact with a respective transponder device in a wireless way; and

- a plurality of software agents, each one associated with a respective mobile terminal and comprising a process engine adapted to executing workflows.

Preferably, the platform comprises at least one coordinating agent, adapted to coordinate the plurality of software agents.

The platform can further comprise a managing module, to deploy the workflows to said plurality of software agents. Preferably, the platform also comprises a database containing a plurality of available workflows for said plurality of software agents.

The platform can further comprise a database containing performance data related to executing workflows.

The process engine can comprise a workflow engine and a rule engine. In a possible embodiment, information related to said objects comprise codes associated to links to internet sites, such internet sites containing further information related to said objects, and the system comprises a database accessible by the software agent to find links through such codes.

The system can also comprise a database containing further information related to said object, such database being accessible by said software agent.

In a further aspect thereof, the present invention is related to a mobile terminal for telecommunications, comprising a reading device configured for interacting in a wireless way with a transponder device, and a software module comprising a process engine adapted to execute workflows, the software module and the reading device being configured for mutually interacting when executing a workflow.

The reading device is preferably a RFID tag reader.

The terminal can also comprise a display for showing information related to said workflow.

The process engine can comprise a workflow engine and a rule engine.

The terminal can further be configured for communicating through a telecommunications network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

For a better understanding of the present invention, herein below some preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described, with reference, in such description, to the enclosed figures, that show the following:

• Figure 1 shows a reference process within an organisation adapted to perform pre-established tasks;

• Figure 2 schematically shows a platform with distributed agents;

• Figure 3 shows a system according to the present invention, comprising a platform as shown in Figure 2 and a distributed system of transponders associated with network apparatuses; • Figure 4 shows an organisation diagram of transponder memory for accessing to techniques on related apparatuses;

• Figure 5 shows a flow diagram related to a procedure for accessing to technical information on apparatuses;

• Figure 6 shows a transponder memory organisation for accessing a history of events on related apparatuses;

• Figure 7 shows a procedure for accessing intervention information;

• Figure 8 shows an organisation of synthesis cards about interventions on apparatuses;

• Figure 9 shows a transponder memory organisation for accessing configuration data on related apparatuses;

• Figure 10 shows a procedure for accessing apparatus configuration data;

• Figure 11 shows an organisation of cards for configuration variations;

• Figure 12 shows a configuration data updating procedure; • Figure 13 relates to a transponder memory organisation for accessing context information;

• Figure 14 relates to a procedure for accessing information inserted by a remote managing centre and local context information; and • Figure 15 shows an alternative transponder memory organisation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Some elements of the present invention are defined below: Operator, company personnel being part of the labour force, meant both as mobile labour force (field technicians), and as specialist labour force (Back Office personnel), and as Call Centre personnel.

Agent: an agent is a stand-alone software process with a possibly persisting identity, and that requires communications (for example in a cooperative and/or competitive way) with other agents in order to perform the tasks assigned thereto. This communication is implemented by asynchronously exchanging messages and by using a language (called for example Agent Communication Language - ACL) with a well- defined semantics shared within the platform.

Rule Engine: it is a system in which the behaviour logic is separated from the system itself and expressed through rules that can be , configured, and is made available to the system itself, to other systems and to operator interfaces. A rule engine is in practice a very sophisticated interpreter of statements in the form "if this occurs.... then do....". A rule engine at runtime chooses which rule(s) must be applied and executes it(them). Workflow: a workflow can be defined as the partial or total automation of a

Business Process, during which information or tasks are passed from a participant to another, according to a set of procedural rules. A workflow can be represented with a flowchart with a sequence of tasks, mutually linked by logic and time dependencies such as parallel or alternative paths. There are ad hoc languages, such as XPDL (XML Process Description Language), that allow formally describing the workflows.

Workflow Engine: a workflow engine is the component that knows all procedures (workflows) with related steps and rules and executes them by determining for each one whether it can advance to the following step. In other words, it executes the workflow descriptions.

In a preferred embodiment thereof, the present invention is applied as support of activities of a company in which interventions are necessary by a labour force distributed on. the territory, in particular interventions by the customer or in geographically distributed sites in which various apparatuses for which a company is competent are arranged. A specific example is a telecommunications company that, in order to respond to requests coming from its own customers (requests for new services or variations/deletions of subscribed services and claims related to malfunctions of subscribed services) uses field technicians, in all cases in which an intervention is required within the territory.

Figure 1 shows an example of a process diagram to which the present invention refers. Such process comprises five steps F1-F5, of which the first three (F1- F3) are managed by the Call Center personnel and the Back Office personnel, using the functionalities made available by OSS, while the last two (F4-F5) are managed by field technicians.

Taking into account the example of a telecommunications company, the present invention allows making interventions performed by field technicians more efficient, and relying, making it a company asset, on the knowledge about activities performed by such labour force, also from a point of view of real-time update of Network Inventories, in which network apparatuses on which the technicians operated, are described.

The present invention is based on the use, by field technicians, of a device equipped with a software module, herein below called Personal Assistant, that assists them and, where it is useful, guides them in actions to be performed for every single interventions they are called to execute. Such Personal Assistant also supports the cooperation between different technicians. The device to be used by field technicians is advantageously a portable terminal, for example a cellular phone, a PDA or a laptop. Moreover, according to the present invention, the functions of guide/assistance of individual field technicians are realised through workflows, that can be modified by the personnel in a controlled mode, in order to improve the global process.

A further aspect of the present invention is the use of transponder devices, namely devices that are able to receive, store and make available for reading pieces of information, to be locally used, associated with a system (or parts thereof) of which some information have to be managed. Herein below in the present description, reference will particularly be made to a transponder device of the RFID tag, but it is clear that other devices having similar functionalities can also be used.

The devices to be used by field technicians are able to interact with such information storing devices, as will be described in detail below.

In a preferred implementation, the method and the system of the present invention are based on a distributed-agent platform 100, described below with reference to Figure 2. The platform 100 offers functionalities supporting the activities performed by the labour force of a service company (a specific example of such type of company is a telecommunications company).

