Radio Frequency Identification RFID Technologies

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Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technologies

• Dale R. Thompson, Ph.D., P.E.
• Associate Professor
• Computer Science and Computer Engineering Dept.
• University of Arkansas

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Related Activities

• Member of GS1 EPCglobal Hardware Action Group
  Product Data Protection ad hoc Committee (Dec.
  2006 present)
• Affiliated with University of Arkansas RFID
  Research Center (http//itri.uark.edu/rfid/)
  (Feb. 2005 present)
• Lightweight Authentication for RFID (Aug. 2006
  present)
• Categorizing RFID Privacy Threats with STRIDE
  (July 2006)
• Taught RFID Communications class (May June
  2006)
• RFID Security Threat Model (Mar. 2006)
• Brute Force Attack of EPCglobal UHF Class-1
  Generation-2 RFID Tag (Jan. May 2006)
• Attack Graphs for EPCglobal RFID (Jan. May
  2006)
• MIXNET Using Universal Re-encryption for Radio
  Frequency Identification (RFID) (Aug. 2005 Dec.
  2006)
• RFID Technical Tutorial and Threat Modeling
  Project (Jun. Dec. 2005)

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University of Arkansas RFID Research Center

• Fully student staffed with 24 industry members,
  which recently became the first open laboratory
  to be accredited by EPCglobal Inc.

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What is RFID?

• Stands for Radio Frequency Identification
• Uses radio waves for identification
• New frontier in the field of information
  technology
• One form of Automatic Identification
• Provides unique identification or serial number
  of an object (pallets, cases, items, animals,
  humans)

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Applications

• Mobil Speedpass systems
• Automobile Immobilizer systems
• Fast-lane and E-Zpass road toll system
• Passports
• Animal Identification
• Humans
• Supply chain management

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RFID system
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RFID reader

• Also known an interrogator
• Reader powers passive tags with RF energy
• Can be handheld or stationary
• Consists of
• Transceiver
• Antenna
• Microprocessor
• Network interface

Antenna
Reader
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RFID tags

• Tag is a device used to transmit information such
  as a serial number to the reader in a contact
  less manner
• Classified as
• Passive energy from reader
• Active - battery
• Semi-passive battery and energy from reader

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UHF passive tag
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Printers
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Applications, frequencies, and standards
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Animal Identification Standards

• Pets such as dogs and cats
• Livestock such as cattle, pigs, etc.
• International standard 134.2 kHz
• ISO 11784 Radio-frequency identification of
  animals code structure
• ISO 11785 Radio-frequency identification of
  animals Technical concept
• ISO 14223 Radio-frequency identification of
  animals Advanced transponders
• U.S. standard 125 kHz
• At these frequencies the RF can penetrate mud,
  blood, and water

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VeriChip

• Human implantable RFID tag operating at about 134
  KHz because at these frequencies the RF can
  penetrate mud, blood, and water
• About the size of uncooked grain of rice
• Oct. 22, 2002 US Food and Drug Administration
  ruled VeriChip not regulated device
• Oct. 2004 FDA ruled serial number in VeriChip
  could be linked to healthcare information
• Healthcare applications
• Implanted medical device identification
• Emergency access to patient-supplied health
  information
• Portable medical records access including
  insurance information
• In-hospital patient identification
• Medical facility connectivity via patient
• Disease/treatment management of at-risk
  populations (such as vaccination history)

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Contactless Smart Cards Standards

• ISO 7618 - A set of international standards
  covering the basic characteristics of contactless
  smart cards, such as physical and electrical
  characteristics, communication protocols and
  others.
• Proximity Smart Cards (13.56 MHz)
• Range 4 inches (10 centimeter)
• Baud rate 106 kilobaud
• ISO/IEC 14443
• Vicinity Smart Cards (13.56 MHz)
• Range 3 feet (1 meter)
• Baud rate 26.48 kilobaud
• ISO/IEC 15693

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Supply Chain Management

• RFID adds visibility as the items flow through
  the supply chain from the manufacturer, shippers,
  distributors, and retailers.
• The added visibility can identify bottlenecks and
  save money.
• Wal-Mart requested in June 2003 that their top
  100 suppliers use RFID at the pallet and case
  level by January 2005.
• Wal-Mart currently has 300 suppliers sending
  products to 500 RFID-enabled Wal-Mart and Sam's
  Club stores.
• Wal-Mart wants 1,000 stores with RFID by January
  2007.
• Source http//www.extremerfid.com/article/WalMar
  tForgesAheadwithRFID/172888_1.aspx

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Electronic Product Code (EPC) 96-bit Version

• Every product has unique identifier
• 96 bits can uniquely label all products for the
  next 1,000 years
• 296 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336

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EPCglobal, Inc.

