The word “standards” often elicits a yawn from users who implement RFID, and
standards are often the last thing considered when designing and deploying
an RFID system. But consider this:
- There are over two dozen RFID “middleware” products that implement the
EPCglobal Application Level Events (ALE) standard. Choosing ALE as the
foundation for business application software preserves your investment as
technology changes, instead of being locked into the proprietary interface
provided by a single middleware vendor. Plus, ALE provides for rapid
application development through XML and web services frameworks, allows
different applications to share data from an RFID data network without prior
coordination, and lets application writers focus on “what” data they want
from RFID tags instead of “how” to command readers to get that data.
- Using proprietary interfaces to an RFID reader locks deployments into a
single hardware vendor, but use of EPCglobal’s Low-Level Reader Protocol
(LLRP), Reader Management (RM), and Discovery, Configuration, and
Initialization (DCI) standards provides a plug-and-play basis for managing a
heterogenous network of RFID readers, future-proofing against changes in
technology.
- Every enterprise RFID application delivers data from RFID readers up to
application software, but an ill-considered interface between data capture
and enterprise applications results in a brittle system in which data
capture technology cannot be updated without disturbing the enterprise
applications and vice versa. Use of the EPCglobal EPC Information Services
(EPCIS) standard avoids this pitfall, provides the basis for seamless
combination of RFID with bar codes and other data carriers, and provides
access to over two dozen commercial data capture and data analysis products
that are compatible with EPCIS. And, EPCIS can be used even in closed loop
systems and systems that do not use Electronic Product Code Identifiers.
To learn more, here are the course descriptions I’m offering with Academia RFID Centre of Exellence:
EPC DCSS – EPCGLOBAL DATA CAPTURE SOFTWARE STANDARDS
EPCIS RVD – EPC INFORMATION SERVICES FOR RFID VISIBILITY DATA
Kenneth Traub, PhD
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