In this session, learn the basic terminology of RFID technology – various hardware, software and how these parts form a system and operate together. We will cover:

• Birds eye view of RFID system
• Benefits of RFID
• Hardware: tags, readers, antennas and networks
• Software: drivers, middleware, enterprise applications

Tags characteristics and standards are very important for RFID's widespread adoption but RFID readers should be evaluated with equal if not greater care. Readers are the engines that make RFID work. They interrogate tags, sift through data and package it up for storage or use by other systems. Whereas tags typically pass through the system quickly, the readers must continue to work within the system for a long time. Topics for this session include:

• Tag Features
• Reader and reader antenna features
• Tag choice and affixing method (issues with materials like metals, liquids)
• Reader/Tag interaction - acceptable reading distances
• Antenna design and spacing - where are the antennas in relation to the package
• Rate of movement and quantity of tags
• Multi-protocol readers
• EPC Gen II standards for UHF tags

Why do we need standards?
Who creates them and how?
Standards creating organizations and their structure

• EPCglobal, EAN.UCC, ISO, DoD
• Process of creating standards
• How to participate in standards creation
• How to obtain standards documents

Current status of RFID standards
EPCglobal proposed standards
ISO standards
Various Mandates like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, DoD

RFID demonstration for read range test and orientation demonstration using passive and semi-active/active tags.

An introduction to the EPCglobal organization, EPC Network, its purpose, core components, and the capabilities it will deliver to supply chain management. This session will cover:

• EPCglobal organization and its structure
• Current and near future standards
• EPCglobal and other tag numbering systems
• EPC Network architecture
  • Electronic Product Code(EPC)
  • ID System
  • EPC Middleware
  • Discovery Services
  • EPC Information Services (EPC IS)

RFID produces a flood of real-time data – much of it extraneous – which means software must be able to sift through the information for exceptions. Any company evaluating RFID technology must re-evaluate existing software systems to see if they are compatible with the new technology. Moreover, in most cases, a middleware solution is required to bridge the legacy IT system with RFID hardware. This session discusses the role of RFID middleware and its selection and deployment in a RFID solution. We will cover:

• Currently available middleware platforms
• Scalability

Standards under development to share and protect the data across enterprises, customers, and suppliers. [ EPC Information Service, an EPC global working group that focuses on middleware integration and application standards, is expected this summer to debut this first set of standards]

RFID planning should start with infrastructure, process and systems analysis. Understanding your existing infrastructure, processes and systems and how they will be impacted by RFID will help you establish project requirements that will determine your tag and reader selection criteria. You will understand, how to map your existing processes and identify RFID 'touch points'

With many companies ready with their first RFID roadmap learn how to evaluate different suppliers of RFID tags and readers. The choices you make might not have a major effect on your assessment study, but they could have a profound impact on the long-term success of your RFID project and the return on investment you get from it. In this session we will share with you checklist of important questions you should ask tag and reader suppliers before investing in an RFID system.

Evaluating an RFID deployment based solely on ROI is limiting, at best, and ignores the greater contribution to the organization’s mission. This session will help you to prioritize the scenarios in preparation for selecting the most promising for the final business cases. RFID scenarios may differ in their benefits (e.g., visibility, control, customer service). Each opportunity should be linked to a business driver (e.g., price, cost, customer satisfaction, product performance) that is measurable and contributes to the organization’s mission (e.g., low-cost leader, innovator, customer intimacy). ROI is just one consideration in the go/no-go decision.

The aim of this session is first to grasp supply chain management issues in order to understand what need to be improved in the different industries and business environments. Secondly, why information systems, data acquisition techniques and RFID are vital instruments to streamline the supply chain. Finally, several frameworks will be proposed about the impact that radio frequency identification on different supply chain environments globally can have.

This session identifies integration issues around RFID and enterprise systems, and provides an analytical framework based on different levels of integration. This framework is used to enumerate the technical architecture implications and software solutions for RFID and enterprise IT integration. We will cover various technologies, techniques and best practices used within typical RFID integration projects and new solutions using RFID that have been successfully implemented.

Just Wal-Mart alone will generate close to 8 million terabytes of data per day if all items in all its U.S. retail stores were tagged. The data gathered by RFID tags is only a portion of the information that will be generated by RFID system, which involves the broader use of sensors. These can include cameras, accelerometers and time and temperature sensors that deliver data about products and corporate assets. The challenge will be identifying what needs to be stored and analyzed and what data can be safely discarded.

Understand how the performance of a RFID system is evaluated. We will cover the following topics in this session: Tags' Memory Capacity, Data Transfer Speed, Operating Range, Multiple-Tags-in-Field Capability, Operating Temperatures, RF Carrier Frequency of the Tag-to-Antenna Link, RFID System Connectivity.

This session will end with RFID demonstration in simulated working environments

• Environments like metal, liquid
• Moving Environments
• Stationary Environments
• Simulated Temperature environments
• Simulated Handling Environments
• Orientation demonstrations
• Read Distance Tests
• Write (if applicable) Distance Test Accuracy Reports