The Elements Of Rfid Technology

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Chapter 2

Introduction

As earlier mentioned, the Radio Frequency identification (RFID) technology was first introduced during the Second World War. (Garfinkel, Juels, & Pappu, 2005) state that as the war progressed it became apparent that the war would only be won through brighter and smarter warfare and introduced night time raids. Hence, there was need to distinguish friend from during such raids. For this reason, the Early Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system was developed. The IFF was a system that sent a coded radio message that would be decoded by the Allies informing the ground troops that the incoming plane was a friend and in the process, the radio identification technology was born.

After the Second World War, An engineer Harry Stockam published a report arguing that it was possible to power a mobile transmitter by directing radio waves towards the transmitters. In the paper published "Communication by Means of Reflected Power" Stockam says that a transmitter can be on standby and is only power by directing radio waves at the receiver (Roberti, 2011).

In the 1970s more progress was registered. An inductive coupled transmitter-responder arrangement was coined by two scientists, Kriofsky and Kaplan (Garfinkel & Holtzman, 2005). A separate identification device that used radio wave was patented by Beigel in 1979. Since the 1970s, considerable progress has been reported in RFID technology and this has resulted in extremely advanced versions of the technology.

Today, the tags used and the chips embedded in the tags are even smaller and the decoding units even more advanced. In order to understand the different elements of RFID, it important to review each section separately.

Elements of RFID technology

RFID is made up of four parts, that is:

• RFID tag

• RFID reader,

• Antenna and radio Characteristics

• Computer network or database

The RFID Tags

The Tag is a primary element in the RFID technology. This tag is made of two elements, that is, an antenna and a small silicon chip. The chip contains of a control logic that allows programming, some memory capabilities, a radio receiver and modulator that will send back a signal. The tag also contains a power unit that will be used to turn up the chip and the antenna. There are two ways of achieving a powering unit for the tag. One of these ways is to have the power system completely powered by the incoming RFID signal and therefore the tag is always off until a signal is directed at the tag. Those tags are referred to as passive tags. The second way is that the tag can be powered is by having internal battery system that will have the tag powered throughout. This second kinds of tags are referred to as Active Tags (Roberti, 2011).

Active tags have more advantages than passive tags such as it is readable from a much longer distance and is also reliable. Garfinkel & Holtzman, (2005) states that the active tags are readable up to a distance of 100 feet and are in some tags the distance could increase considerably. The tags are reliable since they do not need RFID signal in order to be powered. However, active tags are considerably expensive and bulky as compared to passive tags.

On the contrary, passive tags are much cheaper to manufacture and smaller in size. This is because the chips do not have inbuilt batteries. Either, passive tags have been found to have longer shelf life. Unlike the active tags which will have the battery worn out in a few years, passive tags may remain readable even after decades of storage without use.

Just like barcode, RFID technology may be used to identify goods and commodities. However, such identification needs to follow some predefined standards. In RFID, the tags follow standards as developed by Electronic Product Code (EPC) Global. EPC Global defines the different classes of tags and which extent may be used.

Readers

The RFID reader is the second constituent element of RFID technology. The Reader is a device that sends a radio frequency signal to the tag and receives the response from the tag. This energy is meant to activate the tag, thus when such energy is sent, the tag is activated and responds by sending the information contained in the silicon chip. The radio pulse generated by the reader performs one of more tasks depending on the tag. While in some tags the Radio pulse simply activates the silicon in order to be read, in other tags the radio pulse could have commands such as passwords or read-write commands.

Antenna and Radio

RFID technology relies on a radio to emit the required RF pulse and an antenna to receive the RF pulse. The energy in the radio pulse relies on the frequency of the oscillation and the power of the signal. The frequency spectrums used by most RFID technology system are quite low in term of power, commonly referred to as unlicensed bands. The commonly applied spectrums for most businesses are in the range 125–134.2 KHz. However, with recent advance in RFID technology, higher frequency radio waves have been allowed.

Network

The main concept of the RFID technology is to identify commodities, baggage and humans for several purposes. For this basic reason, RFID technology employees a database and a network that hold the identification figures. Ideally, the identification figures are a group of long numbers unique to the particular product.

The computer or network system does whatever application has been coded along with the RFID tag. An example is the where the RFID tags are used to control the movement of employees or customers within a particular location. In this case, once the reader has forwarded the data to the computers, the computer compares the RFID tag numbers and the access control lists in its databases. The presence or absences of the RFID number in the list will help in deciding in whether to grant access or not. A simpler effecter is such technology is using a solenoid that is energized to unlock the door.

Also, an important use of the computer network is where the tags numbers are registered by the EPC. Once the serial number of the tag has been retrieved, the serial number is sent to a large network referred to as the Object Name Service (ONS). The ONS’s main role is to provide a wide and extensive database of products and goods that are registered with the EPC. The network is made up of main servers managed by the EPC and other distributed network managed by the companies with EPC tags registrations. Thus, product can be traced back to the manufacturing company while the company can trace its product over different locations worldwide (Roberti, 2011).

Applications

There are several uses of RFID technology these days and may include the following:

 Automobile immobilizers: RFID technology can be used as a security tool in automobiles where lack of the right RFID tag immobilizes the steering column.

 Animal tracking: Scientists rely on RFID technology to track endangered animal species in order to keep them safe

 Payment systems: RFID implants are used to store credit card accounts numbers and other financial information replacing credit card technology.

 Toll stations payment systems: the technology is also being used to collections from high traffic metropolitan areas.

 Inventory management: RFID technology has largely being employed in tracking inventory and particular products.

Therefore, RFID technology has several applications that can be useful at DBX and at Emirates Airlines. The several applications that RFID can be used at the two important sections include:

• Identifying and tracking of passenger luggage: this has been one of the leading reasons for implementing RFID technology it the hub.

• The Airport may rely on the technology to identify and grant access to staff.

• Passengers may also have temporary tags at the airport in order to restrict their movements.