Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Definitions

A non-profit organization set up the Uniform Code Council and EAN International, the two organizations that maintain barcode standards, to commercialize EPC technology.

EPC Global is made up of chapters in different countries and regions. It is commercializing the technology originally developed by the Auto-ID Center.

The internet-based technologies and services that enable companies to retrieve data associated with EPCs.

The network infrastructure includes the Object Name Service, distributed middleware (sometimes called Savants), the EPC Information Service and Physical Markup Language.

Part of the EPC Network.

The EPC Information Service is a network infrastructure that enables companies to store data associated with EPCs in secure databases on the Web.

The EPC Information Service will enable companies to provide different levels of access to data to different groups.

Some information associated with an EPC might be available to everyone. Other information might be available only to a manufacturer's retail customers.

The service also includes a number of applications; such as, the EPC Discovery Service.

A code stored on an RFID tag to enable the reader to figure out the value of missing or garbled bits of data.

It's needed because a reader might misinterpret some data from the tag and think a wrist watch is actually a pair of socks.

A mode of data transmission between the tag and reader in which errors or missing data is automatically corrected.

A set of rules used by readers to interpret data correctly from the tag.

A code on an RFID tag that enables a reader to ascertain the value of missing or garbled bits of data.

The number of errors per number of transactions.

The bar code standard used throughout Europe, Asia and South America. It is administered by EAN International.

The European Union body that recommends standards for adoption by member countries.

The reader is said to "excite" a passive tag when the reader transmits RF energy to wake up the tag and enable it to transmit back.

The transmitter that is part of a scanner.

A widely accepted way of sharing information over the internet in a way that computers can use, regardless of their operating system.

1. Some "read-only" have to have their identification number written into the silicon microchip at the time the chip is made. 2. The programming of information into a tag occurring as part of the manufacturing process.

RFID reader antennas emit electromagnetic radiation (radio waves).

If an RFID tag is outside of one full wavelength of the reader, it is said to be in the "far field." If it is within one full wavelength away, it is said to be in the "near field."

The far field signal decays as the square of the distance from the antenna, while the near field signal decays as the cube of distance from the antenna.

So passive RFID systems that rely on far field communications (typically UHF and microwave systems) have a longer read range than those that use near field communications (typically low- and high-frequency systems).