ECE1770

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ECE1770
RFID Middleware
Eric Yu Feb.12th.2007
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Agenda

• Introduction
• Application
• Standard
• EPCglobal Network
• RFID Infrastructure
• Application Level Events
• RFID Middleware Function
• Challenge

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A Basic Definition

• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
• An automatic identification technology that
  relies on radio waves to encode and decode
  information on a microchip or other storage
  device. RFID allows computer systems to capture
  data stored on a special tag without direct
  contact or line of sight acquisition
• In general terms,RFID (Radio Frequency
  Identification )is a means of identifying a
  person or object using a radio frequency
  transmission

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Business and Technical Driven

• Technology Driven
• Ubiquitous computing system
• Business Driven
• RFID technology is used today in many
  applications, Organizations in Retail, Defense,
  Transportation, Healthcare and other industries
  are increasingly employing RFID technology to
  bring new efficiencies to supply chains, track
  assets, ensure product quality and consumer
  safety, protect the integrity of their brands,
  promote security and more

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Applications

• Transit Systems Cashless transit fares
• Airlines Baggage, asset management
• Logistics Ships, trucks, trains
• Parcels Fedex, UPS, DHL (2004)
• Retail (Consumer Goods) Walmart, Metro
• Defence US DoD suppliers
• Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, patient tracking
• Agriculture Live stock tracking, perishables
• Lifestyle Amusement Parks, Speedpass(Esso)
• Security Personnel, Assets

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How RFID works
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EPCglobal

• Joint venture of Uniform Code Council (UCC) and
  EAN International
• Over 100 end-user and technology provider
  companies
• Public support from Metro, Wal-Mart, TESCO, US
  Dept of Defence
• Sets standards for
• Electronic Product Code
• Passive RFID Systems
• Software Interfaces
• Worldwide EPC network servicesEPCglobal is the
  standard for supply chain RFID
• EPCglobal provides a migration path from existing
  industry practice
• EPCglobal is supported by major supply chain
  partners
• Standards rapidly becoming available but still a
  lot to do

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The Elements of EPCglobal
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EPC Infrastructure
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EPC Infrastructure

• Middleware allows companies to process relatively
  unstructured tag data taken from many RFID
  readers
• Direct it to the appropriate information systems.
  
• It is able to perform many different operations
• Monitor the RFID reader devices
• Manage false reads
• Cache data
• Filter Data
• Query an Object Naming Service (ONS).

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EPC Infrastructure
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EPC Infrastructure
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RFID Middleware Structure

• Tag Data Standard / Air Interface
• Designed to process the streams of tag or sensor
  data
• Accommodates different reader vendors

• ALE (Application Level Events)
• Application interface to filter, aggregate,
  reduce the volume of data prior to sending events
  to the back end business application
• Standardizes interfaces between readers, ONS,
  XML, and Enterprise Applications

• EPCIS (EPC Information Services)
• Recording and exchange of business-level EPC data
  (PML)
• Describe how the EPC information can be stored
  and accessed via the Network

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ALE (Application Level Events)

• Provides a means for clients to specify, in a
  high-level, declarative way, what EPC data they
  are interested in.
• Provides a standardized format for reporting
  accumulated, filtered EPC data that is largely
  independent of where the EPC data originated or
  how it was processed.
• Abstracts the sources of EPC data (e.g., Readers,
  Barcode scanners) into higher-level notions
  of"location", thus hiding from clients the
  details of exactly what physical Readers were
  used to gather EPC data from a particular
  location

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ALE Security

• Identification and Authentication
• The ALE service provider must identify the
  clients and authenticate to prevent illegal
  clients access the service.
• Data Transport Protection
• In order to protect the data transported between
  ALE service provider and clients the ALE. service
  provider build the security functions for the
  integrity, confidentiality, freshness and so on.
• Service Access Control
• Unauthorized users may try to access the ALE
  service (e.g., stored tag data ALE service
  configuration, reader management, middleware
  resource management, notification report
  accepter) and it brings the untrusted and
  confused e-business application systems.

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RFID Middleware Function

• Reader Management
• support various means to deploy, monitor and
  issue commands to readers via a general
  interface.
• Data Management
• filter and summarize operation data
• Application Integration
• deliver the tag reads to back-end system
• Rule and exception processing
• provides the environment that users set the
  rules in order to generate the business dependant
  semantic events based on the tag reads.

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RFID Middleware Function

• Process Management
• Not just routes RFID data to enterprise
  applications but also actually orchestrates
  end-to-end processes that touch multiple
  applications or legacy systems.
• Share of data with partners and other
  applications
• provide the ways to share the information about
  individual tagged object and related business
  descriptions with the trading partners and other
  applications
• Real Time
• Managing data through real time collection and
  process real-time execution and controlling.

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Challenge

• Security
• High-Value Data
• Generic Protocols and Facilities
• Back-End Databases
• Scalability
• Lots of Source Code