This book explores the essentials of RFID and the EPCglobal Network from the perspective of a practitioner that needs to make business decisions concerning the adoption of the technology. The perspective is from the supply chain management standpoint with emphasis on case studies and new thinking about the subject. The EPCglobal Network and RFID technology holds great promise for transforming business through the use of low-cost, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to improve information flow and productivity.

CHAPTER 3 Infrastructure: EPC global Network (p. 29-30)

Though tags and readers are important in achieving RFID on a large scale, there are other critical system elements needed for successful implementation in practice. The fundamental assumption of the EPCglobal Network is that low cost tags applied to objects will hold just enough data for identification using a serial number (the EPC). Additional information about a tagged object resides not on the object itself, but on a computer network. With this architecture, the serial number is the key for accessing information about the object.

For RFID Technology to become viable in practice, an infrastructure must exist for processing and communicating EPC data.1 In meeting the goal of creating a common infrastructure, MIT announced Auto-ID Release 1.0 in October 2003. At the same time, MIT entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with GS1.

In turn, GS1 established a new division called EPCglobal to implement Release 1.0 and to conduct further development based on industry input. This put forth an initial set of standards that formed the basis of an infrastructure for EPC data. Later, Auto-ID Release 1.0 became the starting-point for the EPCglobal Network.

Representing a mature set of standards,2 the original infrastructure design for linking physical objects to the Internet closely resembled that of the Internet itself. Distributed processing and open standards were the defining characteristics that combined to make the EPC and RFID technology operable across business and international boundaries. In the future, knowledge of this type of infrastructure will be as common as that of microcomputers, networks, and the Internet. All in business will need to understand at least the conceptual aspects of how the technology works in practice.

The EPCglobal Network and RFID technology have potential to combine the strengths of wireless broadcast networks such as television and radio, with the power of instant two-way communication.3 This accomplishes a task of great value to commerce through the merging of information with physical objects. In essence, the EPCglobal Network creates an object-centric system based on unique identification. This type of infrastructure serves as a base for creating new forms of automation and ubiquitous computing needed for"smart objects" that will populate the supply chains of the future.

The next section explores the essential aspects of Release 1.0. This serves as an important base for understanding the current development of the EPCglobal Network.

An Overview of Release 1.0

In conjunction with advances by tag and equipment manufacturers, the objective of Release 1.0 was to establish infrastructure and set open standards for wide-scale adoption of passive RFID technology across many different industries, thus creating a web of things.4 Encompassing a comprehensive information technology infrastructure along with open standards for data transmition, Release 1.0 marked a change in approach as compared to traditional RFID systems that depended upon proprietary standards. Though effective in specific applications, traditional RFID technology stopped short of completely fulfilling the need for open communication within business, government, and medical organizations.

As is the case with most information technology, the lack of open standards for RFID tended to inhibit widespread adoption within supply chains for consumer goods and other manufactured products because organizations were wary of implementing a system that might cause internal and external compatibility challenges. Interoperability between tags and readers situated at various stages of the supply chain was a major concern. This fact, combined with significant tag and reader costs that were dependent on volume of production, has limited widespread adoption of RFID in spite of advances in sophistication.