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

3. Agenda  Introduction  Application  Standard EPCglobal Network RFID Infrastructure Application Level Events  RFID Middleware Function  Challenge

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. How RFID works

8. 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

9. The Elements of EPCglobal EPC (Electronic Product Code ) Unique number that identifies a specific item in the supply chain. RFID Tag Radio frequency tag, attached to an item, that carries the EPC for that item. RFID Reader Data capture device that detects and reads RFID tags and transmits their associated EPC numbers to the computer network. Middleware (Savant) A software specification for services that broker data exchange between a reader or network of readers and existing information systems. Supports connections to internal systems and the EPCglobal Network ONS ( Object Naming Service) Automated networking service that connects each EPC to the information associated with it on the network. Information Services Set of services that enable users to exchange data with trading partners based on EPCs.

10. EPC Infrastructure  EPC is a number designed to uniquely identify a specific item in the supply chain.  In a simple case, tag is comprised of a silicon chip and an antenna  An EPC code is stored into an RFID tag / label and attached to an item in supply chain  Using radio identification technology, the EPC number is “communicated” to a reader.  Reader scans and sends Data to a computer running middleware

11. 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).

12. EPC Infrastructure ONS (Object Naming Service )  A querying mechanism similar to the DNS (Domain Naming system)  Matches the EPC code  The ONS server provides the IP address of a PML Server that stores information relevant to the EPC.

13. EPC Infrastructure  PML is designed to store any relevant information about a product  Location information  Physical properties  Composition information  Manufacturing and expiry dates  Etc.

14. RFID Middleware Structure Tag Data Standard / Air Interface Designed to process the streams of tag or sensor data Accommodates different reader vendors Tag Reads ALE 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 ECP IS 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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18.  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. RFID Middleware Function

19. Challenge  Security High-Value Data Generic Protocols and Facilities Back-End Databases  Scalability  Lots of Source Code