ZigBee: A New Frontier for Low Cost Active RFID

Publisher: Mind Commerce
Publication Date: February 2007
Price: Single-user: $295; Company-wide: $995

OVERVIEW: This report starts with an excellent introduction to RFID, ZigBee and their use in automation. It also evaluates the use of ZigBee and active RFID for real time location systems. This in-depth publication presents analyses, case studies and real-life examples in which the author has used ZigBee to create active RFID devices. These systems overcame the challenges of tag-to-reader communication in passive RFID systems, and also supported tag-to-tag communication to create a very low cost active RFID system robust enough to achieve a real-time tracking and monitoring system with many value-added functions.

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Important Questions Answered by this Report

• What is the use and importance of RFID and ZigBee?
• What RFID system options exist and how are they best implemented?
• How does ZigBee work with an Active RFID system?
• How does one design and implement a location tracking system with RFID and ZigBee?
• What are the limitations and alternatives to RFID and ZigBee?
• Covers alternatives including: Z-Wave, Insteon, Bluetooth, WirelessUSB, XMesh, LonWorks, Proprietary Industrial Standards

Target Audience

• RFID and ZigBee hardware, software and solution vendors
  
• Personnel responsible for automating Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other business processes
  
• Manufacturers and personnel responsible for management of inventory and materials, timing and control of critical resources, improve Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), and other production line automation and industrial processes
  
• Retailers and personnel responsible for merchandise inventory and ordering processes, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Merchandise tracking and fraud prevention
• Providers of value-added applications and services such as metering, telemetry, telematics, and sensor applications, inventory control and tracking such as merchandise control, asset tracking and recovery such as computing equipment monitoring, tracking parts moving through a manufacturing process, tracking goods in a supply chain, and payment systems
  
• Providers of RFID databases such as the VeriSign EPC DB
  
• Wireless service providers and cellular network operators interested in learning more about the use of RFID, ZigBee, and value-added applications such as a location tracking system

Table of Contents

I. What is RFID?
Understanding How RFID Works
Types of Tags
Application Field
Privacy
Preventives
Five Steps to RFID Implementation

II. Frequency Bands and their Importance
Frequency

III. Requirement of RFID, Providers, Solutions
Market Analysis

IV. ZigBee
What is ZigBee Technology
The Promises
Why is ZigBee needed?
The ZigBee Alliance
Understanding ZigBee
The Protocol
The 802 Wireless Space a graphical comparison

V. ZigBee and Active RFID
Preamble
Scope of Active RFID
Market Research on Scope
Designing the ZigBee based Active RFID System
Tag Specs
Hardware Components
The Role of ZigBee

VI. Implementing a Location Tracking System with ZigBee-Based Active RFID
Introduction
System Design
Technical Information of the Devices
Prototype Implementation
System Architecture Schematic
Conclusion

VII. Limitations of ZigBee based Active RFID Systems
Background
Inherent Drawbacks of ZigBee and Stack Related Issues
Alternatives to ZigBee

• Z-Wave
• Insteon
• Bluetooth
• WirelessUSB
• XMesh
• LonWorks
• Proprietary Industrial Standards

VIII. Conclusions

Single User: $295
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Corporate License: $995
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sanjay Chatterjee, an expert in ZigBee and active RFID systems, has developed tracking solutions and sensor networks for environmental sensing. He also developed a rapidly deployable, self-configurable, self-healing active RFID tracking system and a handheld active RFID reader/writer using the ZigBee protocol.

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