Shaking out RFID standards

Standards development is key to radio frequency identification’s adoption in supply chain applications, analysts say. When standards become more solid, product development will speed up, which will drive down equipment costs.

A story in our Enterprise Applications section (written by abednarz@nww.com) this week takes a look at the chip and transponder manufacturers working to iron out the details of a new standard that will determine how RFID gear communicates in a supply chain setting. Developing standards is a key charter of EPCglobal – and a potentially contentious one. Different working groups within the organization are fleshing out proposals for specifications ranging from RFID tags, readers and interface protocols to middleware and data formats.

Standards development is key to radio frequency identification’s adoption in supply chain applications, analysts say. When standards become more solid, product development will speed up, which will drive down equipment costs.abednarz@nww.com) this week takes a look at the chip and transponder manufacturers working to iron out the details of a new standard that will determine how RFID gear communicates in a supply chain setting. Developing standards is a key charter of EPCglobal – and a potentially contentious one. Different working groups within the organization are fleshing out proposals for specifications ranging from RFID tags, readers and interface protocols to middleware and data formats.

A story in our Enterprise Applications section (written by

RFID operates in multiple frequency ranges, including low (125 KHz), high (13.56 MHz) and UHF (868-954 MHz). The second-generation UHF standard is getting a lot of attention because UHF is considered most suitable for warehouse environments, where many early adopters of RFID in the supply chain are focusing their efforts, says Christopher Boone, a program manager at IDC.

These days, all eyes are on the activities of the EPCglobal working group responsible for recommending the Generation 2 EPC protocol for the UHF band. Spurring development of the second-generation UHF air-interface protocol is the need for multi-national capabilities, flexible information storage, and compliance with existing industry standards.

For more on this story see: http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0621rfidstds.html