Scheme could drive RFID number-mgmt. standard

Last week, EPCglobal recommended a way out of the tag-numbering management quandary of the “Gen 2” specification for the ultra-high-frequency Electronic Product Code air-interface protocol. EPCglobal is an organization working to commercialize EPC technology, which makes use of radio-frequency identification tags and readers for supply-chain applications.

One of the outstanding issues with the spec has been wording that precluded an RFID reader from distinguishing the EPC codes, reflected from RFID tags, from numbering plans in different industries and used for other applications.

EPCglobal’s recommended approach adds a bit (a one or a zero) to the Numbering System Identifier field in a tag to identify the following eight bits as an EPC header or another type of code for another application. EPCglobal calls those eight bits an “EPC header,” while the International Standards Organization (ISO) calls them an “Application Family Identifier,” or AFI.

The solution would indicate to the reader whether to read the code as an EPC code or an AFI code. This would preserve the full combination of eight bits (256 values) for use by EPCglobal and still leave another 256 values available for AFIs (other applications), while allowing for interoperable, standard air interfaces across industries.

Standards are important so that one company’s RFID readers can read another’s tags, even if the RFID products were purchased from different vendors. This way, goods can be tracked outside of a closed system, among multiple companies.

EPCglobal last month ratified the Gen 2 spec without the AFI issue resolved, indicating it would amend the specification later. The organization is expected to present Gen 2 to ISO this week, where the standards process takes about a year.