British RFID software firm RedBite Solutions says it plans to launch a cloud-based service intended to make the installation of a radio frequency identification solution fast and simple, requiring no more than an RFID reader embedded with RedBite software and access to the Internet. RedBite will also offer an application programming interface (API) to enable users to integrate RFID data with their own software. The solution is being rolled out by an international intergovernmental postal organization, in scores of offices throughout the world, and is being used to track tagged items moving through those locations.
This year—the specific month has yet to be determined—RedBite is also preparing to release a commercial solution for similar deployments at other agencies, as well as for small companies, that would make RFID use simpler and less expensive than traditional RFID installations. The system being used by the postal organization required some customization of what can be considered a “private cloud” that the organization is hosting on a server located on its own premises. RedBite is now designing a commercial version, though it will not specify what work remains to be done. With the commercial version, users would simply embed RedBite software onto the reader and then sign onto the RedBite-hosted server via the Internet in order to manage and retrieve tag reads, says Alex C. Y. Wong, RedBite’s CEO.
RedBite was launched in 2006 by members of the Auto-ID Lab at the University of Cambridge, to develop a simple alternative to RFID middleware (see UK Software Startup Aims to Simplify RFID Deployments). The company’s first product was an appliance server (or its smaller version, the RedMini), a piece of hardware that plugs into the reader and functions as middleware for filtering and managing read data. One of RedBite’s first customers was Asian agribusiness group Wilmar International, which used the appliance server at its factories in China, Malaysia and Indonesia. However, Wong says, RedBite found that its solution still ran up against complexities with installations, since a server dedicated for the RFID system was required to manage the collected read data, or the user would need to install RedBite’s RFID software on its own server.
“This is an archaic way of implementing RFID solutions,” Wong states. “With cloud technologies, we completely remove the local ‘muddleware’ that silos and shields useful RFID reader management data.”
With the RedEdge platform, RedBite’s middleware runs on a cloud-based server instead of in an appliance installed at the user’s premises. “The reader talks directly to the cloud, with no onsite middleware at all,” Wong explains. The firm has spent the past two years developing its RedEdge solution.
To use the solution, a RedEdge customer must install RedBite’s RedAgent software on a fixed or handheld Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID reader. RedAgent, Wong says, is small-footprint, Java-based software that communicates with the reader to retrieve tag read data via GS1‘s Low Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) standard or a native interface. “It has secure-queue communication back to the RedEdge server in the cloud,” he says, “to guarantee tag reads if there is an unstable network.” RedAgent is also responsible for gathering health information from the reader (such as memory and CPU usage, as well as reader operational status), and to manage reader configuration.
Once RedAgent is installed, the reader then simply needs to be powered on and have an Internet connection through an Ethernet cable, or via a Wi-Fi or GPRS connection. RedAgent filters and aggregates the collected read data and forwards that information to the RedEdge server via the Internet. RedEdge not only manages the data—such as which tags were read, as well as when and where this occurred—but also tracks each reader’s status and condition, using such data as comparisons of tag read performance and memory usage. If a device has begun reading at slower rates, indicating a potential power or mechanical problem, the RedAgent software can send an e-mail alert to the user’s management.
The international postal organization opted to create a private cloud-based service, by hosting RedBite software on its own server, rather than on a RedBite-hosted server, thereby affording it control over the data internally. The organization is deploying RFID readers loaded with RedAgent at sites within more than 40 countries, with plans to expand to more than 40 additional nations later this year. To date, Wong says, it has installed RedAgent on a total of about 200 readers, but the RedBite system can manage thousands of interrogators.
Next year, RedBite intends to offer the solution to garment retailers and other smaller companies that might benefit from deploying RFID, but that have deemed the necessary software and integration too costly. The solution can be used with any EPC UHF RFID tags and readers, and can be paid for on a monthly or annual basis.
The data collected by the hosted RedEdge software can be integrated into a user’s own management software, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, via an API similar to those used for other cloud services. RedBite can provide RedEdge cloud APIs to its customers, enabling them to aggregate tag reads, identify specific events and integrate that data into their own management software.