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The Chasm Between RFID Standards and Implementation
RFID Applications—Closed-loop / Limited Application
RFID Journal regularly documents various RFID implementations taking place around the globe. A close examination of these examples would yield two general observations.
The first observation is that most of these programs are closed-loop systems, operating either within a single organization or between two parties. Closed-loop in this context means that the information being carried by the RFID tag is retained, and has meaning only within the company or organization implementing the RFID system. Such systems can be implemented without complying with any standard regarding data format or the meaning of such information. Those who implement the system know how to encode and decode the data in a tag, and that data only has meaning to those specific entities.
An example of a two-party closed system is a single supplier providing products to a single customer. In this case, as long as those two parties know the methods of putting bits into and taking bits out of a tag's memory, and they have agreed to what those bits mean, the system works well. But a third party attempting to read data on one of these tags would be clueless as to what any of those bits mean.
The second observation is that most RFID implementations overwhelmingly place onto the tag and use only one piece of data. That single bit of information is the unique item identification (UII) number, or the "name" of the tagged item. These implementations do not make use of a powerful capability of RFID—the ability to store additional information on a tag beyond just the UII. While utilizing just the UII can be effective, there are numerous instances—and, in fact, entire industries—in which the use of additional data on a tag provides considerably more value. In some cases, this additional data provides the cost-benefit tipping point for using RFID.
For an application that utilizes the additional data-carrying capability of RFID—and one that must function in an open-loop or multi-party system—it is vital that it conform to relevant and published standards. Only by adhering to the standards' rules can a conforming tag be encoded and read, and the tag's data be understood globally.
RFID Journal regularly documents various RFID implementations taking place around the globe. A close examination of these examples would yield two general observations.
The first observation is that most of these programs are closed-loop systems, operating either within a single organization or between two parties. Closed-loop in this context means that the information being carried by the RFID tag is retained, and has meaning only within the company or organization implementing the RFID system. Such systems can be implemented without complying with any standard regarding data format or the meaning of such information. Those who implement the system know how to encode and decode the data in a tag, and that data only has meaning to those specific entities.
An example of a two-party closed system is a single supplier providing products to a single customer. In this case, as long as those two parties know the methods of putting bits into and taking bits out of a tag's memory, and they have agreed to what those bits mean, the system works well. But a third party attempting to read data on one of these tags would be clueless as to what any of those bits mean.
The second observation is that most RFID implementations overwhelmingly place onto the tag and use only one piece of data. That single bit of information is the unique item identification (UII) number, or the "name" of the tagged item. These implementations do not make use of a powerful capability of RFID—the ability to store additional information on a tag beyond just the UII. While utilizing just the UII can be effective, there are numerous instances—and, in fact, entire industries—in which the use of additional data on a tag provides considerably more value. In some cases, this additional data provides the cost-benefit tipping point for using RFID.
For an application that utilizes the additional data-carrying capability of RFID—and one that must function in an open-loop or multi-party system—it is vital that it conform to relevant and published standards. Only by adhering to the standards' rules can a conforming tag be encoded and read, and the tag's data be understood globally.
