14-09-2012, 05:36 PM
RFID TECHNOLOGY
[attachment=33806]
ABSTRACT
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication via
electromagnetic waves to exchange data between a terminal and an electronic tag
attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking. Some tags can be
read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.
Radio-frequency identification involves interrogators (also known as readers),
and tags (also known as labels).
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and
processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and
other specialized functions. The other is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the
signal.
There are three types of RFID tags: passive RFID tags, which have no power source and
require an external electromagnetic field to initiate a signal transmission, active RFID
tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals once an external source
('Interrogator') has been successfully identified, and battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID
tags, which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link
capability providing greater range.
There are a variety of groups defining standards and regulating the use of RFID,
including: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International
Electrotechnical Commission(IEC), ASTM International, DASH7 Alliance, EPC global.
(Refer to Regulation and standardization below.)
RFID has many applications; for example, it is used in enterprise supply chain
management to improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management.
Introduction
In context of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), the phrase RFID infrastructure
describes the IT-infrastructure which is necessary to collect, filter and enrich raw RFIDdata
before processing it to the backend-systems (business intelligence systems like ERP,
etc.). In our case, we are focusing on the software components doing this job. Hence
middleware and infrastructure are to be used synonymously in this report.
Criteria For Evaluation
Current literature dealing with RFID-middleware offers several criteria for evaluating
RFID-Systems. We have summarized the most common ones to the following topics:
Scalability An increase in throughput rates could cause the infrastructure to collapse.
Being in the line of fire middleware has to offer features for dynamically balancing
processing loads and handle large amounts of data and their preprocessing(like database
lookups, updates, etc.). Additionally this topic covers the question of how to extend an
already implemented system.
Commitment To Standards Supporting common standards simplifies upgrading,
migrating and scaling of an existing infrastructure. Concerning this topic, we concentrate
on the exchange of information between the enricher-layer and the backup-systems. This
topic goes hand in hand with the question of application integration.
Level Of Processing And Enriching Data Besides collecting data, RFID
middleware needs to filter and enrich raw RFID-data in order to transform those
flows into single events
Live Tracking
Using RFID in Livestock Tracking and the resulting improvements The RFID
technology is the next step to a solution of current problems in animal identification and
tracking. With the RFID tags the first steps are taken to a more transparent backtracking,
covering the entire chain from the producer tot he customer, and a centralized
organization of animal data. The vision is that all information about an animal and the
owner it belongs to, is stored in a database. Records in the database do not only consist of
the information to which owner an animal belongs to, but also if an animal changes its
owner, every following owner, the complete track of an animal life and disease history
and which particular breeding properties it has.
Problems in using RFID and possible solutions
The use of the RFID technology in livestock tracking is still not the Holy Grail for all
problems, since new problems evolve which need to be solved. One of the biggest
problems is the lack of standardized tags and tag readers. Some of the tag readers are
only able to read the information of specific tags. The lack of standardized codes leads to
big obstacles in centralizing the information about certain animals in a federal global
database.. The information received from the breeder needs to be arranged, before storing
it, to set them in to a uniform data format. A first step to solve this problem is the
standardization of the information on the tags and the standardization of the tag readers.
Like mentioned above there are standards from the ISO, but another problem is that not
all tag and reader producer are using the standard. Also it is not possible to ensure in all
cases the uniqueness of the IDs, since they could be duplicated or in case of the loss of
the tag the same number is given to more than one animal. The uniqueness can be better
ensured through biometric methods.
[attachment=33806]
ABSTRACT
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication via
electromagnetic waves to exchange data between a terminal and an electronic tag
attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking. Some tags can be
read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.
Radio-frequency identification involves interrogators (also known as readers),
and tags (also known as labels).
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and
processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and
other specialized functions. The other is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the
signal.
There are three types of RFID tags: passive RFID tags, which have no power source and
require an external electromagnetic field to initiate a signal transmission, active RFID
tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals once an external source
('Interrogator') has been successfully identified, and battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID
tags, which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link
capability providing greater range.
There are a variety of groups defining standards and regulating the use of RFID,
including: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International
Electrotechnical Commission(IEC), ASTM International, DASH7 Alliance, EPC global.
(Refer to Regulation and standardization below.)
RFID has many applications; for example, it is used in enterprise supply chain
management to improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management.
Introduction
In context of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), the phrase RFID infrastructure
describes the IT-infrastructure which is necessary to collect, filter and enrich raw RFIDdata
before processing it to the backend-systems (business intelligence systems like ERP,
etc.). In our case, we are focusing on the software components doing this job. Hence
middleware and infrastructure are to be used synonymously in this report.
Criteria For Evaluation
Current literature dealing with RFID-middleware offers several criteria for evaluating
RFID-Systems. We have summarized the most common ones to the following topics:
Scalability An increase in throughput rates could cause the infrastructure to collapse.
Being in the line of fire middleware has to offer features for dynamically balancing
processing loads and handle large amounts of data and their preprocessing(like database
lookups, updates, etc.). Additionally this topic covers the question of how to extend an
already implemented system.
Commitment To Standards Supporting common standards simplifies upgrading,
migrating and scaling of an existing infrastructure. Concerning this topic, we concentrate
on the exchange of information between the enricher-layer and the backup-systems. This
topic goes hand in hand with the question of application integration.
Level Of Processing And Enriching Data Besides collecting data, RFID
middleware needs to filter and enrich raw RFID-data in order to transform those
flows into single events
Live Tracking
Using RFID in Livestock Tracking and the resulting improvements The RFID
technology is the next step to a solution of current problems in animal identification and
tracking. With the RFID tags the first steps are taken to a more transparent backtracking,
covering the entire chain from the producer tot he customer, and a centralized
organization of animal data. The vision is that all information about an animal and the
owner it belongs to, is stored in a database. Records in the database do not only consist of
the information to which owner an animal belongs to, but also if an animal changes its
owner, every following owner, the complete track of an animal life and disease history
and which particular breeding properties it has.
Problems in using RFID and possible solutions
The use of the RFID technology in livestock tracking is still not the Holy Grail for all
problems, since new problems evolve which need to be solved. One of the biggest
problems is the lack of standardized tags and tag readers. Some of the tag readers are
only able to read the information of specific tags. The lack of standardized codes leads to
big obstacles in centralizing the information about certain animals in a federal global
database.. The information received from the breeder needs to be arranged, before storing
it, to set them in to a uniform data format. A first step to solve this problem is the
standardization of the information on the tags and the standardization of the tag readers.
Like mentioned above there are standards from the ISO, but another problem is that not
all tag and reader producer are using the standard. Also it is not possible to ensure in all
cases the uniqueness of the IDs, since they could be duplicated or in case of the loss of
the tag the same number is given to more than one animal. The uniqueness can be better
ensured through biometric methods.