IPICO Submits Its IP-X RFID Air Interface to ISO

"We have always said that anyone can produce products based on IP-X," says Erasmus. "Anyone can use it now, but large customers and governments like ISO accreditation because there are concerns about single sourcing while it is still considered a proprietary technology."

IPICO has long maintained that the IP-X interface is far better suited than the EPC Gen 2/ ISO 18000-6 air interface for many applications, such as use across both 868 MHz to 928 MHz and 2.45 GHz spectrum. The company also cites it as useful in rapidly interrogating tags moving at speed through a sorting or continuous manufacturing processes or attached to a vehicle (see Passive Tags Track Cars), as well as in secure applications and those requiring long-range read capabilities (see Mining the Benefits of RFID).

"We aren't looking to infringe on EPC, but to solve problems that other protocols can't," says Erasmus. These problems include the need for very quick read times and secure data transmission, and the ability to work in limited frequency spectrum.

During its demonstration to the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 Automatic Identification and Data Capture Techniques, Working Group 4, IPICO also hopes to illustrate that IP-X is better suited to the constraints of the UHF spectrum available to RFID in Europe, by showing IP-X UHF operating in dense-reader mode.

IPICO has been developing readers and tags using the IP-X protocol for five years, with chips produced by Swiss semiconductor company EM Micro. Recently, it has pushed to have the technology adopted by the Chinese government and industry (see Sparkice and IPICO Form Chinese Venture). The firm says the determination that the IP-X protocol be used royalty-free, as well as the additional functionality the protocol offers, puts the technology at an advantage for adoption in China.

The company earns the bulk of its revenues from developing applications and products around the IP-X air interface. The firm says it owns intellectual property rights over some specific IP-X implementations—such as how to use the technology to create a secure seal using a standard shipping container bolt—and that licensing these could potentially make up a small percentage of its revenues going forward. In addition, IPICO is set to launch its first EPC-based products later this year.