Cisco tackles RFID

Cisco last week took the first step in building into its network hardware new software that will help users more easily handle RFID traffic.

Cisco announced a board that slots into its 2800 or 3800 routers, and a blade for the Catalyst 6500 switch chassis, with software from Cisco and an embedded version of ConnecTerra’s RFTagAware middleware for RFID.

These devices now can filter raw RFID traffic at the edge of the network, as well as pass it through to data center switches where it can be collected and managed, and passed on to applications. The Cisco code, with ConnecTerra’s software, lets administrators create policies on where and how RFID traffic is to be handled in the network, then distribute these policies to Cisco routers and switches.

The new product is called Cisco Application Oriented Network (AON) for RFID Solution and is priced at $16,250. It is set to ship in October. AON is Cisco’s effort to create software that will let its network gear route and manage traffic based on the content of application messages, such as purchase orders or stock trades, rather than lower-level, generic packets.

The overall goal of the new RFID board is to help corporations install and run large numbers of RFID tags and readers, and then manage these and their traffic as part of their existing corporate networks.

“With RFID, a whole bunch of network services around it will be provisioned in the [Cisco] network,” says Mohsen Moazami, vice president of retail and distribution at Cisco and the person in charge of the vendor’s RFID efforts. “Those services include security, location awareness, device management, filtering and prioritization.”

The new hardware module also lets the network devices apply QoS policies, take action on RFID events at the edge of the network and shield back-end applications from having to know details about specific RFID readers or servers.

Other elements of Cisco’s RFID push include recently created and expanded consulting services to help customers with various phases of RFID deployment; partnerships with software vendors who are supporting the embedded Cisco software; and the company’s 802.11 wireless LAN-based tagging and tracking product, the Cisco 2700 Wireless Location Appliance, from its Airespace acquisition.

The new package of consulting services includes a readiness assessment of a customer’s existing network infrastructure and an RFID pilot program.

A key partner for Cisco is ConnecTerra, which provides infrastructure software for RFID and client devices. Also announced were partnerships with Intermec and ThingMagic for active RFID tags, and PanGo Networks.