RFID: Radio Frequency Identification / Edition 1

by Steven Shepard

Overview

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TAG THE HOTTEST GROWTH IN WIRELESS

With a predicted $10-billion market over the next decade, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a booming new wireless technology with an eager new audience—retailers. From global giant Wal-Mart down, RFID is being adapted to track inventories via microchip-tagged products. Popular technology writer Steven Shepard's RFID gives you an inside look at the entire arena, from the technology's staggering capabilities and potential, through insightful coverage of issues from vendors, implementation, and monitoring, to possible technical conflicts, market forecasts, and security.

A must-read for both technical types and retailers, this book's need-to-know contents include:
Defining RFID • Underlying Technologies • Technological Competitors • Future RFID Applications • RFID/3G/Bluetooth Coexistence • Implementation • Potential Roadblocks • RFID Security • RFID Chips, Readers, and Applications Sets • Short- and Long-Term Forecasts

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071442992
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	08/16/2004
Series:	McGraw-Hill Networking Professional Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Steven Shepard is a professional writer and educator who specializes in international telecommunications. Formerly with Hill Associates, now president of Shepard Communications Group, he is the author of a number of well-received technical books including Telecom Crash Course, Telecom Convergence, SONET/SDH Demystified, and Optical Networking Crash Course. He lives and works in Williston, Vermont.

Table of Contents

PART ONE. BUSINESS ENABLERS

Supply Chains: A Brief Overview

The ServicePlus Story

The History of Barcodes
The 1790 Census
From Census . . . to Groceries
Tracking the Railroads
Back to Groceries

Barcodes . . . Up Close and Personal
Encoding Details
Digit Encoding in UPC A
UPC Version E
The Application Identifier
Beyond Groceries

Conclusion
RFID History
Pre-RFID: The Arrival of Radar
First Deployments: Chain Home Radar
Post-Radar Development Efforts
The First RFID Tag: Mario Cardullo
Later Developments

In Summary
PART TWO. RFID IN DETAIL

Typical RFID System Components

Transponders
Passive vs. Active Transponders

Operating Frequencies
Frequency Attributes

Form Factors

Smart Cards

Close-Coupling Smart Cards

A Brief Aside: Inductive vs. Capacitive Coupling

Proximity-Coupling Smart Cards
Part 1: Physical Device Parameters
Part 2: RF Characteristics
Part 3: Initialization and Collision Control
Manchester Encoding
Transponder Selection
Collision Management in Action
The REQB Frame
The ATQB Frame

Slotted Aloha: How It Works
The Air Interface: Data Communications Protocols
Initiating Data Transmission
Application Protocol Support

Layer by Layer
Layer Seven: The Application Layer
Layer Six: The Presentation Layer
Layer Five: The Session Layer
Layer Four: The Transport Layer
Layer Three: The Network Layer
Layer Two: The Data Link Layer
Layer One: The Physical Layer
OSI Summary 107

The OSI Model and the RFID Interface

Vicinity-Coupling Smart Cards
ISO 15693 Part One: Physical Device Characteristics
ISO 15693 Part Two: RF Power, Data Transfer, and FrameStructures
Data Transfer: Downstream, Reader to Card
Data Transfer: Upstream, Card to Reader
A Brief Aside: RFID Readers
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
The ERP Process

Summary

RFID Security Considerations
Key Security Considerations
Privacy Concerns

Editorial Reviews

I hate to say this, because it sounds so hokey in a book review, but this is one book I couldn't put down. Well obviously I could put it down, and I did. But I didn't until after I had read the first 54 pages, Part I of the book.

Part I of this book talks about some applications of RFID that is stretching the limits of the technology as it exists today. He gives a series of examples of how RFID might be used in the future, along with a history of machine identification in the past. Perhaps my interest comes from the years I worked in that area. But that was some time ago, and RFID was just beginning. Now I see the applications he describes and immediately I think of several others. This kind of overview of where we are trying to go is rare in a technical book, and greatly appreciated.

Part II of the book is a description of the current state of the art in RFID. Here is a detailed description of who makes what that you can use to implement what was thought about in Part I.

He finally concludes with a short what-if story about a suspect container on a ship headed to an American port. This is straight out of not the headlines, but the comments made by John Kerry during the debates. This is a technology that is coming, that is needed.

Books-On-Line

This manuscript by Steven Shepard (a Vermont writer with deep expertise in international telecommunications) marks the first technology text to explore radio frequency identification from both the consumer’s and supplier’s perspectives.

Basically, RFID is the foundation of the wireless communications industry and it stands at the forefront of a market that is expected to boom in the next decade. Shepard’s text covers the topic in broad terms and he escorts the reader through the subject with amazing deftness - giving us an over-view of the business side of RFID and then segueing into its pertinent technical aspects: explaining each of the components of radio frequency identification and then noting how these labyrinths interlock to create a multi-layered system.

Throughout the course of his treatise, Shepard is careful to thoughtfully address security issues that could develop as a result of using high-grade radio frequency systems - especially important at a time when threats of terrorism dominate. Mr. Shepard should be commended for his work here: the writing is crisp and clear, bringing the ability to dissect an ultra-complex topic and speak to it in practical terms.

For the majority of the populous, the way their electronic gadgets work is secondary to the fact that they actually work. However, RFID is written in a way that illuminates how advances in technology have revolutionized our lives and will continue to instigate change as we move deeper into the 21st century. Since the industry is predicted to generate over 10 billion in earnings over the next decade, the information contained here is vital to beginning to understand the changing aspects of our world. Interesting not only for the wealth of technical information presented, but also for the social issues that are revealed as a result of the way we now communicate.

Recommended to all college-level libraries as a general reference text. Also should be considered by technical science instructors whose courses over-lap with this subject matter. A burgeoning area of study that is addressed in concrete and thorough terms.

Electric Review