RFID For Dummies

Patrick J. Sweeney II heads ODIN Technologies, an RFID integration and software development company. He learned the technology at MIT and is considered an industry expert.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Who This Book Is For 1

You Don’t Need a Slide Rule and Pocket Protector to Use This Book 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Part I: Now That You Can Spell RFID, Here’s the Rest of the Story 3

Part II: Ride the Electromagnetic Wave: The Physics of RFID 3

Part III: Fitting an RFID Application into Your World 3

Part IV: Raising the Beams for Your Network 4

Part V: How to Speak Bean Counter 4

Part VI: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Part I: Now That You Can Spell RFID, Here’s the Rest of the Story 7

Chapter 1: Taking the Mystery out of RFID 9

What Is RFID? 9

The origins of RFID in inventory tracking 10

Tracking goods with EPC codes 10

Sizing Up the Benefits of RFID 11

Tracking individual items with serialized data 12

Reducing human intervention 13

Moving more goods through the supply chain 14

Capturing information in real time 14

Increasing security 15

Mandates, Womendates, Blind Dates — Forcing Efficiency 16

What are the major mandates? 16

Responding to the mandates 17

Calling All Physicists! Calling All Physicists! 18

Finding a physics expert 19

The basic physics of RFID 19

Finding Success with Four Ps in a Pod 22

Planning 22

Physics 24

Pilot 26

Production 27

A Ride in the Time Machine 28

Chapter 2: Auto-ID Technologies: Why RFID Is King of the Hill 31

Planning an Auto-ID Strategy for the Times 32

Comparing the major players in Auto-ID: Bar codes, contact memory, and RFID 34

Crafting an Auto-ID strategy for your business (Or, why RFID is the wave of the future) 41

To EPC or Not to Be: Unraveling the Words, Words, Words of the Electronic Product Code 44

How EPC is different from UPC 45

Why an EPC RFID tag doesn’t contain more information 47

How the EPC works 48

How the EPC prepared for the future, and who oversees that 52

Addressing Privacy Concerns 53

Chapter 3: Making Basic Decisions about Your RFID System 55

Midas Touch Points: Where RFID Impacts Your Organization 56

Outlining how RFID affects your business processes 57

Determining how RFID will affect your facility 60

Evaluating your technical needs 61

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? 64

Understanding the difference between licensed and unlicensed frequencies 65

Examining the most common frequencies in RFID 65

Frequencies, power, and countries 67

Beyond UHF: Looking toward the future 68

Speed, Accuracy, or Distance — Pick Two 69

Designing for the right read distance 70

Reads — tell me how fast and how many 71

Reading multiple tags at once — accuracy considerations 72

Now What about the Tags and Objects? 73

Part II: Ride the Electro-magnetic Wave: The Physics of RFID 75

Chapter 4: What Makes Up an RFID Network 77

Elements of a Basic RFID System 77

Everything starts with the tag 79

Antennas send and receive radio waves 79

Readers tell the antennas what to do 80

The middleware transforms the system into a network of objects 80

Time to Make Some Waves — Electromagnetic Waves 81

Frequency is a measurement 83

History may repeat itself, but virginity comes only once 84

Fields: Electrical and magnetic, near and far 84

Creating resonance between the antennas and the field 85

Chapter 5: Understanding How Technology Becomes a Working System 87

Anatomy of a Passive Tag: Understanding How It Works and Choosing the Right One 88

