RFID For Dummies

• Many companies have asked suppliers to begin using RFID (radio
  frequency identification) tags by 2006

• RFID allows pallets and products to be scanned at a greater
  distance and with less effort than barcode scanning, offering
  superior supply-chain management efficiencies

• This unique plain-English resource explains RFID and shows
  CIOs, warehouse managers, and supply-chain managers how to
  implement RFID tagging in products and deploy RFID scanning at a
  warehouse or distribution center

• Covers the business case for RFID, pilot programs, timelines
  and strategies for site assessments and deployments, testing
  guidelines, privacy and regulatory issues, and more

Auteur
Patrick J. Sweeney II heads ODIN Technologies, an RFID integration and software development company. He learned the technology at MIT and is considered an industry expert.

Résumé

• Many companies have asked suppliers to begin using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags by 2006
• RFID allows pallets and products to be scanned at a greater distance and with less effort than barcode scanning, offering superior supply-chain management efficiencies
• This unique plain-English resource explains RFID and shows CIOs, warehouse managers, and supply-chain managers how to implement RFID tagging in products and deploy RFID scanning at a warehouse or distribution center
• Covers the business case for RFID, pilot programs, timelines and strategies for site assessments and deployments, testing guidelines, privacy and regulatory issues, and more

Contenu

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Who This Book Is For 1

You Don't Need a Slide Rule and Pocket Protector to Use This Book 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Part I: Now That You Can Spell RFID, Here's the Rest of the Story 3

Part II: Ride the Electromagnetic Wave: The Physics of RFID 3

Part III: Fitting an RFID Application into Your World 3

Part IV: Raising the Beams for Your Network 4

Part V: How to Speak Bean Counter 4

Part VI: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Part I: Now That You Can Spell RFID, Here's the Rest of the Story 7

Chapter 1: Taking the Mystery out of RFID 9

What Is RFID? 9

The origins of RFID in inventory tracking 10

Tracking goods with EPC codes 10

Sizing Up the Benefits of RFID 11

Tracking individual items with serialized data 12

Reducing human intervention 13

Moving more goods through the supply chain 14

Capturing information in real time 14

Increasing security 15

Mandates, Womendates, Blind Dates Forcing Efficiency 16

What are the major mandates? 16

Responding to the mandates 17

Calling All Physicists! Calling All Physicists! 18

Finding a physics expert 19

The basic physics of RFID 19

Finding Success with Four Ps in a Pod 22

Planning 22

Physics 24

Pilot 26

Production 27

A Ride in the Time Machine 28

Chapter 2: Auto-ID Technologies: Why RFID Is King of the Hill 31

Planning an Auto-ID Strategy for the Times 32

Comparing the major players in Auto-ID: Bar codes, contact memory, and RFID 34

Crafting an Auto-ID strategy for your business (Or, why RFID is the wave of the future) 41

To EPC or Not to Be: Unraveling the Words, Words, Words of the Electronic Product Code 44

How EPC is different from UPC 45

Why an EPC RFID tag doesn't contain more information 47

How the EPC works 48

How the EPC prepared for the future, and who oversees that 52

Addressing Privacy Concerns 53

Chapter 3: Making Basic Decisions about Your RFID System 55

Midas Touch Points: Where RFID Impacts Your Organization 56

Outlining how RFID affects your business processes 57

Determining how RFID will affect your facility 60

Evaluating your technical needs 61

What's the Frequency, Kenneth? 64

Understanding the difference between licensed and unlicensed frequencies 65

Examining the most common frequencies in RFID 65

Frequencies, power, and countries 67

Beyond UHF: Looking toward the future 68

Speed, Accuracy, or Distance Pick Two 69

Designing for the right read distance 70

Reads tell me how fast and how many 71

Reading multiple tags at once accuracy considerations 72

Now What about the Tags and Objects? 73

Part II: Ride the Electro-magnetic Wave: The Physics of RFID 75

Chapter 4: What Makes Up an RFID Network 77

Elements of a Basic RFID System 77

Everything starts with the tag 79

Antennas send and receive radio waves 79

Readers tell the antennas what to do 80

The middleware transforms the system into a network of objects 80

Time to Make Some Waves Electromagnetic Waves 81

Frequency is a measurement 83

History may repeat itself, but virginity comes only once 84

Fields: Electrical and magnetic, near and far 84

Creating resonance between the antennas and the field 85

Chapter 5: Understanding How Technology Becomes a Working System 87

Anatomy of a Passive Tag: Understanding How It Works and Choosing the Right One 88

How do tags receive and transmit information? 88

How does a tag antenna work, and how do you choose among the different kinds? 90 <p&g...