Introduction
Identification and authentication are the most important requirements of any security system. Electronic systems such as computers and communication devices have some sort of identification and authentication capabilities. Radio Frequency Identification (RIFD) technology is a form of Real Time Location System (RTLS) that uses an object known as RFID tag placed or inserted into an item for the intention of identification and monitoring using radio waves (Technovelgy, 2010). The object can be a person, an animal, or a product. The tag contains a chip that can carry less than one megabyte of data and is used by interrogators for identification. Most RFID tags are made up of two parts. One is an antenna for accepting and conveying the signal and the second is an integrated circuit that store and process data, encode and decode radio frequency, and other identification functions. In general, there are two types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which can transmit signals independently using battery energy and passive RFID tags, which require an external device to initiate signal transmission. Thus, this paper looks at the various concepts of RFID technology, including how it works, application issues, and problems with RFID.
RFID and Other Identification Devices
Other technologies like bar code, Bluetooth, WiFi, or a magnetic strip incorporated on a credit card serve the same purpose as an RFID device. These devices have unique identifier for a particular object and they must be scanned to retrieve information for identifying the object. The main advantage of RFID devices over other RTLS is that RFID technology does not require a specific positioning for the scanner or the interrogator. Bar codes must be placed in such a way that they can be read and credit cards and ATM cards must be swiped on a unique reader. Bluetooth and WiFi consume a lot of power as compared to RFID devices, but the coverage of RFID is lower (Clarinox, 2009).
RFID devices cover greater distances as compared to barcodes. An RFID reader can acquire information from an RFID tag within a range of up to 200 feet. This is accompanied by higher scanning capability. Moreover, RFID tags can be updated because they have read/write capability while barcode information cannot be altered in any way. In product identification, barcodes only give information about the product and the manufactures. It does not identify individual pieces. If such ability is needed, it is appropriate to use RFID (Robert, 2010).
RFID technology is a concept that has been there for over fifty years. Over the recent years, RFID devices have been manufactured for the use in industry at an affordable cost. A recent research has found that “RFID has become more reliable and less costly. Take Boeing. It says its RFID system works 99.8% of the time, failing to read just 21 tags out of more than 18,000 from September to March. That’s negligible compared to the occurrence of human error when deliveries are entered manually” (Kharif, 2005, p.1). However, RFID technology has taken so long to be accepted as a means of identification due to the fact that it lacks standards in the industry. Many organizations procure RIFD technology, only to incorporate the tags in the items that are within their control. But the importance of RFID can be realized when RFID tags are compatible.
How RFID works
The main components of RFID are tags, tag antenna, reader antenna, reader, and savant. A tag carries data and mainly contains identification number and a unique code. The tag antenna is a wire or conductive ink attached to the chip in the tag. The reader antenna is a coil incorporated in a plastic. A reader detects the data stored in the RFID tag within its domain. A reader can accept different information from different tags at a time. A savant acts as a middleware that links the readers with external databases (Tutorialsweb, 2009). In general, RFID system has three parts: a scanning antenna, a transceiver that interprets data, and a transponder or the RFID tag that contains relevant information.
The scanning antenna emits radio frequency signals within a short domain. The radio frequency radiation provides the capability of communicating with the tag and energy required by the tag to communicate. This is an important aspect of RFID technology since RFID tags need not to have batteries and can thus operate for longer time (In case of passive tags). The scanning antenna can be placed on the ground and in other cases some are portable. For instance, they can be placed on a door frame to identify visitors. When an RFID tag enters in the domain of the scanning antenna, it discovers the start signal from the antenna. That triggers the RFID chip to convey information to the scanning antenna.
Moreover, RIFD tag can be active or passive. Active RFID tags contain some sort of energy source; mainly batteries. This implies that data transmission is continuous. Passive RFID tags rely on the power-radio signal transmitted by the reader through the scanning antenna. Active tags can transmit data in long ranges and are less sensitive to interference as compared to passive tags. Despite their difference, both tags carry the same information, which is referred to as the Electronic Product Code (EPC) (White et al., 2007).