The platform 100 is a hierarchical structure that comprises a set of software agents on many levels (two in the example shown), called Operational Agents and designated with OA, and a central entity (also an agent) called Operational Manager and designated with OM, that operates as coordinator. This architecture, as pointed out below, guarantees flexibility and scalability.

On every host, on which OA agents or OM agent are executed, one or more Control Agents CA are installed, that are software platform controlling and managing modules.

The platform 100 also comprises a software application called Manager Module and designated with MM, that interacts with platform distributed agents for various coordinating activities, such as workflow deploying, request of operations for an optimum use of platform resources, platform status monitoring, etc. In order to offer some of its functionalities (such as platform status monitoring or workflow deploying) the Manager Module MM cooperates with the Control Agents CA. Platform status monitoring data, collected by the Manager Module MM, are made available through specific reports accessible from a graphic user interface GUI associated with the Manager Module MM itself.

The platform also comprises a set of databases DB, supporting activities performed by various components. A first database is the Operational Database ODB, that is the point (unique from the logic point of view) for defining and storing all functional aspects for managing / supporting the labour force, that are the platform's own. The Operational Database ODB is the repository of workflows, rules and data models that are used by platform components for managing operations (in particular Operational Agents OA and Operational Manager OM). The Manager Module MM, through the Control Agents CA, deploys workflows, rules and data models to various platform agents. This, firstly, allows that the operating modes considered as most efficient (Best Practice) are made available to the whole labour force. Moreover, through a diffusion of data models (related, for example, to various operators that use the platform), the coordination between labour force members is enabled, allowing for example to simply and quickly detect which are the people that must be consulted in case of need of support by an expert on a specific subject. A further database is the Performance Database PDB, that represents a single

(from the logic point of view) storage point for all performance data detected by the platform. The Control Agents CA are responsible for measuring performance of local agents performed on respective hosts. Further performance data, related for example to workflow executions (workflow execution start/end time, CPU time, etc.), are directly provided by platform components (Operational Agents OA and Operational Manager OM).

A centralised repository, called Expertise Inventory and designated with El, is also present in platform 100, in which data are stored about profiles of all operators composing the labour force (meant both as static data, such as operator's skill, and as dynamic data, such as operator's occupation status or its geographic position at a given time). The platform 100 further comprises a plurality of Process Engines PE, distributed on different platform levels. In particular, each Operational Agent OA, as well as the Operational Manager OM, is provided with its own process engine PE. Each process engine PE comprises a workflow engine, and is preferably a combination of a workflow engine and a rule engine. Such combination is advantageous since some processes or functionalities are better represented by workflows, others by rules. For example, an intervention of a field technician is better represented as a workflow while diagnostic claim-based functionalities, within a Call Centre, are better represented by a set of rules. Where possible and useful, the use of workflows is preferable since it has not the complexity of managing conflict among rules. The process engines PE, used by every platform agent, are preferably allocated on the same host on which the agent itself resides in order to improve performance levels. Every Operational Agent OA is responsible for supporting the activities of a specific operator or a group of operators, in term both of guide in various operating activities and of help in cooperation (between different operators).

In particular the Operational Agents OA of the lower level offer a direct support to operator activities: taking into account, for example, a telecommunications company, the Operational Agent OA support also comprises the evolved interaction both with systems responsible for managing network apparatuses (to send commands, obtain configuration data, measure results or results of checks of correct performance on the apparatus of certain operator actions and for remote placing possible user command interfaces) and, in case of field technicians, with network apparatuses. The Operational Agents OA of the upper level instead perform coordinating functions of a set of Operational Agents OA at a lower level, for example for coordinating the distributed execution of operating interventions.

The cooperation support is based on operator profiles, that are represented by the data model. Examples of profiles with real and updated operator data are performed by the Operational Manager OM and are communicated to interested Operational Agents OA.

The services that every Operational Agent OA offers to other Operational Agents OA, to the Operational Manager OM or other external systems, are realised by actuating specific processes (meant as logic set of activities supporting a company's business processes) performed by various process engines PE; the Operational Agent OA does not require software updates for providing new services, given its extreme flexibility due to the use of process engines PE programmable by the Operational Database ODB through the Manager Module MM. The Operational Manager OM is responsible for executing typical processes at a management level, adapted to provide functionalities that require the interaction with entities outside the platform and/or the coordination between Operational Agents OA, that cannot be simply or efficiently realised only by Operational Agents OA themselves. The great architecture flexibility also allows a gradual and "not traumatic" evolution, moving processes from the Operational Manager OM level to the Operational Agents OA level (or vice versa).

The processes executed by any agent (Operational Manager OM and Operational Agent OA) can be structured into sub-levels, with processes of the upper level that offer services outside the examined agent and processes of the lower level that use services offered by agents of the layer below, if present, or executive processes. The previously cited Personal Assistant coincides with Operational Agents OA at a lower level in Figure 2; it is installed on the terminal of the field technician (cellular phone, PDA, laptop, etc.) or is directly accessible through the terminal itself.

The following description will refer, as an example, to the support provided to field technicians of a telecommunications company and the use of RFID tags as support for storing local information: what is stated above however can be applied, in general, in a geographically distributed context in which any technology is used for storing local information, for example for supplying services related with such information.

Figure 3 below shows the application of the platform of Figure 2 in a context of this type. The global system, designated with 200, thereby comprises the platform 100, a plurality of transponder devices 300 (only one of which is shown), associated with apparatuses 400 of the telecommunications network (only one of which is shown), and portable devices 500 (only one of which is shown) to be used by field technicians, that are able to interact on one hand with platform 100 and on the other hand with transponder devices 300.

The transponder devices 300 are devices for storing information, and are adapted to receive, store and make available useful information for reading. Herein below in the present invention, reference will be made to RFID tag devices, but it is clear that also different devices can be used, functionally similar to RFID tags, such as for example Z-SIM devices.

The term Z-SIM means a user identifying module equipped with a short-range radio interface. In particular, such term means the combination of a smart card adapted to allow authenticating a user in a telecommunication network and the related use of a telecommunication service (such as a SIM or USIM) with a short-range transceiver (such as a transceiver based on the ZigBee™ standard). Modules of this type are known, for example, from patent applications WO2005104584 and WO2006056220, of the same Applicant of the present application.

