- The upper band 915 to 921 MHz adoption by most European countries will make UHF RFID higher performance as well as more universally operable, since the channels overlap with those used in North America and beyond.
- Just three countries remain with only lower band approval due to military use of the upper band: Germany, Greece and The Netherlands.
A decision by 11 European countries to adopt the narrow upper bandwidth in the 915 to 921 MHz range brings globally universal spectrum access to UHF RAIN RFID technology developers and manufacturers for the first time. They are the latest among other EU countries that had previously adopted the bandwidth, making the decision nearly universal among countries on the continent.
By agreeing to accept RFID technology use within that higher bandwidth, European countries enable improved RF performance and lower-power deployments, according to the RAIN Alliance. The alliance has been lobbying countries in Europe over the past two years to adopt the previously little-known bandwidth available on the continent.
The benefits of the upper bandwidth—as opposed to traditional 865 to 868 MHz spectrum—include a longer read range by up to 40 percent, communication speeds two-times higher, and lower power requirements. But for product makers globally, the approval will mean they can more easily design readers and systems for global use. This also makes tag, reader and system design easier, helping streamline time to market for new solutions, said Aileen Ryan, RAIN Alliance CEO.
The latest countries to come onboard are Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia, Malta, Montenegro as well as Poland, Romania, Sweden, Serbia and Turkey. That brings the total number of participating countries to 35.
Overlapping Bandwidth Around the World
Traditionally, UHF RAIN RFID systems had a global challenge related to the disparate bands dedicated for RFID use in different countries and continents. The full radio spectrum range used has historically been between 860 and 960 MHz. RAIN RFID technology is usually used in the 860 to 930 MHz range—but most countries worldwide allow either the 865 to 868 MHz range (which includes Europe), or part of the 902 to 928 MHz range employed in the U.S. and the majority of other countries around the world.
As a result, a product designed for one bandwidth may not be operable around the world where the approved RF channels don’t correspond. In some cases, that has inhibited global technology and solution development.
In addition, the lower spectrum traditionally used in Europe comes with some compromise in performance. For these reasons, the upper RAIN RFID band operating between 915 and 921 MHz was set up by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Channel availability and use are defined by such regulatory bodies.
40 Percent Higher Performance
Thus far the upper band has had limited impact. While some European countries were early adopters of the newer spectrum range, it wasn’t universally accepted across the continent.
The performance benefits of the upper band are significant, according to RAIN Alliance’s head of regulatory affairs, Josef Preishuber-Pflügl. In fact, reader transmission power goes from two watts with the lower ETSI band, to four watts.
Additionally, reader channel spacing doubles from 600 kHz to 1200 kHz and the transit channel width broadens from 200 to 400 kHz.
The tag backscatter power allowance rises ten-fold from 10 µW in the lower band to 100 µW in the upper band.
Three Outliers Could Join Upper Band in Future
Three countries remain that have not adopted the upper band in Europe: Germany, Greece and the Netherlands due to constraints from their militaries which already use this bandwidth. There may still be room to bring those countries onboard in the future.
“It’s not a ‘no’ by any means, but it’s ‘not now’,” Ryan said.
In the meantime, the inclusion of 11 European countries amounts to a critical mass that could shape and expand RFID usage, with more global development, and potentially new use cases emerging as well.
Enabling More RFID Adoption in Europe
The adoption of the upper band comes at a time that RAIN RFID technology use is rising, especially in Europe as product manufacturers aim to deliver on the EU’s Digital Product Passport requirement to track products from manufacture to disposal or recycling. RFID technology is poised to enable the automated capture of a product’s identity and history with the passive tags that are encoded with an ID unique to that product.
Over the past two years some countries were early adopters of the upper band, but awareness was limited.
“In the last 12 months we have been encouraging companies within the RAIN Alliance membership to start to deploy solutions in the ETSI upper band, but at the same time we’ve been pursuing this parallel track of lobbying for additional countries who have not yet allocated it,” Ryan said.
Most deployments have consisted of solutions with a more local applications, since the tags could not be read in every country in Europe.
“Now we believe that because of the ubiquitous availability of the band we will start to really see adoption of [RAIN RFID] in the ETSI upper band ramp,” Ryan said.
Eliminating Barriers to Global RAIN RFID
The RAIN Alliance’s key goal is scaling the technology deployments globally, so the organization is celebrating the new adoptions as a removal of barriers to adoption. “It is another tick in the box to say RAIN RFID can scale globally because there is no longer that impediment,” said Ryan.
As adoption of both the upper frequency band and RAIN RFID as a whole continues to grow, the volume and diversity of use cases the technology is designed for will diversify and expand the RAIN Alliance membership hopes.
“It is a really fundamental enabler… and a very big moment in the industry,” said Ryan. “This is a really big win for the RFID Industry.”