Current Issues
Many factors have led to remarkable usage of RFID technology: decrease in cost, increased performance, and a steady international standard. According to Kharif (2005), the adoption of RFID in the United States is increasing across all the U.S manufacturers. Many companies have also adopted the use of WiFi technology to capture information from RFID tags, thus there is no need of having RFID readers. Using the existing technology to support RFID, corporations can be able to save more than half the cost associated with RFID implementation. Other areas of importance are financial services for information technology asset tracking and healthcare. In addition, RFID cards are being incorporated in many service areas. For instance, payment by mobile phones, in which tags can be inserted in mobile devices. Governments also use RFID tags in transportation payment systems to manage traffic.
Applications of RFID
RFID tags are made in various shapes and sizes in regards to different materials: animal tracking tags can be rice-sized and placed beneath the skin; screw shaped tags can be used to identify trees or wooden objects; access applications use credit-card shaped tags; hard-plastic tags can be attached on products for security purposes, and heavy-duty tags are used to monitor shipping containers or heavy objects. In essence, the applications of RFID technology are: employee identification and access control, airline baggage identification, livestock identification, parts identification, vehicle identification and tracking, supply chain automation, asset tracking, identification of widgets, and many more (Tutorialweb, 2009).
Problems with RFID
The implementation of RFID technology varies across different companies. This is because global standards for RFID are still in their design phase. Commonly, some RFID devices cannot be moved away from their area, and therefore can cause difficulties for organizations. Customers in many cases have problems with RFID standards. If an individual contains a tag registered by one company, it means that he or she will be required to only access the services or products of that company. It is noted that, a consumer will therefore need to have different cards to access different RFID systems.
Consequently, RFID systems can be disrupted because they use electromagnetic field, such as the WiFi networks. Disruption in this sense implies that the systems can jam. This leads to adverse problems in sensitive places like hospitals or military. Again, active RFID tags can be disrupted and rendered inactive when used repeatedly. In other circumstances, signals from two readers might collide, making the tag to fail to generate a response. RFID tags can also collide in cases where many tags are available in a small area; this depends on the speed of reading the tags.
There are different security, privacy and ethical issues in relation to RFID. First, the information of RFID tag can be accessed after the item departs the supply chain. An RFID cannot distinguish readers and thus information can be accessed by portable RFID scanners. Second, tags used in consumer products are difficult to remove. However, new technologies provide a way of embedding removable tags on items. Lastly, RFID tags can be accessed without the owner’s knowledge because tags need not to be swiped; this leads to loss of privacy (Technovelgy, 2010).
Conclusion
Identifying objects is an important aspect in any field of business operation. There are many technologies used in identifying and tracking items. This paper has discussed various aspects of RFID technology. The major concern of RFID is identification using RFID tags and readers. RFID systems use the electromagnetic spectrum to identify items, thus they do not require a line of sight to identify a tagged object. Other identification technologies like barcodes and credit cards require line of sight or some form of contact with the reader. In recent studies, RFID technology has been identified as more efficient than barcodes. Therefore, RFID can be used in various applications such as identification of parts, supply chain automation, and employee identification and access control. However, RFID has no stable standards and it is difficult to integrate the systems of different companies. Again, RFID technology raises some security, privacy, and ethical problems due to the free access of RFID tags within the range of RFID readers.
References
Clarinox Technologies Ltd. (2009). Real Time Location Systems. Web.
Kharif, Olga. (2005). RFID’S Second Wave. “Bloomberg Business Week”. Web.
Robert, Mark. (2010). Bar Codes Vs. RFID. “RFID Journal”. Web.
Technovelgy. (2010). What is RFID?. Web.
Tutorialweb. (2009). RFID: A Tutorial. Web.
White, Gareth et al. (2007). A Comparison of Barcoding and RFID Technologies in Practice. Journal of Information, Information Technology, and Organizations, 2(2007), 120-129.