The portable devices 500 comprises a RFID reader 510 and a display 520. In an alternative arrangement, the RFID reader 510 is not integrated in the portable device 500, but is a separate device, that is able to communicate with the device 500.

The platform 100, in addition to including previously described databases, also includes a Network Inventory Database NIDB, that contains data about network apparatuses 400. The present invention therefore uses the RFID technology for providing a support to activities performed by field technicians of a telecommunications company, inserting the management of such technology in the context of an evolved platform for supporting operations like the one shown in Figure 2. The use of the RFID technology allows, for example, satisfying the following needs:

- being able to access general technical information about network apparatuses on which a field technician must operate;

- being able to access specific technical information related to various types of interventions (maintenance, operation, Network Creation, ...) executable on network apparatuses on which a field technician must operate;

- being able to store and access information about performed interventions on network apparatuses by field technicians;

- being able to store/update in real time information about network apparatuses, following their variation deriving from an intervention performed by a field technician, and being then able to access such information by field technicians;

- being able to store/update technical and/or context information, related to a specific apparatus and a specific environment, and accessing such information and information about a given apparatus, entered by a remote managing centre, by technicians.

In order to be able to satisfy such needs, it is necessary that every network apparatus is associated with one or more RFID tags 300, to be used for locally storing both a limited subset of information (about network apparatuses, about interventions performed thereon and about the context in which they are inserted) and on pointers for accessing data with more detail (about network apparatuses, about interventions performed thereon and about the context in which they are inserted) according to the below described modes. Access to technical information about network apparatuses

Firstly, therefore, the present invention allows accessing, by using RFID tags

300, both general technical information about network apparatuses and specific technical information, related to various types of interventions that can be performed on such apparatuses, both useful for the field technician that is called to operate on above mentioned apparatuses.

In a preferred embodiment, every network apparatus is physically associated with a RFID tag 300 with Read/Write/Re-Write capabilities, on which various codes have been stored that operate as access keys to a suitable database, called Link Database and designated with LDB, in which every code corresponds to one or more access links to Web pages that contain both general apparatus information with which the RFID tag 300 is associated (for example manufacturer's manuals) and specific information for various types of interventions (for example maintenance, operation, or Network Creation) that can be performed on the examined apparatus by a field technician. In case of variation of one of the access link to Web pages containing interesting information, it is enough to modify such link in the Link Database LDB, without modifying the RFID tag 300 contents.

In a preferred embodiment, the memory cells of RFID tags 300 associated with apparatuses are organised as shown in Figure 4; the memory, designated as 310, is divided into slots 315 of a preset length. The first slot contains the RFID tag 300 identifier, designated as TAG ID. The second slot contains an index (Index 1 field) that points to the first available slot for storing the first code containing information to be used for accessing the technical documentation on an apparatus. For every code, a pair of data are stored: 1. code (Gen-code x field), that is the access key to the Link Database LDB;

2. code type (Gen-code x Type field), that specifies the type of information that can be found through the examined code (for example, manufacturer's technical documentation, technical documents from other sources, etc.).

The third slot contains a second index (Index 2 field) that points to the first available slot for storing the first code containing information to be used for accessing standards/documents that point out the execution modes of specific types of interventions on an apparatus. For every code a pair of data are stored:

1. code (Spec-code y field), that is the access key to the Link Database LDB; 2. code type (Spec-code y Type field), that specifies the type of information that can be found through the examined code (for example, corrective maintenance intervention, parameter configuration intervention, etc.).

Therefore, for every code stored on different tags associated with network apparatuses, the Link Database LDB must contain one or more Links to Web pages containing information referred to the code.

The present invention thereby allows the field technician, responsible for performing a given intervention, to request the access both to technical documentation, related to the network apparatus on which he has to operate (for example manufacturer's manuals), and to standards/documents that point out the execution modes of specific interventions (for example corrective maintenance interventions or configuration interventions) on such apparatus. With reference to the platform supporting the operations shown in Figure 2 and in Figure 3, the access to above mentioned information can occur with two different modes: - automatically, within workflows that detail the single steps to be executed for successfully closing an intervention assigned to a field technician and that automatically perform measures/checks/commands towards the apparatus under intervention;

- upon an explicit request of the field technician, in cases in which the technician decides not to be guided step-by-step in executing the intervention assigned thereto or when a timely guide is not foreseen (for example for difficulties in standardising the necessary steps to successfully close an intervention).

In both cases, whichever the activation mode is, the operating procedure that governs the access to technical information of interest is shown in Figure 5 and described below.

Downstream of the activation (automatically or upon field technician's request) of the access procedure to a specific category (technical apparatus documentation or standards/documents on specific types of interventions) of apparatus data (step 105), the Personal Assistant associated with the technician that is performing the intervention to which the access request to technical information refers, reads the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus 400, through the RFID reader 510 integrated in the portable device 500 assigned to the technician. Depending on the category of information required, the Personal Assistant displays (step 110), on the display 520 of the portable device 500, the list of various types of information available for such category (for example in case of technical apparatus documentation, it is possible to request the display of manufacturer's technical documentation, of technical documents of other sources, etc.). The Personal Assistant then requires the technician (step 120) whether he wishes to access one of the types of information available for the required category; if the technician decides not to access any of the types of information available for the required category (output NO from block 120) the procedure ends (step 170). If, otherwise, the technician selects one type of information that he wishes to obtain (output YES from block 120), the Personal Assistant accesses the Link Database LDB, to find the Link(s) associated with the type of selected information (step 130); the access key to Link Database LDB is composed of the code (Code-gen x or Code-spec y field on RFID tag 300) associated with such type of information.

The found Link(s) are used (step 140) for accessing the type of information selected; in a preferred embodiment, the access is performed automatically by the Personal Assistant that, in case of many Links, accesses in a sequence the various Links. In an alternative embodiment, the access is performed manually by the field technician on whose terminals the examined Link(s) are displayed, that point to the type of required information. Information found through the Link(s) are shown on the display 520 of the portable device 500, with the chance also of being locally downloaded for an easy consultation (step 150).

