Five key factors in the formulation and promotion of RFID technology standards

Summary:

With the increasing popularity of RFID technology, technical issues in RFID applications regarding scalability, availability, security, interoperability, integration, management, and messaging will be revealed. How to consider and solve these problems in the RFID application planning stage?

With the increasing popularity of RFID technology, technical issues in RFID applications regarding scalability, availability, security, interoperability, integration, management, and messaging will be revealed. How to consider and solve these problems in the RFID application planning stage?

In terms of RFID standard formulation and promotion, EPCglobal, as a non-profit organization established by the industry, is jointly invested by the International Association of Article Coding (EAN) and the U.S. Uniform Code Commission (UCC) and is mainly responsible for the globalization standards of the EPC network in order to Quickly, automatically and accurately identify commodities circulating in the supply chain. At present, the organization plans to establish a huge "Internet of Things" in the world, that is, the coding network of all participating items in circulation, to achieve full tracking and tracking of goods. By combining computer Internet and wireless communication network, the behavior rules of people, computers, and goods in the supply chain network will change, which also indicates that the application prospect of RFID will affect all aspects of human life.

The relevant standards proposed by EPCglobal, the main promoter of RFID standards, mainly cover the following areas:

1. Electronic Product Code (EPC): The electronic product code is used to uniquely identify the goods circulating in the supply chain network. At present, EPCglobal has formulated its coding standard to name these electronic product codes.

2. Identification System ID System: Electronic label identification system includes electronic labels and readers. As the carrier of electronic product codes, electronic standard answer carries out electronic label information interaction with readers through RFID radio frequency identification technology. At present, standards related to this part have also been formulated, including packaging standards for electronic tags, standards for data interaction between electronic tags and readers.

3. EPC middleware: EPC middleware implements information interaction between the RFID reader and the back-end application system to capture real-time information and events, either upstream to the back-end system or downstream to the reader. EPC middleware uses standard protocols and interfaces, and is the link between the reader and the information system. At present, there is an application level event (ALE) standard.

4. Discovery Service: EPC notification and discovery services include ONS (Object Naming Service) and ancillary services. Based on electronic product codes, EPC data access channel information is obtained. At present, the root ONS system and the supporting discovery service system are commissioned by EPCglobal to operate and maintain Verisign, and its interface standards are being formed.

5. EPC-IS (EPC Information Service): EPC information service enables end users to interact with EPC information in the Internet of Things environment. The interfaces and standards for EPC-IS are also being developed.

The IoT technology architecture uses a distributed network architecture that runs on the global Internet, and the participating builders are not only standard-setting institutions and their entrusted units, but also various suppliers, logistics service providers, and suppliers in the supply chain network. Retailer or EPC service hosting provider.

This cross-organization, cross-industry, and global deployment method determines that the system has extremely high security requirements. At the same time, in order to support the EPC data of the global supply chain network, the system needs to have good scalability, meet the flexible scalability at multiple levels and nodes, and have sufficient availability to make this system fully commercial . To maintain and manage such a huge cross-global Internet of Things, how to simplify system management is obviously what the system builder needs to face. In addition, information interaction and synchronization in a distributed environment require reliable messaging functions. To use EPC data more effectively and maximize the business value of the data, it needs to be integrated with the company's internal business systems.

In summary, the most widespread success of the Internet of Things relies on the RFID application system at each node of the supply chain to provide sufficient system quality so that it does not become a bottleneck for the Internet of Things, in order to ultimately ensure that it can effectively serve the world.