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About
the author:
Christian
Floerkemeier holds a Ba and MEng degree from Cambridge
University in the UK and is currently a research assistant
in the group of Prof. Friedemann Mattern at the Institute
for Pervasive Computing at ETH Zurich. As part of
the industry sponsored research program M-Lab, he
was involved in the design and implementation of various
RFID based applications. He is also member of the
research staff at the Auto-ID Lab in Switzerland.
As author of the Auto-ID Center mark-up language PML
Core, he has been involved in the standardization
effort at the Auto-ID Center for the past two years.
Theme
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is
rapidly evolving as a result of increased awareness
of its potential in the business community, adoption
by developers to bridge the gap between the physical
and virtual world and the development of new manufacturing
techniques that might allow for low-cost RFID tags.
RFID systems have been successfully used in specialized
application domains such as cattle herding, library
checkout, car immobilizers and ski ticketing. More
recently, the technology has received increased attention
as a technology that can provide better transparency
and visibility in the supply chain.
Objectives
and Outline
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide an overview
of RFID systems and their various principles of operation,
so that the participants get a better understanding
of the challenges and
opportunities involved.
We
pursue the objective to explain the operating principles
of various available, passive RFID systems across
the frequency range from low frequency (LF) to ultrahigh
frequencies (UHF). In particular, we will show how
the operating principles of RFID systems affect performance
indicators such as read range and the
number of tags that can be detected per unit time.
This discussion includes RFID system components, reader-transponder
coupling and communication and anti-collision algorithms.
We will also outline
current standardization efforts in the RFID domain.
In particular, we will focus on ISO standards and
the Auto-ID Center/EPCglobal standards.
Recent
proposals by the research community address the privacy
concerns that arise from a large scale deployment
of RFID systems. It is our goal to show how, for example,
blocker tags or hash-based access control works and
to discuss their merits. Finally, future trends in
RFID technology and novel application
domains are outlined. This includes recent developments
at the Auto-ID Center/EPCglobal and the potential
availability of low-cost RFID transponders.
Summary
The
goal of this tutorial is to provide an overview of
the rapidly evolving field of RFID technology. Along
with the operating principles of various available
systems, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges
that arise from their use. Recently proposed approaches
to address the privacy concerns associated
with large scale deployment of RFID systems are also
presented.
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Christian
Floerkemeier
Martin
Maguire