Downstream of the display (and possible download) of required information, upon request, in a preferred embodiment, the Personal Assistant requires the technician (step 160) whether he wishes to access other information of the same category of the previously selected ones. If the technicians requires other information, the procedure starts again from step 110, displaying the list of various types of information available for the required category at the beginning of the procedure. Otherwise, the procedure ends (step 170). In an alternative embodiment, the technician can choose whether require other information also of a different category with respect to the previously selected one. Whichever the selected category, if further information are requested, the procedure starts again from step 110, displaying the list of various types of information available for the selected category. Management of history of interventions on network apparatuses The present invention also allows managing, by using RFID tags 300, an history of interventions performed by field technicians on network apparatuses 400. It is supposed, also in this case, that every network apparatus 400 has a RFID tag 300 physically associated therewith with Read/Write/Re-Write capabilities. On such RFID tag 300 a code is stored that operates as access key to a Link Database LDB in which such code corresponds to one or more access links to Web pages that contain the history of interventions performed on network apparatus 400 to which the RFID tag 300 containing such code is associated. In case of variation of one of the access links to Web pages containing the history of interventions, it is enough to modify such link in the Link Database LDB, without modifying the RFID tag 300 contents. The Link Database LDB can be the same database already previously described, that contains technical information related to the apparatus, or can be a separate database, always accessible by the Personal Assistant, in turn directly accessible by the portable device 500.

For every code stored on different tags associated with network apparatuses, the Link Database LDB must then contain one or more Links to Web pages containing information referred to the code. The RFID tag 300 also contains a brief synthesis of the latest interventions performed on the apparatus: such synthesis is useful if the technician, due to connectivity problems, is not able to access the history of interventions. Given the limited capacity of RFID tags 300, the available memory cells are managed with an algorithm of the FIFO type: upon reaching the capacity threshold of the RFID tag 300, oldest information are removed and are replaced by more recent ones.

In this case, RFID tag 300 memory cells associated with apparatuses 400, designated as 320, are organised as shown in Figure 6. As previously, the memory 320 is divided into slots 325 of a preset length. The first slot contains the RFID tag 300 identifier, designated as TAG ID. The second slot contains an index (Index 1 field) that points to the first available slot for storing the code (Code field) containing information to be used for accessing the history of interventions on an apparatus 400. The third slot contains a second index (Index 2 field) that points to the first available slot for storing synthesis data about latest interventions performed on an apparatus 400. For every intervention the following synthesis data are stored:

- technician's name (Name z field), that contains the name of the technician that performed the intervention; - technician's telephone number (Phone number z field), that contains the telephone number at which it is possible to contact the technician that performed the intervention;

- intervention type (Act. Type z field), that points out the type of intervention that has been performed by the technician; - Timestamp (Timestamp z field), that shows when the intervention has been performed.

The fourth slot contains a Counter that counts the still available Bytes for storing the synthesis data about last interventions performed on an apparatus 400: as long as information about interventions are stored on the RFID tag 300, the counter is decreased. When it is necessary to store new data on the RFID tag 300, the counter value is verified: if the detected value points out the lack of space for storing data about further interventions, the. oldest data being present on the RFID tag 300 (located through the Timestamp associated therewith) are replaced by the more recent ones to be stored. , The present invention therefore allows a field technician, responsible for performing a given intervention, to request the access to history data about interventions that have not been performed on a given apparatus 400 on which he is called to operate. As already previously described, the access to above mentioned information can occur automatically (through the workflow) or upon an explicit request of the field technician. In both cases, whichever the activation mode, the operating procedure that governs the access to technical information of interest is shown in Figure 7 and described below.

Downstream of the activation (automatically or upon the field technician's request) of the access procedure to history of interventions on the apparatus (step 605), the Personal Assistant, associated with the technician that is performing the intervention to which the access request to history refers, requests the technician (through a suitable message on the display 520) whether he wishes to obtain synthesis data about latest performed interventions or to access the history of interventions (step 610).

If the technician request the access to synthesis data (output YES from block

610), the Personal Assistant reads the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus, through the RFID reader 510 integrated in the portable device 500 assigned to the technician and displays, on the display 520, the synthesis data found on the RFID tag 300, also allowing him to download them locally for an easy consultation (step 660).

Downstream of the display (and possible download), the Personal Assistant then requests the technician whether he wishes to access the history of interventions (output YES from block 670) and the procedure goes on from step 620, described below. Otherwise (output NO from block 670), the procedure ends (step 650).

If, instead, initially the technician (step 610) requests the access to history of interventions on the apparatus (output NO from block 610), the Personal Assistant reads from the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus 400, through the RFID reader 510, the code (Code field on the RFID tag) that he uses for accessing the Link Database LDB and find the Link(s) associated with the code read by the RFID tag 300 (step 620).

The found Link(s) are used (step 630) for accessing the history of interventions; in a preferred embodiment the access is performed automatically by the Personal Assistant that, in case of many Links, accesses in a sequence the various Links. In an alternative embodiment the access to history of interventions on an apparatus is performed manually by the field technician on whose terminal the examined Link(s) are displayed, that point to the history of interventions.

Information found through the Link(s) are shown on the display 520 of the portable device 500, allowing the technician to also downloaded them locally for an easy consultation (step 640).

Downstream of the display (and possible download) of required information, the procedure ends (step 650).

In order to allow filling the history of interventions performed on the network apparatuses 400 at the end of every intervention performed by a technician on a specific apparatus 400, a summarising card of the intervention itself is compiled; in a preferred embodiment, the Personal Assistant upon closing the intervention of a technician, gives him the synthesis card of the intervention in which some fields have already been compiled by the Assistant and other have to be compiled. In a preferred embodiment, the intervention synthesis cards associated with apparatuses 400 are organised as shown in Figure 8; the card, designated with 330, is divided into slots 335 of a prefixed length. The first slot contains a progressive intervention identifier (Int-ID) (in a preferred embodiment the identifier is composed of a progressive number).

