RFID Reader Management Requirements Margaret Wasserman ThingMagic

Overview Taxonomy of Readers Reader Requirements for: –Configuration –Monitoring –Control Ongoing Reader Management Work

Fixed RFID Readers “Pizza box” readers with ~2-8 antennas Typically used in supply chain applications –Dock doors and conveyor belts

Fixed Reader Systems Wide range of system capabilities –Similar to home gateway or wireless access point Processors: –Low-end 16-bit to mid range (~266MHz) 32-bit processor plus DSP or FPGA for signal processing Operating Systems: –Proprietary, embedded, WinCE or Linux Networking: –Stand-alone TCP/IP network nodes running DHCP, HTTP, Telnet (or SSH), NTP, SNMP and proprietary API and/or control protocol

Integrated Reader/Antenna Single antenna with integrated reader capability

Reader/Antenna Systems Wide range of system capabilities –Very low-end access control point to higher-end “smart antennas” Processors: –DSP only to low-end 16-bit CPU Operating Systems: –Proprietary or embedded Networking: –Low-end: no standard networking, proprietary control system perhaps based on RS-232 or USB –High-end: Stand-alone TCP/IP node, might user Power over Ethernet (PoE), DHCP, proprietary control protocol

Handheld Readers Handheld systems with integrated RFID reader and antenna Sometimes integrated into an existing barcode scanner product

Handheld Reader Systems Handheld RFID scanner built into a handheld PC Processors: –Low-end to mid-range 32-bit processor plus DSP or FPGA for signal processing Operating Systems: –Typically WinCE Networking: –Wireless TCP/IP network nodes that use DHCP and connect to servers (perhaps intermittently) using proprietary data transfer applications

Embedded Readers “Credit Card-sized” module, used to add RFID to a special-purpose device Examples: RFID printer/encoders, package sorters and POS terminals (AKA cash registers)

Embedded Reader Systems Embedded reader is hosted in a special-purpose device Processors: –No general purpose CPU -- DSP or FPGA for signal processing –Host system provides general purpose CPU Operating Systems: –None. Networking: –None. Accessed via USB, Serial interface or PCMCIA –Host processor may have networking capability

Configuration Requirements Networking configuration similar to any end- node infrastructure device –DHCP, configuration and firmware downloads Small amount of persistent RFID-specific and device-specific configuration –Power level, active antennas, possibly some protocol and search settings –Set/get administrative status

RFID Configuration Challenges Minimal system requirements –Lower-end “smart antennas” may not have much processor or memory available Needs to be configurable as a stand-alone device or as an entity within another device –Printer, cash register, handheld PC, etc. Good fit for an SNMP MIB? –Minimal agent system requirements –Subagent and Entity MIB allow configuration of an RFID “device within a device”

Monitoring Requirements Monitoring of network connectivity similar to any other infrastructure device Monitoring of RFID-specific parameters –Operational status –Antenna connection faults –RF problems/interference –Perhaps some thresholding on read counts or other parameters?

Monitoring Challenges RFID market is in early stages, so there hasn’t been much time for de facto standardization –Readers (even within a single category) have significantly different hardware/software capabilities

Control Requirements Most readers do not change roles regularly –Examples of reader roles: A reader continuously reads a fixed set of protocols A reader is set to read a fixed set of protocols, in a fixed cycle whenever the dock door is open (detected via GPIO) A reader reads a fixed set of protocols for a defined time period whenever an electric eye is triggered Challenge is not in controlling reader search parameters, it is in collecting, parsing and collating RFID data from multiple read points –A standard way to collect RFID “reads” from multiple readers would be useful

Control Requirement Questions Applications are needed to control the RFID reader, but at what level of abstraction? –Individual read cycle vs. set and forget? Where are the applications hosted? –May be hosted on workstation (reached over network), on a fixed reader, on a handheld PC or on the host processor for an embedded reader Are there any “real-time” requirements? –Regulatory requirements demand real-time (sub-millisecond) control over RF functions –Control at a higher levels may not be real-time at all

Ongoing Related Efforts Reader Configuration –De facto standard set of DHCP options with bootfile and configuration file download mechanisms emerging due to network vendor/system integrator efforts Reader Monitoring –EPC Global Reader Management Group Defining MIBs for reader monitoring and RFID-specific configuration Reader Control –EPC Global Reader Protocol Group Defining an XML/Web Services interface for reader control See: