Methods and Systems for Controlling Antennas and Reader Devices

An inventory system, comprising:

• a first plurality of antennas and a first plurality of reader devices located in a first area of the inventory system;
• a second plurality of antennas and a second plurality of reader devices located in a second area of the inventory system;
• a first controller communicatively coupled to each of the first plurality of antennas and the first plurality of reader devices, the first controller comprising a first controller application stored on a first memory that, when executed by a first processor, causes the first controller to:
• control antenna settings of the first plurality of antennas and reader device settings of the first plurality of reader devices;
• receive, from a second controller via a wireless network, a notification indicating that one or more items or tags are moving toward the first area;
• detect a trigger event based on the notification;
• adjust at least one of the antenna settings of the first plurality of antennas or the reader device settings of the first plurality of reader devices based on the trigger event and a policy associated with the trigger event;
• and
• instruct at least one of the first plurality of antennas or the first plurality of reader devices to emit an interrogation signal toward the one or more items or tags in accordance with the adjustment;
• and
• the second controller communicatively coupled to each of the second plurality of antennas and the second plurality of reader devices, the second controller comprising a second controller application stored on a second memory that, when executed by a second processor, causes the second controller to:
• control antenna settings of the second plurality of antennas and reader device settings of the second plurality of reader devices;
• detect a second trigger event occurring in the second area;
• and
• transmit the notification to the first controller via the wireless network based on the second trigger event.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a first controller in an inventory system, cause the first controller to:

• communicate, via a wireless network using cellular radio frequencies, with at least a second controller in the inventory system, wherein the first controller controls a first subset of one or more antennas and a first subset of one or more reader devices within a first area of the inventory system and the second controller controls a second subset of one or more antennas and a second subset of one or more reader devices within a second area of the inventory system;
• receive, from the second controller via the wireless network, a message indicating that one or more items or tags are moving from the second area toward the first area;
• detect a trigger event based on the message;
• adjust at least one antenna setting of the first subset of antennas or at least one reader device setting of the first subset of reader devices based on the trigger event;
• and
• instruct at least one of the first subset of antennas or the first subset of reader devices to emit an interrogation signal in a direction of the one or more items or tags in accordance with the adjustment.