The following slots contain the following data:

- technician's name (Name field), that contains the name of the technician that performed the intervention;

- technician's telephone number (Phone number field), that contains the telephone number at which it is possible to contact the technician that performed the intervention;

- Timestamp (Timestamp field), that shows when the intervention has been performed;

- intervention type (Act. Type field), that points out the type of intervention 'that has been performed by the technician;

- intervention description (Act. Description field), that provides a more detailed description of the intervention that has been performed by the technician;

- additional information (Note field) about the intervention;

- intervention result (Act. Exit field). The Personal Assistant automatically compiles the Name and Phone Number fields of the intervention card; if the technician has performed the guided operability (according to the workflow), the Personal Assistant can automatically compile also the Timestamp, Act. Type, Act. Description and Act. Exit fields. The intervention card, with the fields already compiled by the Personal Assistant, is shown thereby on the display 520, so that the technician can compile the fields not yet with a value from the Assistant; afterwards, the Personal Assistant takes care to store it in the history of interventions.

The Personal Assistant obtains from the intervention card data about technician's name and telephone number, about the type of intervention performed by him and about execution date/time and through the RFID reader 510 stores them in the RFID tag 300 associated with the apparatus 400 on which the technician operated, possibly overwriting, in case of lack of available memory (detected through a check on the Counter field value), the oldest data present on the RFID tag 300. In an alternative embodiment, the technician is shown a summarising intervention card with pre-compiled fields and the technician, in addition to compile the fields not yet with a value, can also change the contents of those automatically compiled by the Personal Assistant, with the possible exception of those called IntJD and Name. The Personal Assistant takes then care of updating the history of interventions and the RFID tag as stated above. In a further alternative embodiment, the technician is shown a summarising intervention card without pre-compiled fields and he must take care both of compiling the required fields and of storing the card on the history of interventions, and, finally, to update the RFID tag 300 (synthesis data about performed interventions) by manually interacting with the RFID reader 510, manually managing the cases of lack of memory on the RFID tag 300.

Managing of configuration data about network apparatuses

The present invention allows managing, using RFID tags 300, configuration data about network apparatuses 400; this functionality is particularly useful in case of network apparatuses not equipped with autonomous processing capability (for example permutators). Also in case, however, of network apparatuses (such as MUX ADSL) equipped with a processing capability of their own, the availability of synthesis data about their configuration on a local RFID tag 300 allows accessing such data using an interaction mode that is common for all apparatuses 400. According to the prior art, instead, in order to access to various types of apparatus (MUX ADSL, DXC SDH, etc.) it is necessary to adopt, in general, specific interaction modes, typically depending both on the type of apparatus and on the apparatus manufacturer.

Also in this application it is supposed that every network apparatus 400 has physically associated therewith a RFID tag 300 with Read/Write/Re-Write functionalities; on such RFID tag 300 a code is firstly stored, that operates as access key to a Link database LDB, in which such code corresponds with one or more access links to Web pages that contain configuration data of the network apparatus 400 to which the RFID tag 300 containing such code is associated. In case of variation of one of the access links to Web pages containing the configuration data, it is enough to modify such link in the DB, without modifying the RFID tag contents. The Link Database LDB can be the same database already previously described, or can be a separate database, always accessible from the Personal Assistant, in turn directly accessible from the portable device 500.

For every code stored on the different tags associated with the network apparatuses, the Link Database LDB must then contain one or more Links to Web pages containing information referred to the code.

The RFID tag 300 also contains a brief synthesis of the apparatus configuration data: such synthesis is useful in case the technician, due to connectivity problems, does not manage to access complete configuration data. Given the limited RFID tag capacity, there is a mechanism that controls whether the RFID tag 300 capacity threshold has been reached: in such case it does not allow any more to insert further configuration data and sets a suitable flag that points out that the configuration data present on the RFID tag 300 are partial.

In a preferred embodiment, RFID tag 300 memory cells associated with apparatuses 400, designated as 330, are organised as shown in Figure 9; the memory 330 is divided into slots 335 of a prefixed length. The first slot contains the RFID tag 300 identifier, designated as TAG ID. The second slot contains the apparatus identifier (Equipment ID field) as stored in the Network Inventory Database NIDB. The third slot contains an index (Index 1 field) that points to the first available slot for storing the code (Code field) containing information to be used for accessing complete configuration data on an apparatus 400. The fourth slot contains a second index (Index 2 field) that points to the first available slot for storing synthesis data about the configuration of an apparatus 400. According to the type of apparatus, data to be stored change and also the length of single slots in which a configuration item has to be stored, is linked to the type of apparatus. In general, for every apparatus 400, there are one or more fields, called 'Configuration data w' in Figure 9.

The fifth slot contains a Counter that counts the still available Bytes for storing synthesis data about the configuration of an apparatus 400: as long as configuration information are stored on the RFID tag 300, the counter is decreased. When it is necessary to store new data on the RFID tag 300, the counter value is verified: if the detected value shows the lack of space for storing further configuration data, storage does not occur and a flag is set (Flag field) that shows that the RFID tag does not contain all apparatus configuration data. The solution described in the present invention allows the field technician, responsible for performing a given intervention, to request the access to configuration data of a given apparatus on which he is called to operate. The access to the above stated information can occur also in this case automatically (as workflow step), or upon an explicit request of the field technician.

The operating procedure that governs the access to configuration data is shown in Figure 10 and described below.

Downstream of the activation (automatically or upon the field technician's request) of the access procedure to configuration data of the apparatus 400 (step 705), the Personal Assistant, associated with the technician that is performing the intervention to which the data access request refers, requires the technician (with a suitable message on the display 520) whether he wishes to obtain synthesis data about the apparatus 400 configuration or access to complete configuration data (step 710), also signalling whether synthesis data are partial (Flag field set). If the technician requests the access to synthesis data (output YES from block

710), the Personal Assistant reads the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus 400, through the RFID reader 510 integrated in the portable device 500 assigned to the technician and displays, on the display 520, synthesis data found on the RFID tag 300, allowing the technician to also download them locally for an easy consultation (step 760). Downstream of the display (and possible download) the Personal Assistant then requests the technician whether he wishes to access to complete configuration data (step 770); if the technician requires the access to complete configuration data (output YES from block 770) the procedure goes on from step 720, described below. Otherwise (output NO from block 770) the procedure ends (step 750). If instead initially the technician (step 710) requires the access to complete configuration data of the apparatus 400 (output NO from block 710), the Personal Assistant reads from the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus 400, through the RFID reader 510, the code (Code field on the RFID tag) that he uses for accessing the Link DB and find the Link(s) associated with the code read by the RFID tag (step 720). The found Link(s) are used (step 730) for accessing complete configuration data; in a preferred embodiment the access is automatically performed by the Personal Assistant that, in case of many Links, accesses the various Links in a sequence. In an alternative embodiment the access to complete configuration data of an apparatus is performed manually by the field technician on whose terminal the Link(s) to be used for such access are displayed.