How do tags receive and transmit information? 88

How does a tag antenna work, and how do you choose among the different kinds? 90

How does the integrated circuit affect performance? 92

Some tag examples for the geek in you 94

Tracking the Tags with a Reader 95

Holler back, young ’un — Transmitting and receiving signals 95

The DSP chip: Examining the brain of a reader 96

Ring around the dipole and other bad antenna stories 98

Air in Her Face — Blowing Sweet Nothings 100

Chapter 6: Seeing Different RFID Systems at Work 103

Setting Up RFID Interrogation Zones 103

Coming and going — Reading at a dock door 104

Your gateway to good reads — Other portals 106

Keep on rollin’ — Setting up RFID at a conveyor 108

That’s a wrap — Interrogating at a shrink-wrap station 109

One at a time — Reading objects on a shelf 110

From Ski Resorts to Airlines: Applying RFID in the Real World 112

Ski resorts 112

Law enforcement 113

Pharmaceuticals 113

Additional business applications 114

Part III: Fitting an RFID Application into Your World 117

Chapter 7: Seeing the Invisible: The Site Assessment 119

Planning for Your Site Assessment 120

Getting the right test equipment 122

Setting up for RF testing 124

Measuring for AEN during Normal Operations (And Beyond) 126

Testing key points around the warehouse 127

I’ve been a wild rover for many’s a year 127

I don’t hear anything; time to make my own noise 129

Solving interference problems 130

Testing to Plan Your RFID Installation 130

Gathering your equipment 131

Comparing the perfect signal to the actual signal 132

Setting up the equipment 133

Conducting the test 134

Putting your results to use 136

Chapter 8: Testing One, Two, Three: Developing Your Own Lab 139

To Lab or Not to Lab 140

Beyond a Swanky White Lab Coat: The Tools You Need for Successful Testing 141

Setting Up Your Lab 142

X-ray marks the spot: Find the perfect location 143

Physics eye for the lab guy: Design the physical layout 145

Set up the test equipment 148

Build specific test equipment 151

Develop and implement standardized test procedures 153

Chapter 9: Tag, You’re It: Testing for Best Tag Design and Placement 159

Ready, Set, Test! 160

Looking at the Material Composition of the Items You’re Tagging 162

Examining RF transparent, reflecting, and absorbing materials 163

Using the RF friendliness pyramid to understand the optimal spot for testing 164

Choosing a Tag to Test 166

Testing Tags in an Applications Test Facility 168

Setting up the testing environment 170

Carrying out the test 170

Frequency Response Characterization: Testing Tags with Physics 171

Encoding and Applying Tags 174

Tag and ship 174

Inline production application 176

The Secrets of Read Success 177

Avoiding cross talk 177

Ensuring high-speed reads 178

Executing full pallet reads 178

Chapter 10: Hooked on Phonics: Reader Testing, Selection, and Installation 181

Choosing a Hand-held, Mobile, or Fixed-location Reader 182

Reading between the Lines: Critical Buying Criteria 183

Consider all the costs involved 184

Test reader performance 186

Assess connectivity 192

Evaluate how well the reader can be fine-tuned 196

Installing a Reader and Antennas 201

Mount the reader 202

Mount and connect the antennas 203

Power up the reader 203

Test the interrogation zone for RF path loss 204

Chapter 11: Middle Where? It’s Not Just about the Readers 205

Filter, Smooth, Route: Understanding What You Need Middleware to Do 206

Exploring Middleware Vendors and Their Offerings 208

Piecing Together a Middleware Architecture 210

No more tiers: Grasping the many levels of a middleware architecture 211

Taking stock of existing investments and skills 213

Early bird or late bloomer? Prioritizing your middleware needs 215

Getting the Most from Your RFID Middleware 216

Part IV: Raising the Beams for Your Network 219

Chapter 12: From Pilot to Admiral: Deploying RFID Successfully 221

Creating a Pilot Project Plan 222

Start with your major tasks and timeline 223

Deliverable tracker 224

There’s always an issue with you: Tracking and resolving problems 225

There is no I in team (but there is an M and an E) 226

Factors for a Successful Pilot Test 227

Clearly defined scope 227

Experienced project manager 228

Key executive support 228

User involvement 228

Specific measurements and metrics 229

Risk mitigation 229

Phased approach 229

Moving from Pilot to Production 231

Getting the most of your pilot data: The project debrief 231

Tips for a successful production system 232

Chapter 13: Getting Set to Administer and Maintain Your System 233

Configuring and Setting Up Tag Readers 234

Before you begin 234

Stepping through a reader setup 235

Creating configuration classes 236

