Oct 06, 2011Nonprofit supply chain standards organization GS1 ratified two EPCglobal standards last month: the EPC HF RFID Air Interface Protocol version 2.0.3, and the Tag Data Standard (TDS) version 1.6. The new air-interface protocol will enable 13.56 MHz RFID technology to be utilized with Electronic Product Code (EPC) numbers, while the updated TDS will allow aerospace and defense users to include their own industry headers in the existing EPC identification system. Both standards can be downloaded for free from the EPCglobal section of GS1's Web site.
EPC HF RFID Air Interface Protocol v2.0.3 is a first for GS1, the organization reports, providing high-frequency (HF) technology manufacturers with a GS1 standard with which to comply that enables them to manufacture 13.56 MHz passive tags to be encoded with EPC numbers, as well as the interrogators to read those tags. The new HF standard provides an alternative to GS1's other air-interface protocol, the EPC Gen 2 specification for passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags and readers.
"GS1 is very happy it can offer two standards for tagging," says Paul Voordeckers, EPCglobal's president of industry engagement. "It's important for us to meet our members' needs."
The EPC HF v2.0.3 protocol matches the ISO 18000-3 Mode 3 (3M3) standard, published in November 2010 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In fact, GS1 and ISO have been working together to ensure that the ISO 18000-3M3 and GS1 EPC HF v2.0.3 protocols are the same. Both employ the same data structure as the ISO 18000-6C and EPC UHF Gen 2 RFID standards, says Giselle Ow-Yang, the standards manager of GS1's EPC RFID Hardware Group, and that same data structure enables HF and UHF tags to be operated by the same interrogator, though a standardized multifrequency component would need to be installed within that reader in order to enable this function. Currently, there are no readers on the market that can interrogate both HF (ISO 18000-3M3) and UHF (ISO 18000-6C) tags.
"As with any GS1 specification," Ow-Yang says, "this was developed at the point of user request." In 2006, members of the pharmaceutical and health-care industries had an especially keen interest in an HF standard that would allow the use of EPC-encoded HF tags to help manage items in the medical supply chain, as well as in hospitals. This, she says, is because the industry at that time perceived that it would require HF technology in some instances, but UHF in others.
After completing the initial design several years ago, GS1 issued a request for comments, and then began completing the development. Since that time, some users' requirements have changed, Ow-Yang says, noting that hospitals have moved away from RFID in some cases, and that some have looked to other automatic-identification solutions for certain applications.
There are use cases outside of the health-care market, however, as well as some that persist within it. For example, HF technology is commonly used in cases of reading tags in the near-field range, such as the dispensing of beverages into a prepaid RFID-tagged container, the tagging of poker chips stacked in high density on a table above an RFID reader, or the use of tags on medical or court documents that are stored in high density and do not require a long read range.
In April 2011, NXP Semiconductors introduced its Icode ILT chip, compliant with the ISO 18000-3M3 standard (see NXP to Unveil New UHF, HF Chips). GS1 has not yet developed conformance test methods for the new EPC HF standard, and thus no technology can yet be declared as compliant with that standard.
With the ratification of GS1's HF standard, says Victor Vega, NXP's marketing director for RFID solutions, "now, the tag IC memory structures are similar between HF and UHF, with each offering a transponder ID (TID), EPC and user memory option, and a similar command set."
Tag Data Standard 1.6 provides a new aerospace and defense identifier (ADI) that is part of the EPC number. The chief content of the Tag Data Standard is to specify exactly how data is encoded into an RFID tag's memory. The TDS 1.6 amendment provides additional identifiers to support the needs of those in the aerospace and defense sectors—which, until now, have had their own identifiers that are not part of the Electronic Product Code. With the addition of aerospace identifiers as a prefix to the EPC identifier, however, the two industries can now utilize EPC tags with their own identifiers, encoded as a prefix to the EPC number. The new aerospace and defense identifiers include values allowing users to, for instance, filter out specific tag identifiers, such as those attached to aircraft seatbelts, oxygen masks or cushions. In that way, explains Mark Frey, the GS1 amendment working group's facilitator, aerospace staff members, for instance, could seek specific identifiers when conducting maintenance or inspections of particular items.
Various third-party technology vendors are currently working to help companies implement the new standards. One example is consultant Ken Traub, who offers an EPC tag encoder and decoder application that can be used for free on the Web site of his company, Ken Traub Consulting. The EPC Encoder/Decoder application, he states, "might be helpful for looking to learn more about the TDS 1.6 standard, and see how it works."
Traub, who edited the amendments made to the updated GS1 tag-data standard, also sells a software library that can be licensed for embedding in commercial products or end-user software. This library includes a full implementation of all parts of the TDS 1.6 amendment.
