Critical Management Issues for Implementing RFID in Supply Chain Management

The benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the supply chain are fairly compelling. It has the potential to revolutionise the efficiency, accuracy and security of the supply chain with significant impact on overall profitability. A number of companies are actively involved in testing and adopting this technology. It is estimated that the market for RFID products and services will increase significantly in the next few years. Despite this trend, there are major impediments to RFID adoption in supply chain. While RFID systems have been around for several decades, the technology for supply chain management is still emerging. We describe many of the challenges, setbacks and barriers facing RFID implementations in supply chains, discuss the critical issues for management and offer some suggestions. In the process, we take an in-depth look at cost, technology, standards, privacy and security and business process reengineering related issues surrounding RFID technology in supply chains

Investigation of interference models for RFID systems

The reader-to-reader collision in an RFID system is a challenging problem for communications technology. In order to model the interference between RFID readers, different interference models have been proposed, mainly based on two approaches: single and additive interference. The former only considers the interference from one reader within a certain range, whereas the latter takes into account the sum of all of the simultaneous interferences in order to emulate a more realistic behavior. Although the difference between the two approaches has been theoretically analyzed in previous research, their effects on the estimated performance of the reader-to-reader anti-collision protocols have not yet been investigated. In this paper, the influence of the interference model on the anti-collision protocols is studied by simulating a representative state-of-the-art protocol. The results presented in this paper highlight that the use of additive models, although more computationally intensive, is mandatory to improve the performance of anti-collision protocols

System level simulation of passive and active backscatter devices

Ambient Backscatter is a communications method for batteryless, carrier-powered radio devices which harvest the needed energy from ambient sources and send their information by backscattering the ambient radio signals. An ambient backscatter device sends data bit by bit by either backscattering or not backscattering the received carrier wave. This work studies the operation of an ambient backscatter communication system consisting of a transmitter, a number of ambient backscatter devices and a receiver by simulating it in MATLAB. This thesis aims to answer the research questions: when it is better to use either passive or active ambient backscatter devices and what factors primarily affect the maximum data rate, communication range and susceptibility to interference of the devices. A definite answer to the research questions could not be given, but the thesis results show that active aBS- devices have potential of reaching the same performance figures as passive ones in terms of achievable range

Simulation on probabilistic anti collision protocols of RFID using variable delay

In RFID System, it is important to avoid tag collision for identifying tag faster. In this paper, we proposed concept of variable delay for tag estimation & identification. The scheme is based on the Multi-level dynamic framed ALOHA protocol. Simulation results indicate that the time delay is added to each tag for avoiding collision. The main advantage of this is the delay is in microseconds which will not create problem of more time consumption

Reliable Communication in Wireless Networks

Wireless communication systems are increasingly being used in industries and infrastructures since they offer significant advantages such as cost effectiveness and scalability with respect to wired communication system. However, the broadcast feature and the unreliable links in the wireless communication system may cause more communication collisions and redundant transmissions. Consequently, guaranteeing reliable and efficient transmission in wireless communication systems has become a big challenging issue. In particular, analysis and evaluation of reliable transmission protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and radio frequency identification system (RFID) are strongly required. This thesis proposes to model, analyze and evaluate self-configuration algorithms in wireless communication systems. The objective is to propose innovative solutions for communication protocols in WSNs and RFID systems, aiming at optimizing the performance of the algorithms in terms of throughput, reliability and power consumption. The first activity focuses on communication protocols in WSNs, which have been investigated, evaluated and optimized, in order to ensure fast and reliable data transmission between sensor nodes. The second research topic addresses the interference problem in RFID systems. The target is to evaluate and develop precise models for accurately describing the interference among readers. Based on these models, new solutions for reducing collision in RFID systems have been investigated

Improved RFID Anti-collision Protocol for EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2

One of the important feature in the RFID technology is its functionality without needs to line of sight which makes it more feasible than other similar technologies. The problem occurs when more than one tag reply to the reader at the same time and collide together. To resolve the mentioned issue an anti-collision algorithm has to be used. The anti-collision algorithms are mostly efficient if the number of tags are small and has not been designed for large number of tags. In some applications that the number of tags may be hundreds of tags the existing mechanism may reduce the performance of the system due to delayed algorithms. In this paper an improved anti-collision protocol has been proposed. A modified two-parameter step size method for Q algorithm is also used to increase the efficiency of reading. The step sizes are adjusted depending on collisions in previous round. The number of slots in each round is also adjusted to prevent collisions in next rounds. The performance of proposed protocol has been evaluated using RFID module that implements EPCglobal C1G2 and designed especially for IoT environment and find the proposed protocol effective. Keywords: RFID, Anti-collision, EPCglobal, Q algorithm, DFSA

Radio Frequency Compatibility of an RFID Tag on Glideslope Navigation Receivers

A process is demonstrated to show compatibility between a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and an aircraft glideslope (GS) radio receiver. The particular tag chosen was previously shown to have significant peak spurious emission levels that far exceeded the emission limits in the GS aeronautical band. The spurious emissions are emulated in the study by capturing the RFID fundamental transmission and playing back the signal in the GS band. The signal capturing and playback are achieved with a vector signal generator and a spectrum analyzer that can output the in-phase and quadrature components (IQ). The simulated interference signal is combined with a desired GS signal before being injected into a GS receiver s antenna port for interference threshold determination. Minimum desired propagation loss values to avoid interference are then computed and compared against actual propagation losses for several aircraft

RFID system evaluation against radiated transient noise

In this paper a radiofrequency identification system according to standard ISO/IEC 14443 type-B is evaluated in presence of transient noise. This real time communication system working at 13.56 MHz is interfered in a controlled environment by different transient bursts varying their level, frequency and duration. The transient burst interference is applied in an AC main wire close to the system and the effect over the digital communication system is evaluated using two different methods. The first one is observing directly an RFID equipment in presence of transient signals, and the second one is capturing the interference in time domain an evaluating its effect by means of simulation. The RFID system is affected by these transient noises causing different types of errors. It is shown that it is essential to measure and evaluate in time domain the transient phenomena to ensure that the RFID system do not have susceptibility problems.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version