• Not-for-profit organization developing
  commercial, world-wide RFID standards
• Joint venture between EAN International and the
  Uniform Code Council (UCC).
• UCC standardized Universal Product Code (UPC)
  barcodes in US
• EAN standardized barcodes in Europe
• UCC and EAN combined to form GS1
• http//www.epcglobalinc.org/
• UHF Class-1 Generation-2 (Class-1 Gen-2 or
  commonly known as Gen-2)
• ISO 18000-6C standard

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EPC vs. UPC (Barcodes)

• Both are forms of Automatic identification
  technologies
• Universal Product Code (UPC) require line of
  sight and manual scanning whereas EPC do not
• UPC require optical reader to read whereas EPC
  reader reads via radio waves
• EPC tags possess a memory and can be written
  while UPC do not
• EPC tags cost 5 cents, UPC tags cost 1/10 cent

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EPCglobal Inc. UHF Specification History

• EPCglobal UHF Class-0
• EPCglobal UHF Class-1 Generation-1
• EPCglobal UHF Class-1 Gen-2 (Gen-2)
• ISO 18000-6C standard
• Item management standard
• Retail standard

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Trivia on Passive UHF RFID

• How far can a reader read a tag?
• Less than 20 feet using legal equipment
• What causes interference at these frequencies?
• Metal reflects the energy and can shield
• Water absorbs the energy. Microwaves operate at
  2.4 GHz because water absorbs energy at these
  frequencies. Passive UHF operates around 900 MHz,
  which is close enough.

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Maximum Distances to Read UHF Passive Tag
Reality Today, in the lab 8 to 12 feet.
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Electronic Passports

• Dept. of State begins issuing e-passports Aug.
  14, 2006
• Contactless chip in rear cover
• ISO 14443
• Name, date of birth, gender, place of birth,
  dates of passport issuance and expiration,
  passport number, digital image of the bearers
  photograph stored electronically
• Digital photograph is used as biometric
  identifier
• Anti-skimming material in cover to prevent
  unauthorized reading when it is closed
• Eavesdropping prevented by reading machine
  readable key inside passport to unlock chip
• Randomized unique identification (RUID) to
  prevent tracking
• Information signed with a digital signature
• New industry for wallet makers creating Faraday
  cages for passports

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Passport Solution!
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Certified Passport Solution
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RFDump

• Open source software tool for RFID ISO-15693 and
  ISO-14443 readers (13.56 MHz)
• Read/write data on RFID tags
• Integrated cookie feature
• Add cookie to tag and automatically increment
  counter when tag is in range of reader
• Track number of times shopper enters reader field
  or picks up item
• www.rf-dump.org

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RFID-related publications

• M. Byers, A. Lofton, A. K. Vangari-Balraj, and D.
  R. Thompson, Brute force attack of EPCglobal UHF
  class-1 generation-2 RFID tag, in Proc. IEEE
  Region 5 Technical Conf., Fayetteville, Arkansas,
  April 20-21, 2007, to appear.
• S. C. G. Periaswamy, S. Bharath, M. Chagarlamudi,
  S. Estes, D. R. Thompson, Attack graphs for
  EPCglobal RFID, in Proc. IEEE Region 5 Technical
  Conf., Fayetteville, Arkansas, April 20-21, 2007,
  to appear.
• J. Uudmae, H. Sunkara, D. R. Thompson, S. Bruce,
  and J. Penumarthi, MIXNET for radio frequency
  identification, in Proc. IEEE Region 5 Technical
  Conf., Fayetteville, Arkansas, April 20-21, 2007,
  to appear.
• D. R. Thompson, J. Di, H. Sunkara, and C.
  Thompson, Categorizing RFID privacy threats with
  STRIDE, in Proc. ACM Symposium on Usable Privacy
  and Security (SOUPS), Carnegie Mellon University,
  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 12-14, 2006.
• D. R. Thompson, RFID technical tutorial, The
  Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, vol.
  21, no. 5, pp. 8-9, May, 2006.
• D. R. Thompson, N. Chaudhry, and C. W. Thompson,
  RFID security threat model, in Proc. Acxiom
  Laboratory for Applied Research (ALAR) Conf. on
  Applied Research in Information Technology,
  Conway, Arkansas, Mar. 3, 2006.
• N. Chaudhry, D. R. Thompson, and C. Thompson,
  RFID Technical Tutorial and Threat Modeling, ver.
  1.0, tech. report, Dept. of Computer Science and
  Computer Engineering, University of Arkansas,
  Fayetteville, Arkansas, Dec. 8, 2005. Available
  http//csce.uark.edu/drt/rfid

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Contact Information

• Dale R. Thompson, Ph.D., P.E.
• Associate Professor
• Computer Science and Computer Engineering Dept.
• University of Arkansas
• 311 Engineering Hall
• Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
• Phone [phone]
• FAX [phone]
• E-mail d.r.thompson_at_ieee.org
• WWW http//csce.uark.edu/drt/