Dash7 Alliance Working on New Specification, Tags for ISO 18000-7

In the meantime, Burns predicts, the Mode 2 specification will become available to the public in mid-2011. "We make the specification available to Dash7 Alliance members immediately," he explains, "and at some point during the ISO ratification process, it will be available [to non-members] via ISO through their normal public distribution of standards documents and proposed modifications."

Mode 1 active technology is most commonly used by the U.S. Department of Defense, though active Savi Technology solutions are also in use for logistics purposes, developed prior to the establishment of the Dash7 Alliance.

Patrick Burns, the Dash7 Alliance's founder and president

Alliance members first began conceiving of Mode 2 this year, as a solution to existing shortcomings of the ISO 18000-7 standard. One shortcoming is the location granularity—end users have been seeking an active RFID solution that could function as a real-time locating system (RTLS), something currently accomplished only with a wired infrastructure that often includes an exciter (also known as a signpost) that transmits an RF signal to awaken ISO 18000-7 active tags, as well as provide greater location identification of those tags. While Mode 1 tags can send sensor data, such tags typically transmit information at a preset beaconing rate, which must then be interpreted by the software to determine the sensor data and, at that time, detect an event, such as a change in temperature or motion. Mode 2 offers to resolve that problem, Burns says, by allowing the tag to automatically send sensor data if an event occurs, such as movement bring detected by a motion sensor, or a temperature threshold being exceeded.

In addition, Mode 2 addresses the RTLS challenge by enabling one active tag to transmit to another—that is, peer to peer. For example, vendors are now working on ISO 18000-7 tags that can receive a transmission from another tag, and then forward that information to a reader. With this capability, users could, for example, attach tags that support received signal strength indication (RSSI) functionality to a building's walls or ceilings—RSSI tags can measure the power of a received RF signal—and when individuals wearing or carrying a Mode 2 tag enter that building, the strength of the badge tag's signals received by the wall-mounted tags could be used to determine the location of an individual as he or she moves about a floor or building. What's more, Mode 2 tags could be placed on assets, and RSSI-enabled tags in a building could track the location of those items throughout the facility. A system could also track who has been in or near certain assets—for instance, which employees have been in the vicinity of a specific server or forklift—based on their location data.

Providers of high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags will also be able to utilize the Mode 2 specification to add active RFID 433 MHz transmission capabilities to their existing products.