Introduction to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Matthias Lampe
Institute for Pervasive Computing, ETH Zurich
[email protected]

Overview

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is rapidly evolving as a result of increased awareness of its potential in the business and also research community. RFID systems have been successfully used in specialized application domains such as animal tracking or car immobilizers and are currently propagated as a technology that can provide better transparency and visibility in the supply chain.

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 existing frequency range and we will show how the operating principles of RFID systems affect performance indicators such as the read range. We will also outline current standardization efforts in the RFID domain and briefly discuss privacy issues associated with RFID. Participant who are interested in developing their own RFID applications are given an overview of the open source RFID middleware Accada.

Program

1. RFID applications in the business and research community
2. Technology overview
   Components of an RFID system
   Differentiation features and selection criteria of RFID systems: Operating frequency, power supply, reader-transponder coupling and communication, sensor integration, anti-collision algorithms, read range, data transfer and detection rates, memory structure and data access, costs
   Chances and challenges
3. RFID Standards and EPC Network
   ISO and Auto-ID Center/EPCglobal standards
   Air-interface, tag data and reader-host standards
4. Open Source RFID middleware Accada
5. Privacy Issues associated with RFID

Target Audience

• Researchers who are interested to apply RFID as an automatic identification, sensing or location technology in their research setting.
• Developers or project managers who are planning/implementing a project that involves RFID on a hardware and software level including standardization issues.
• Everyone who is interested to learn about the basic technical principles and the chances, limitations and challenges of RFID.

Speaker

Matthias Lampe holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon 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. Matthias' main research interests are concepts and design issues for RFID middleware and application level system support for RFID applications.