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Reva says it is currently working with other application providers, including TIBCO and SeeBeyond, to develop interfaces between TAP and their enterprise platforms. Accenture and Hewlett Packard are both currently testing the TAP device, as well.
Since July, Accenture has been using the TAP to manage its network of RFID readers deployed at its Innovation Center in Murray Hill, N.J. "We selected Reva to support the facility because Reva's TAP fits nicely into the stack as a network play," says Matthew Wylie, senior manager for Accenture. "We did not have to use any middleware for our center."
At its Innovation Center, Accenture displays RFID and other technology its clients are using to improve business processes. Approximately nine readers, from different manufacturers, are linked to the TAP at the Innovation Center, Wylie says. In order to provide redundancy in the event that the processor fails, Accenture is also running a secondary TAP that supports the same bank of readers. The TAP filters the tag reads in accordance to business logic that Accenture established in the TAP management console.
The console can be used to track the last known location of a tag by associating the interrogator (reader) that sensed each read. To map the locations of the readers and their antennas, users can upload digital layout images of their facilities, then build out a map of the readers within each layout, using the console software. This mapping tool will also send alerts to users when its business logic says readers might interfere with each other based on their locations relative to each other, or to other devices within the facility.
Wylie says he advises Accenture clients to consider using the TAP to handle their growing networks of readers as they move from initial RFID pilots to wider deployments. "There hasn't been anything like this device [on the market] up until now," says Wylie.
But at least one software solution that plays a similar function to the TAP has been released. In June 2004, ADT Security Services, a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, introduced Sensormatic SensorID Device Commander (see New RFID Reader Management App). The Device Commander software, however, does not link directly to the user LAN and can support only up to 50 interrogators.
Reva Systems, based in Chelmsford, Mass., is actively working with EPCglobal to develop a standardized communication protocol between readers and middleware, Stephenson says. EPCglobal calls this Reader Protocol 1.0. Reva authored a similar protocol, the Simple Lightweight RFID Reader Protocol (SLRRP). Earlier this year, the company submitted it to both EPCglobal and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which develops standard Internet operating protocols such as TCP/IP. Stephenson says EPCglobal has since combined the SLRRP protocol language into its reader protocol standard development. Once a standard protocol is established, it replaces the proprietary code TAP currently uses to talk to readers from different manufacturers. Companies creating EPC RFID interrogators can also embed this language into their devices.
The TAP device is available now and costs $9,995.
Reva Taps Into Reader Networks
Reva says it is currently working with other application providers, including TIBCO and SeeBeyond, to develop interfaces between TAP and their enterprise platforms. Accenture and Hewlett Packard are both currently testing the TAP device, as well.
Since July, Accenture has been using the TAP to manage its network of RFID readers deployed at its Innovation Center in Murray Hill, N.J. "We selected Reva to support the facility because Reva's TAP fits nicely into the stack as a network play," says Matthew Wylie, senior manager for Accenture. "We did not have to use any middleware for our center."
At its Innovation Center, Accenture displays RFID and other technology its clients are using to improve business processes. Approximately nine readers, from different manufacturers, are linked to the TAP at the Innovation Center, Wylie says. In order to provide redundancy in the event that the processor fails, Accenture is also running a secondary TAP that supports the same bank of readers. The TAP filters the tag reads in accordance to business logic that Accenture established in the TAP management console.
The console can be used to track the last known location of a tag by associating the interrogator (reader) that sensed each read. To map the locations of the readers and their antennas, users can upload digital layout images of their facilities, then build out a map of the readers within each layout, using the console software. This mapping tool will also send alerts to users when its business logic says readers might interfere with each other based on their locations relative to each other, or to other devices within the facility.
Wylie says he advises Accenture clients to consider using the TAP to handle their growing networks of readers as they move from initial RFID pilots to wider deployments. "There hasn't been anything like this device [on the market] up until now," says Wylie.
But at least one software solution that plays a similar function to the TAP has been released. In June 2004, ADT Security Services, a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, introduced Sensormatic SensorID Device Commander (see New RFID Reader Management App). The Device Commander software, however, does not link directly to the user LAN and can support only up to 50 interrogators.
Reva Systems, based in Chelmsford, Mass., is actively working with EPCglobal to develop a standardized communication protocol between readers and middleware, Stephenson says. EPCglobal calls this Reader Protocol 1.0. Reva authored a similar protocol, the Simple Lightweight RFID Reader Protocol (SLRRP). Earlier this year, the company submitted it to both EPCglobal and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which develops standard Internet operating protocols such as TCP/IP. Stephenson says EPCglobal has since combined the SLRRP protocol language into its reader protocol standard development. Once a standard protocol is established, it replaces the proprietary code TAP currently uses to talk to readers from different manufacturers. Companies creating EPC RFID interrogators can also embed this language into their devices.
The TAP device is available now and costs $9,995.