Found information are shown on the display 520 of the portable device 500, allowing the technician also to download them locally for an easy consultation (step 740).

Downstream of the display (and possible download) of required information, the procedure ends (step 750).

The variation of configuration data of an apparatus 400 on the RFID tag 300 associated with the apparatus 400 can be performed automatically, or also by the same technician. If performed by a technician, this latter one directly interacts with the

RFID reader 510 both for reading necessary fields to locate the memory availability on the RFID tag 300 and for storing new configuration data on the RFID tag 300.

In case of apparatuses that are not equipped with their own processing capacity, in addition to data variation on the RFID tag, also an automatic update process is provided for data stored on the Network Inventory Database NIDB: at the end of every intervention of a technician that implied a configuration variation of a specific apparatus, a card is compiled that summarises such variation. In a preferred embodiment, the Personal Assistant, upon closing the technician's intervention, shows him the synthesis card about the configuration variation. In a preferred embodiment, cards summarising the configuration variation have the general structure shown in Figure 11; the punctual structure of the card depends on the type of apparatus. The card, designated with 350, is divided into slots 355 of a prefixed length; the first slot contains the apparatus identifier (Equipment ID), as known to the Network Inventory Database NIDB: such identifier is the same one stored on the RFID tag.

The following slots contain the following data:

- Timestamp (Timestamp field), that shows when the configuration variation has been performed;

- variation type (Update Type field), that shows the type of configuration variation that has been performed by the technician;

- detail data (Update Details field) about the type of configuration variation that has been performed by the technician. The Personal Assistant automatically compiles the Equipment ID field of the configuration variation card; if the technician has performed the guided operability, such Assistant can automatically compile also the Update Type and Update Details fields. If the Personal Assistant has not automatically compiled the various fields of the configuration variation card, this latter one, with the already compiled fields, is shown to the technician that compiles the fields not yet with a value. In any case, once completed the card, the Personal Assistant takes care of sending it to the Network Inventory Database NIDB that will use it to update data about apparatuses.

In an alternative embodiment, the technician is shown a summarising card of the configuration variation with previously compiled fields and the technician, in addition to compiling the fields without a value yet, can also change the contents of those automatically compiled by the Personal Assistant, with the possible exception of the one called Equipment ID. In a further alternative embodiment, the technician is shown a summarising card of the configuration variation without previously compiled fields and he must proceed both with compiling the required fields and with sending the configuration variation card to the Network Inventory.

The Personal Assistant takes also care of updating synthesis data about the configuration of an apparatus 400 available on the RFID tag 300 associated with the apparatus itself. The update process of the configuration data is shown in Figure 12 and is described below.

Downstream of the activation of the update procedure of configuration data of the apparatus 400 (step 805), the Personal Assistant, associated with the technician that performed the intervention that changed the configuration data, verifies whether a configuration variation card has been produced (step 810). If there is a configuration data variation card (output YES from block 810), the

Personal Assistant obtains from such card data to be stored on the RFID tag 300 (step 840); if instead the card does not exist (output NO from block 810), the Personal Assistant verifies whether the intervention that brought about the configuration variation is a guided intervention (step 820). If the intervention performed by the technician was guided (output YES from block 820), the Personal Assistant automatically obtains data to be stored on the RFID tag 300; otherwise (output NO from block 820), it requests the technician the necessary configuration data to update the RFID tag 300 (step 830). The Personal Assistant verifies whether configuration data are additional data

(for example, in case of MUX ADSL they are data related to a new card added to the

MUX) or if they are variations of existing data (for example, in case of MUX ADSL they are data related to a card with different characteristics that replaces an already present card in the MUX) (step 850).

If the configuration does not imply entering additional data on the RFID tag 300 (output NO from block 850), the procedure goes on to step 880, described below.

If instead the configuration variation implies entering additional data on the RFID tag 300 (output YES from block 850), the Personal Assistant verifies whether there is available space on the RFID tag 300 (reading of Flag and/or Counter fields through the RFID reader) (step 860).

If there is no space available (output NO from block 860), the Personal Assistant updates RFID tag 300 data for signalling such situation (possible setting of Flag field of the RFID tag, if this one is not already set) (step 870) and the procedure ends (step 890).

If there is space available on the RFID tag 300 (output YES from block 860), the Personal Assistant updates the configuration data (step 880) on the RFID tag 300 (adding further data or modifying the existing ones) through the RFID reader 510, and the procedure ends (step 890). In an alternative embodiment, it is care of the field technician to perform the variation of configuration data of an apparatus on the RFID tag associated with the apparatus itself, by directly interacting with the RFID reader both for reading necessary fields to locate the memory availability on the RFID tag, and for storing new configuration data on the RFID tag.

Sending of information to technical personnel and local writing of information by technical personnel

The present invention also allows notifying certain information related to specific apparatuses 400, of a more or less urgent character, using the RFID tags. A remote managing centre can associate to certain codes stored on RFID tags (and therefore to certain apparatuses) messages/notifications, that instead of being sent broadcast to all responsible technicians, are made available only to technicians that read the RFID tag 300 associated with the specific apparatus 400 and that, therefore, have physically the chance of performing actions depending on the message/notification entered by the remote managing centre.

This functionality can be realised for example by storing in a database accessible through the terminal, for example the Link Database LDB, the above messages/notifications, associating with such messages/notifications one or more codes stored on RFID tags. A technician can then have access to such messages/notifications by simply connecting to the database, and can possibly download them on the terminal. Moreover, the technician has the chance of writing such messages/notifications on the RFID tags associated with said codes, in order to make them available for future readings.

