RFID Reader Management Requirements

1. RFID Reader Management Requirements Margaret Wasserman ThingMagic margaret@thingmagic.com

2. Overview • Taxonomy of Readers • Reader Requirements for: • Configuration • Monitoring • Control • Ongoing Reader Management Work

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

4. 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

5. Integrated Reader/Antenna • Single antenna with integrated reader capability

6. 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

7. Handheld Readers • Handheld systems with integrated RFID reader and antenna • Sometimes integrated intoan existing barcodescanner product

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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”

13. 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?

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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: http://www.epcglobalinc.com