RFID EXPERT VIEWS
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Options for Growing Your RFID Network
Additional concerns with a strategy of adding new hardware for each new application include investment and maintenance costs, management requirements and the missed opportunity of leveraging existing hardware or infrastructure investments. Thus, this highlights the benefits of an architecture that offers new applications the ability to leverage an existing RFID network.
When employing this strategy, it is important to build on a framework that provides advanced management capabilities to simplify tasks for managing such a broad network, including firmware upgrades, configuration and monitoring.
Adding New, Distinct Applications to Existing Network
The third option for growing your RFID network is to utilize your current physical network to deliver data to new applications. This scenario is not applicable to all deployments, as many RFID applications do require a dedicated network. However, when this is an option, it is certainly worth pursuing.
Since ROI justifications are typically based on the initial application, adding new apps to an existing network can help realize a greater return on initial hardware and infrastructure investments. It can also avoid concerns of interference or complexity that could occur if overlapping hardware were introduced. Using the same hardware results in improved maintainability while avoiding hardware redundancy.
This type of network expansion is not often discussed, due to a common misconception that there needs to be a one-to-one relationship between the physical RFID network and the applications consuming the data from the network. This may be true for RFID solutions built with a tightly coupled relationship between the application and the hardware, but if a flexible middleware platform is deployed, no such limitation exists. This type of platform can enable multiple applications to share the same set of hardware if it can provide such things as a service-oriented architecture exposing raw RFID data from readers to any number of applications; flexible development options and pre-built messaging connectors to simply development and integration; powerful multiprotocol support (reading, processing, reporting) allowing customers to choose the most appropriate tags and hardware; and an architecture that supports a wide variety of application types, from periodic reports to real-time processing and alerting.
Many hospitals, for example, are implementing RFID technology to track assets as they move throughout a facility. For lower-valued goods, this often takes the form of an extensive passive RFID network created to monitor the movement of equipment as it travels past RFID readers located at choke points defining the distinct zones. Once this network is in place, it becomes feasible to expand the implementation to monitor staff and patients, as well. Even though these applications have very unique requirements, both can use the same network to obtain the asset location data.
Another example can be found in a warehouse, where RFID technology is often implemented for inventory and supply-chain management applications. The first application could use RFID readers at dock doors and forklifts to track incoming and outgoing shipments. Once this network is in place, it can be leveraged to monitor equipment and tools, and even to help track employees' arrival and departure times.
Many organizations are presently in the early phases of RFID deployment. As we continue to witness successful RFID projects in a variety of industries and use cases—including automated toll payments, access-control systems, supply-chain optimization, fraud and counterfeit prevention and asset-location tracking—we can expect to see RFID deployments grow in innovative new ways.
Whether the goal is to have multiple applications on a single network, or to grow an application incrementally, understanding the various options available for extending an RFID network allows companies to plan their growth strategies at the start of their projects. In order to take full advantage of these options, developers need to select a flexible and extensible RFID infrastructure that meets current requirements and also provides future growth without significant additional expenses.
Martyn Mallick is the director of RFID and mobile solutions at iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase. He is responsible for product management, business development and the strategy of RFID and mobile technologies, including RFID Anywhere. Mallick is also the author of Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials.
When employing this strategy, it is important to build on a framework that provides advanced management capabilities to simplify tasks for managing such a broad network, including firmware upgrades, configuration and monitoring.
Adding New, Distinct Applications to Existing Network
The third option for growing your RFID network is to utilize your current physical network to deliver data to new applications. This scenario is not applicable to all deployments, as many RFID applications do require a dedicated network. However, when this is an option, it is certainly worth pursuing.
Since ROI justifications are typically based on the initial application, adding new apps to an existing network can help realize a greater return on initial hardware and infrastructure investments. It can also avoid concerns of interference or complexity that could occur if overlapping hardware were introduced. Using the same hardware results in improved maintainability while avoiding hardware redundancy.
This type of network expansion is not often discussed, due to a common misconception that there needs to be a one-to-one relationship between the physical RFID network and the applications consuming the data from the network. This may be true for RFID solutions built with a tightly coupled relationship between the application and the hardware, but if a flexible middleware platform is deployed, no such limitation exists. This type of platform can enable multiple applications to share the same set of hardware if it can provide such things as a service-oriented architecture exposing raw RFID data from readers to any number of applications; flexible development options and pre-built messaging connectors to simply development and integration; powerful multiprotocol support (reading, processing, reporting) allowing customers to choose the most appropriate tags and hardware; and an architecture that supports a wide variety of application types, from periodic reports to real-time processing and alerting.
Many hospitals, for example, are implementing RFID technology to track assets as they move throughout a facility. For lower-valued goods, this often takes the form of an extensive passive RFID network created to monitor the movement of equipment as it travels past RFID readers located at choke points defining the distinct zones. Once this network is in place, it becomes feasible to expand the implementation to monitor staff and patients, as well. Even though these applications have very unique requirements, both can use the same network to obtain the asset location data.
Another example can be found in a warehouse, where RFID technology is often implemented for inventory and supply-chain management applications. The first application could use RFID readers at dock doors and forklifts to track incoming and outgoing shipments. Once this network is in place, it can be leveraged to monitor equipment and tools, and even to help track employees' arrival and departure times.
Many organizations are presently in the early phases of RFID deployment. As we continue to witness successful RFID projects in a variety of industries and use cases—including automated toll payments, access-control systems, supply-chain optimization, fraud and counterfeit prevention and asset-location tracking—we can expect to see RFID deployments grow in innovative new ways.
Whether the goal is to have multiple applications on a single network, or to grow an application incrementally, understanding the various options available for extending an RFID network allows companies to plan their growth strategies at the start of their projects. In order to take full advantage of these options, developers need to select a flexible and extensible RFID infrastructure that meets current requirements and also provides future growth without significant additional expenses.
Martyn Mallick is the director of RFID and mobile solutions at iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase. He is responsible for product management, business development and the strategy of RFID and mobile technologies, including RFID Anywhere. Mallick is also the author of Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials.
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