The present invention further allows the field technician personnel to associate to certain codes stored on RFID tags (and therefore to certain apparatuses) technical and/or context information, individually acquired by performing interventions on site on the specific apparatus 400 and in the specific environment, that could be made available to all technicians that will afterwards perform interventions on the same apparatus 400.

It is supposed also in this case that every network apparatus 400 is physically associated to a RFID tag 300 with Read/Write/Re-Write functionalities, on which a code has been stored that operates as access key to a suitable Link Database LDB; in such database, as mentioned above, information entered by the remote management centre can be stored or, alternatively, one or more access links to Web pages that contain information, related to the apparatus to which the RFID tag 300 is associated, entered by a remote management centre. In the second case, following a variation of one of the access links to Web pages containing interesting information, it is enough to modify such link in the Link Database LDB, without modifying the contents of RFID tags 300. The Link Database LDB can be the same, already previously described database, or can be a separate database, always accessible by the Personal Assistant, in turn directly accessible by the portable device 500.

For every code stored on different tags associated with network apparatuses, the Link Database LDB can therefore contain one or more Links to Web pages containing information referred by the code.

In a preferred embodiment, the RFID tag 300 memory cells associated with apparatuses 400, designated with 360, are organised as shown in Figure 13; the memory 360 is divided into slots 365 of a prefixed length. The first slot contains the RFID tag 300 identifier, designated as TAG ID. The second slot contains an index (Index 1 field) that points to the first available slot for storing the code containing information to be used for accessing tag-related messages. The code (Code field), contained in the third slot, is the access key to Link Database LDB.

The fourth slot contains a second index (Index 2 field) that points to the first available slot for storing information by the field technician personnel.

For each information the following data are stored:

- technician's name (Name z field), that contains the name of the technician that performed the intervention;

- technician's telephone number (Phone number z field), that contains the telephone number at which it is possible to contact the technician that performed the intervention;

- Timestamp (Timestamp z field), that shows when the message has been stored.

- Subject (Subj z field), that shows the type of stored message;

- Info (INFO z field) that contains the message text stored by the technician. The fifth slot contains a Counter, that counts the still available Bytes for storing messages: as long as information are stored on the RFID tag, the counter is decreased. When it is necessary to store new messages on the RFID tag 300, the counter value is verified: if the detected value shows the lack of space for storing data about further interventions, the oldest data present on the RFID tag 300 (located through the Timestamp associated therewith) are replaced by the more recent ones to be stored. The present invention also allows the field technician, responsible for performing a given intervention, both to request access to information, entered on a remote database or on Web pages by the management centre, and to apparatus- related messages, entered by field technicians on the RFID tag 300 associated with an apparatus 400, and to store on the RFID tag 300 messages related to the apparatus 400 for following interventions. Such functionality can be performed automatically (as workflow step), or upon an explicit request of the field technician. In both cases, whichever the activation mode is, the operating procedure that governs the access to information/messages of interest is shown in Figure 14 and described below.

Downstream of the activation (automatically or upon the field technician's request) of the access procedure to apparatus-related information/messages (step 905), the Personal Assistant, associated with the technician that is performing the intervention to which the access request refers, requests the technician (through a suitable message on the display 520) whether he wishes to access management centre information or local messages entered by previous technicians (step 910). If the technician requests access to local data (output YES from block 910), the

Personal Assistant reads the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus 400, through the RFID reader 510 integrated in the portable device 500 assigned to the technician and displays, on the display 520, the messages found on the RFID tag 300, allowing the technician also to download them locally for an easy consultation (step 960). Downstream of the display (and possible download), the Personal Assistant then requests the technician whether he wishes to access information entered by the remote management centre (step 970); if the technician requests the access to remote data (output YES from block 970), the procedure goes on with step 920, described below. Otherwise (output NO from block 970), the procedure ends (step 950). If, instead, initially the technician requests an access to information entered by the remote management centre (output NO from block 910), the Personal Assistant reads from the RFID tag 300 of the apparatus 400, through the RFID reader 510, the code (Code field on the RFID tag) that he uses for accessing the Link Database LDB (step 920). In particular, the code allows accessing a Link field in the Link Database LDB; the Link field allows accessing management centre information associated with the code read on the RFID tag, since it directly contains such information or contains a Link to a site in which such information are contained (step 930). In a preferred embodiment the access is performed automatically by the Personal Assistant that, in case of many Links, accesses the various Links in a sequence. In an alternative embodiment, the access to management centre information is performed manually by the field technician on whose terminal the Link(s) to be used for such access are displayed. The found information is shown on the display 520 of the technician's portable device 500, suitably pointing out the presence of urgent/priority messages and also allowing the technician to download them locally for an easy consultation (step 940).

If the management centre has associated to the information the request of storing this latter one oh the RFID tag 300 (output YES from block 945), the Personal

Assistant will allow the technician to write the information to be associated with the

RFID tag 300 (step 947); downstream of writing the information, the procedure ends

(step 950).

If no storage requests are associated (output NO from block 945), downstream of displaying the required information, the procedure ends (step 950).

If the technician wishes to associate to the RFID tag 300 technical and/or context information, that will be made available to all technicians that will afterwards perform interventions on the same apparatus 400, the Personal Assistant, through a suitable text editor available on the mobile terminal, allows the technician to write information to be associated with the RFID tag 300 and to enter a subject that defines the information contents.

The Personal Assistant automatically compiles the Name, Phone Number and Timestamp fields, so that the technician must not spend time for entering such information. Upon saving the information on the RFID TAG 300 memory, the Personal

Assistant verifies the value contained in the Counter to verify whether on the RFID tag 300 there is enough free memory or it is necessary to overwrite less up-to-date information, characterised by a Timestamp (Timestamp z field) containing the less recent date. After having performed the check of available memory, through the RFID reader

510, integrated in the portable device 500 as equipment for the technician, the Personal Assistant activates the information storage in the RFID tag 300 associated with the apparatus 400 on which the technician operated, possibly overwriting the oldest data present on the RFID tag 300. Herein below, some alternative embodiments of the present invention are described.

