Massachusetts Software Council CTO Forum: RFID

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Massachusetts Software CouncilCTO Forum RFID

• May 2004

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Agenda

• RFID How did we get here?
• Chris Boone IDC
• Marc Linster Avicon
• Questions Answers
• Ken Traub - Connecterra
• Burt Rubenstein - Genuone
• Questions Answers
• Open Mic

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RFID History

• RFID Radio Frequency Identification
• Long History of RFID decades!
• Aircraft identification
• Proximity Cards
• EZ-Pass (Fast Lane)
• Trucking/Shipping Containers
• Recent Acceleration and buzz of RFID
• Low-cost passive tags (lt20) readers (lt500)
• Standards efforts
• Mandates

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RFID Industry

• Mandates
• WalMart Jan 05 and Jan 06
• DOD Jan 05
• Target, Metro, Albertsons, Carrefour,
• Standards
• MIT Auto-ID Center ? EPCGlobal
• Others (DOD, EAN, GTIN, UCC-128)
• Immature Industry
• Standards (Version 1) not yet in place
• Major players not yet established
• NO wide-spread usage yetmostly assessments
  early pilots

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RFID Hardware Tags
electronic product code type i 01.0000A89.00016F.0
00169DC0 Header 8-bits EPC Manager 28-bits Object
Class 24-bits Serial Number 36-bits
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RFID Hardware Readers Antennas
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The RFID Stack
EPC Network
EPC-IS
FCONS PML
Filter/Collection Computer
ONS Server
PML Server

• Standards in Process
• UHF Class 0 Class 1
• UHF Gen2
• Reader Protocol 1.0
• Reader Management
• Filtering Collection
• ONS
• EPCIS
• PML

EPC F127.C238.DF1B.17CC
Reader
Tag
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RFID Challenges
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RFID Challenges

• Package Engineering
• Site Engineering
• Data Management
• Device Management
• Data Integration
• Scalability / Performance
• Industry Maturity
• Product performance reliability
• Best practices

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RFID Challenges Package Engineering

• Tag Selection (Antenna Geometry)
• Tag Placement
• Difficult Situations
• Liquids
• Metal (e.g., foil-backed blister pack)
• Environmental Challenges
• Possible need to repackage
• Example CHEPS RFID reusable pallet

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RFID Challenges Site Engineering

• Adequate Coverage
• Overlap
• Portals
• Production Lines
• Interference (RF, Electrical)
• Reader Antenna Selection
• Health Safety (OSHA Rules)

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RFID Challenges Data Management

• Massive Amounts of Data
• Transactional Data at the Unit Level
• Local Storage
• Aggregation
• Upload / Interface
• Standard EPCGlobal Filtering Collection

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RFID Signal/Data/Event Filter Collect
Process Collect
Filter
Filter
Data EPC
Raw Event
Business Event
Filtered Event
signal
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RFID Challenges Device Management

• Hundreds to Thousands of readers, printers
• Geographically Distributed
• Installation Recognition
• Management, Upgrades, Repair
• Loading/Updating Rules
• Standard EPCGlobal Reader Management
• Network Management

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RFID Network Management
Enterprise Applications
WMS
ERP
SCM
Track Trace Application
Analyze
Mark
Pack
Ship
Return
Inquire
Platform
Auto-ID Standards
EPC
ONS
PML
Savant
PLCs
Data Feed
RFID Reader
RFID Reader
Optical Scanner
RFID Reader
Barcode Printer
Barcode Scanner
Readers
Chips/Tags
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RFID Challenges Data Integration

• 3 Common Approaches
• Edgeware-only (standalone)
• Edgeware Funnel Enterprise Application
• Edgeware Middleware Enterprise Application
• Mechanism of Interface
• File, Stream, Transaction, DB
• Frequency
• Content
• What will Enterprise App do with all that data?

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RFID Integration Edgeware Only
Example Slap Ship for Compliance
ASN
optional
Edgeware
PersistentData
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RFID Integration Edgeware Funnel
Enterprise Applications
Subset of collectedevent data
Data/Event Funnel
Other Data
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RFID Integration Edgeware Middleware
Middleware
Persistent Data
Edgeware
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RFID Challenges Industry Maturity

• Standards (Version 1) not yet in place
• Major players not yet established
• NO wide-spread usage yetmostly assessments
  early pilots
• NO Industry best practices
• Packaging
• Site Engineering
• Performance
• Tag read rates
• Error Rates