Getting the Digits 238

A simple hierarchy for assigning numbers 238

Allocating unique numbers across many lines and locations 239

Applying Tags to Objects 240

Applying tags without breaking them 240

North by northwest as the corrugation travels: Orienting tags on objects 241

Sending Objects through Your Business 242

Lining up tags and readers 242

Just like the neonatal ward: Handle with care 243

School’s in Session — Training Your Staff 244

Starting readers manually 244

Identifying and responding to missed reads 245

Reinforcing processes versus changing them 246

Explaining how RFID affects employees 247

Chapter 14: Ping-pong, the Tags Are Gone: How to Monitor Your RFID Network 249

Why Monitor an RFID Station? 250

Setting up Two Types of Monitoring 251

Checking That a Reader Is Active 251

Choosing the right method 252

A simple human interface: Enabling operators to monitor the system 252

Measuring and Interpreting System Behavior 255

Building a statistical monitoring approach 255

Breaking data into time intervals 257

Measure 1: The average tag traffic volume (ATTV) 259

Measure 2: Read errors to total reads (RETR) 261

Measure 3: Read error change rates (RECR) 262

Measure 4: Actual versus predicted traffic rate (APTR) 262

Measure 5: Mean time between failure (MTBF) 263

Monitoring as you expand your RFID network 265

Setting up a monitoring system 265

Part V: How to Speak Bean Counter 269

Chapter 15: Making the Business Case 271

Finding the First-Round Draft Picks for Your RFID Team 271

A Game Plan Is More Than Xs and Os — Use a Proven Methodology 274

Step 1 Refine the process and conduct team training 275

Step 2 Determine scope and assumptions 276

Step 3 Determine drivers, strategies, and enablers 277

Step 4 Identify and assess business processes and interfaces 279

Step 5 Identify complementary or competing business initiatives 280

Step 6 Identify strategic and economic benefits 281

Step 7 Develop investment requirements 284

Step 8 Develop an implementation road map 285

Step 9 Communicate the business case 286

Chapter 16: Fitting RFID into Strategic Plans 289

Just in Time to Justify: Overcoming Skepticism with Strategic Thinking 290

Calculating ROI — A Tactical Approach to RFID 291

Cha-ching! Finding ways to save with RFID 292

Tallying up the estimated costs 300

Putting together a costs/benefits analysis 303

ROI as a tool for strategic expansion 303

Tag and You’re It: RFID as a Competitive Strategy 304

Chapter 17: What to Look for When Considering Outsourcing 307

Why Outsource Your RFID Network? 308

Identifying and Avoiding the Risks 308

Is Outsourcing Right for You? 309

Do your goals and timeline indicate a clear need to outsource? 310

Do you need to run or own the system? 312

Analyzing your resources 314

Money, money, money: Comparing outsourcing and internal costs 316

Performance anxiety: Can you build a network that works? 317

Finding the Perfect Match 318

Figuring out the RFP process 318

Spelling out your needs in an RFP 320

Selecting potential outsourcing partners 326

Evaluating responses to your RFP 327

Sealing the Deal with an SLA 327

Drafting the initial SLA 328

Negotiating an SLA with a vendor 331

Part VI: The Part of Tens 333

Chapter 18: Ten (Or So) Equipment Vendors 335

Alien Technology 335

ACCU-SORT 336

Applied Wireless Identifications (AWID) 336

FOX IV Technologies 337

Impinj 337

Intermec Technologies 338

MARKEM 339

Symbol Technologies, Inc (Formerly Matrics) 339

ODIN technologies 340

OMRON electronics 340

SAMSys Technologies 341

Texas Instruments (TI) 341

ThingMagic 342

Chapter 19: Ten Web Sites for Information on RFID 343

RFID Journal Online 344

EPCglobal 344

IDTechEx 345

RFID Solutions Online 345

RFID Exchange 345

RFID Update 346

Auto-ID Labs 346

Auto-ID Lab @ Adelaide 346

The RFID Gazette 347

UCLA’s RFID@WINMEC site 347

Slashdot 347

Chapter 20: Ten Tips from the Experts 349

Chris Fennig, ODIN technologies 349

Joe White, Symbol Technologies (Formerly Matrics, Inc.) 350

Duncan McCollum, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) 351

Dr Daniel Engels, MIT Auto-ID Labs 352

Dr Patrick King, Michelin Tire Corporation 353

Steve Kowalke, ACCU-SORT Systems 353

Team Tag-IT, Texas Instruments 354

Kevin MacDonald, Lead RFID Architect, Sun Microsystems 354

Mark Nelson, Savi Technology 355

Chapter 21: Ten (Or So) RFID Standards and Protocols 357

EAN.UCC 357

EPCglobal 358

UCCnet 358

ISO/IEC JT1/SC17 359

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC31/WG4 360

AIAG 361

Container Shipments 361

Container Security Initiative (CSI) 361

Smart and Secure Tradelanes 362

Appendix: Glossary of Electrical, Magnetic, and Other Scientific Terms 363

Index 373