In an alternative embodiment, every network apparatus 400 is physically associated with a RFID tag 300 on which, in addition to data already shown in Figure 4, also a score is stored, associated with each one of the codes stored in the RFID tag 300 (that point to general apparatus information or to specific information for the various types of interventions that can be performed on such apparatus), that reflects an evaluation about the relevance of information accessible through a given code. The score associated with every code is present both on the RFID tag 300 and on the Link Database LDB, and is dynamically managed: one starts from an initial predefined value and updates it taking into account the preference of technicians for a given information. Such dynamic update is performed by taking into account the number of accesses to a given information (detected by the Personal Assistant), in addition to a numeric feed- back that the technician provides after having consulted the required information. Data about the number of accesses and feed-backs from operator are stored in the Link Database LDB₁ that in this case therefore contains also data that allow evaluating referred information. Periodically (for example at prefixed time intervals) detected data are processed in order to obtain a new score value for every referred information. The new score is then stored in the Link Database LDB and the different RFID tags, through aimed deletion campaigns for score data or at the same time of normal accesses, by the technicians, to the RFID tags (upon accessing information, the score associated therewith is checked in the RFID tag with the score present in the Link Database LDB and, in case of differences, data are updated on the RFID tag). The alternative memory organisation of RFID tags 300, in which also score data are present, is shown in Figure 15. The memory, here designated with 310' and divided into slots 315', comprises, with respect to the memory 310 in Figure 4, slots containing the score (Gen-code Z Score and Spec-code Z Score).

Taking into account the procedure in Figure 5 that governs the access to technical information of interest, during the displaying step (step 110) on the display 520 of the list of various types of available information, the score associated therewith can be displayed, in order to provide the technician with a possible selection criteria for information to be requested.

Claims

1. Method for managing information locally associated with objects, comprising: - physically associating with an object a transponder device adapted to store information;

- storing object-related information into the transponder device; and

- executing a process comprising a plurality of steps, wherein said plurality of steps comprise reading object-related information through a mobile terminal that is able to interact in a wireless way with the transponder device, and wherein executing said process comprises executing a workflow defining at least part of said plurality of steps.

2. Method according to claim 1 , comprising executing said workflow through a software agent comprising a workflow engine.

3. Method according to claim 2, wherein the software agent is installed on the mobile terminal.

4. Method according to claim 2, wherein the software agent is installed on a remote platform.

5. Method according to claim 1 , comprising choosing said workflow among a plurality of workflows available in a database.

6. Method according to claim 1 , comprising downloading said workflow from remote on said mobile terminal.

7. Method according to claim 1 , comprising executing at least one step of said plurality of steps through^" a rule engine.

8. Method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of steps comprises showing on a display of the mobile terminal at least part of said information.

9. Method according to claim 1 , comprising storing in a database further information related to said object, and accessing said database through the terminal.

10. Method according to claim 9, wherein said further information are associated with a code stored on said transponder device.

11. Method according to claim 1 , comprising storing in an internet site further information related to said object, and accessing said internet site through the terminal.

12. Method according to claim 11 , comprising storing in a database a link to said internet site, and wherein accessing said internet site comprises receiving from said transponder device a code associated with said link, accessing said database, and identifying said link through said code.

13. Method according to claim 9 or 11 , comprising downloading said further information on the terminal.

14. Method according to any one of the previous claims, comprising writing additional information in said transponder device through said terminal.

15. Method according to claim 14 when depending on claim 13, wherein thr additional information written on the transponder device are the further information downloaded on the terminal.

16. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the transponder device is a RFID tag.

17. System for managing information locally associated with objects, comprising:

- at least one transponder device (300), adapted to be physically associated with an object (400) and to store object-related information;

- at least one mobile terminal (500), comprising a reading device (510) adapted to interact with the transponder device in a wireless way for reading said information;

- a software module (OA) associated with the mobile terminal and comprising a process engine (PE) adapted to execute workflows; wherein the software module and the reading device are configured for mutually interacting when executing a workflow.

18. System according to claim 17, wherein the transponder device is a RFID tag.

19. System according to claim 18, wherein the software module is a software agent.

20. System according to claim 19, wherein the software agent is installed on the mobile terminal.

21. System according to any one of claims 17 to 20, further comprising a managing platform (100) adapted to communicate with the mobile terminal, and a telecommunications network for communicating between the mobile terminal and the managing platform.

22. System according to claim 21 when depending on claim 19, wherein the software agent is on the platform.

23. System according to claim 21 , comprising a plurality of transponder devices, adapted to be physically associated with respective objects and to store information related to said objects; a plurality of mobile terminals, each one comprising a reading device adapted to interact with a respective transponder device in a wireless way; and a plurality of software agents, each one associated with a respective mobile terminal and comprising a process engine adapted to execute workflows.

24. System according to claim 23, wherein the platform comprises at least one coordinating agent (OM), adapted to coordinate said plurality of software agents.

25. System according to claim 23, wherein the platform further comprises a managing module (MM), for deploying workflows to said plurality of software agents.

26. System according to claim 23, wherein the platform comprises a database (ODB) containing a plurality of workflows available for said plurality of software agents.

27. System according to claim 23, wherein the platform comprises a database

(PDB) containing performance data related to the workflow execution.

28. System according to claim 17, wherein the process engine comprises a workflow engine and a rule engine.

29. System according to claim 19, wherein:

- said information related to said objects comprise codes associated with links to internet sites, said internet sites containing further information related to said objects; and - the system comprises a database (LDB) accessible by said software agent for finding said links through said codes.

30. System according to claim 19, comprising a database (LDB) containing further information related to said object, said database being accessible by said software agent.

31. Mobile terminal for telecommunications (500), comprising a reading device (510) configured for interacting in a wireless way with a transponder device (300), and a software module (OA) comprising a process engine (PE) adapted to execute workflows, the software module and the reading device being configured for mutually interacting when executing a workflow.

32. Terminal according to claim 31 , wherein the reading device is a RFID tag reader.

33. Terminal according to claim 31 , further comprising a display (520) for showing information related with said workflow.

34. Terminal according to claim 31, wherein the process engine comprises a workflow engine and a rule engine.

35. Terminal according to claim 31 , configured for communicating through a telecommunications network.