Aug 17, 2006IPICO has proposed that the IP-X RFID air-interface protocol on which it has built its business be adopted as an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard so it can compete alongside others, including the EPC Gen 2 protocol ratified as ISO 18000-6 in July. IPICO demonstrated the technology at an ISO meeting held in Paris on Wednesday.
IP-X operates within multiple frequencies, including UHF (868 MHz to 928 MHz), 2.4 GHz and 125 kHz. When entering an IP-X reader field, IP-X transponders transmit their ID code continuously but at random intervals, enabling readers to receive IDs from several tags simultaneously. This, says IPICO, allows reads to be made using "tag talks only" (TTO) technology, which differs from the EPCglobal EPC and ISO 18000-6 standards, where interrogators talk first to initiate communication between reader and tag. Also, unlike the 96-bit EPC tags, IPICO's passive read-only tags hold a 64-bit code, divided into a 46-bit ID and a 16-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC), which is used to verify that the data received is correct.
Several months ago, IPICO provided ISO with initial documentation describing details of IP-X. The company wants to see the protocol designated as ISO 18000-8. The process for ratifying IP-X as an ISO standard, if ISO decides to undertake it, will take more than a year to complete and include a period of consideration. During that time, interested parties throughout the RFID industry can comment on details of IP-X's applicability to become a standard. The process for EPC Gen 2 Class 1 to become an ISO standard, for instance, took 18 months.
Although IPICO has long claimed IP-X as its patented trademarked technology, the company has declared that other companies can use the IP-X protocol on a royalty-free basis. ISO recognition of that fact would reassure existing and potential customers that the technology would be available to any manufacturers to use for free. Part of the process to gain ISO accreditation is to establish royalty claims for any technology within a standard. ISO requires IP declarations whereby interested parties must declare their interests and IP position, such as whether they will charge royalties on IP or not, and how those charges will be determined. During the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6 standardization process, Intermec and other companies set out their plans to require payment for intellectual property contained within the standard.
In addition to making the technology available royalty-free, the company will either license the IP-X name for free to firms that want to use it, or put the name in the public domain if required. At present, any company can use or refer to the term in its own documentation, as long as they recognize IPICO's copyright, according to Luther Erasmus, COO at IPICO.
IPICO has long maintained that the IP-X interface is far better suited than the EPC Gen 2/ ISO 18000-6 air interface for many applications, such as use across both 868 MHz to 928 MHz and 2.45 GHz spectrum. The company also cites it as useful in rapidly interrogating tags moving at speed through a sorting or continuous manufacturing processes or attached to a vehicle (see Passive Tags Track Cars), as well as in secure applications and those requiring long-range read capabilities (see Mining the Benefits of RFID).
"We aren't looking to infringe on EPC, but to solve problems that other protocols can't," says Erasmus. These problems include the need for very quick read times and secure data transmission, and the ability to work in limited frequency spectrum.
During its demonstration to the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 Automatic Identification and Data Capture Techniques, Working Group 4, IPICO also hopes to illustrate that IP-X is better suited to the constraints of the UHF spectrum available to RFID in Europe, by showing IP-X UHF operating in dense-reader mode.
IPICO has been developing readers and tags using the IP-X protocol for five years, with chips produced by Swiss semiconductor company EM Micro. Recently, it has pushed to have the technology adopted by the Chinese government and industry (see Sparkice and IPICO Form Chinese Venture). The firm says the determination that the IP-X protocol be used royalty-free, as well as the additional functionality the protocol offers, puts the technology at an advantage for adoption in China.
The company earns the bulk of its revenues from developing applications and products around the IP-X air interface. The firm says it owns intellectual property rights over some specific IP-X implementations—such as how to use the technology to create a secure seal using a standard shipping container bolt—and that licensing these could potentially make up a small percentage of its revenues going forward. In addition, IPICO is set to launch its first EPC-based products later this year.
