3.

0 TECHNOLOGY
Radio Frequency Identification or RFID
technology has passed through many phases over
the last few decades (see figure 1). The technology
has been used in tracking delivery of goods, in
courier services and in baggage handling. Other
applications includes automatic toll payments,
departmental access control in large buildings,
personal and vehicle control in a particular area,
security of items which shouldnt leave the area,
equipment tracking in engineering firms, hospital
filing systems, etc.[1,2]. Figure 1 shows RFID
evolution over the past few decades.

Fig. 1 RFID evolution: Over past the few decades [3]

At its most simple, a radio frequency identification

(RFID) system consists of two components, namely
a tag (also called a transponder) and a reader (also
called an interrogator). The tag is designed to be
small and cheap perhaps the size of a credit card
or smaller whilst the reader is more expensive
and larger typically around the size of a laptop
computer. The RFID tag contains a small amount of
memory for holding data, and whenever that tag
comes into proximity with the RFID reader, the
reader will detect the tags presence and can read
the data from the tag.
A real-world RFID application will typically make
use of many RFID tags, which are attached to
physical objects. When one of these objects comes
into proximity with the RFID reader, date from the

associated tag can be read this may be used to

identify that specific object or to provide
information about it. Similarly, real applications of
RFID technology often make use of several RFID
readers, so that the tagged objects can be identified
in different locations.
There are many different types of RFID system that
vary in their exact mode of operation and operating
performance. With active RFID systems, the tag
contains a small battery that enables it to control
communication with the reader. A completely
passive RFID tag, however, has no battery but
instead harvests power for its operation from the
readers radio communication signal. This means
that the reader has to drive communication, but it
makes the tag much cheaper.
RFID relies on radio frequency communication.
The RFID reader emits energy, in the form of a
radio wave at a particular frequency, which is used
to power and to communicate with the RFID tags.
As the radio waves propagate through the
environment, their energy gradually dissipates so
a tag that is beyond a certain distance from the
RFID reader will not be able to pick up enough
signal to operate reliably. In other words, the
maximum operating distance between the RFID
reader and a tag (also known as the range) is
limited. The exact range depends on a great many
factors, including the radio frequency being used
for communication, the power emitted by the RFID
reader, sources of radio interference and objects in
the environment that are likely to reflect or absorb
radio waves. A typical range for a passive RFID
system will be anywhere between a few
centimetres and a few metres. If a battery is
incorporated into the tag, the range is increased
dramatically, to tens of metres or more.
Since the communication mechanism is based on
radio wave propagation, a direct line of sight
between the reader and the tag is not required.
(Contrast this with barcode systems where the
reader must be able to see the barcode label.) This
means that tagged objects may be identified even if
the tag or even the entire object is not in direct
view of the reader for example they may be
inside packaging or hidden behind other objects.
Also, most modern RFID systems can identify
multiple tags in very quick succession (from tens to
hundreds per second). This means that many tagged
objects can be read in effect simultaneously as
they pass by an RFID reader, something that is not
easily achievable with other technologies such as
barcodes. Although the relative orientation of the
tag and the reader does alter the operating range to

some extent, it is often possible to set up an RFID

system so that this effect is not important in other
words, tagged objects may pass by a reader with
little constraint on their orientation or alignment,
another big advantage over many other
identification technologies.
RFID systems rely on the use of a radio
communication channel for their operation. This
has a number of implications relating to the
security of system operation. The most fundamental
consideration is that the channel is by is very
nature, shared within any given vicinity. This
means that
Any transmissions that occur may be detected
by any other equipment within range
Any other equipment may also make
transmissions which will potentially interfere.
The former of these two observations is often
considered to be a significant security risk,
especially given the non-line-of-sight operation of
the system that may make it relatively easy for an
eavesdropper to remain hidden. However, the
signals that emanate from the tag are incredibly
weak, so an eavesdropper would need to be quite
close by (certainly no further from the tag than the
genuine reader). It is possibly to design an RFID
system
that
uses
completely
secure
communications, where the information that is
communicated is encrypted, but this will impact the
cost of the tags and the performance of the system
(range, communication speed etc.) and is not
currently seen to be commercially viable.

4.1 HEALTHCARE APPLICATION

RFID applications in healthcare could save
important resources that can further contribute to
better patient care. RFID applications could reduce
the number of errors by tagging medical objects in
the healthcare setting such as patients files and
medical equipment tracking in a timely manner.
RFID further improves the situation for patients
care by integrating medical objects involved
throughout the patients care. RFID based timely
information about the location of objects would
increase the efficiency and effectiveness of
paramedical staff leading to improved patients
experience [1, 4].
4.2 SECURITY AND CONTROL APPLICATION
RFID tags can be attached to the equipment/user
personal/official belongings such as organization
ID cards and vehicles. By applying RFID
application in secure zones, not only permission
can be granted to and revoke for the users/persons
in particular zone but also record individual access
and the length of their stay. It is also good for audit
trial. These types of application consider time and
flow carefully and as an aspect that is very
important [5].
4.3 PATROLLING LOG APPLICATION

The latter of the issues above is perhaps more

interesting. For one, it means that an unauthorised
reader is a liberty to communicate with tags. But it
also means that any equipment that generates radio
communication signals at the same operating
frequency as the RFID system will interfere with
the RFID operation, reducing performance and
potentially rendering it inoperable. This is unlikely
to occur by chance it would mostly likely be due
to the malicious (and illegal) operation of
interfering equipment.

RFID is also used for auditing and controlling

security persons themselves. Application provides
checkpoints for patrolling the security guards.
Checkpoints are basically a RFID tag which
security guard needs to scan during their sequential
patrol through the reader. The reader maintains the
record of the time and point at which the security
guard swapped his card. This will not only help
security firms administration to check the
performance of its security guards but also used as
a reference to track events. This application can
also help to improve the patrolling process, e.g.
through identifying the need to increase patrols or
check points in a patrolled area.

4.0 APPLICATIONS

4.4 BAGGAGE APPLICATION

RFID has two basic categories (short & long

range). The short range applications need tags to be
near reader, it is useful in various condition such as
when a patient is required to come near the
door/reader and only one person can get access
(access control). The long range applications may
not need tags that are closer to reader.

Airline industries, package and delivery service

lose a lot of money on lost or late delivery of
baggage/packages. Handling large amount of
packages from many places to various destinations
on different routes can be very complex. In this
scenario RFID application provide best resource
management, effective operation and efficient

transfer of packages. RFID helps to identify the

packages, and provide records that can advise the
industry on possible areas that may require some
improvements. It also keeps customers informed
about their packages.
4.5 TOLL ROAD APPLICATION
RFID applications make the toll collection/charging
better with improved traffic flow, as cars/vehicles
cannot pass through toll stations without stopping
for payment. RFID is used to automatically identify
the account holder and make faster transactions.
This application helps to keep good traffic flow and
to identify traffic patterns using data mining
techniques that can inform the administration or
decision support systems. For example, the
information can be used to report the traffic
conditions or to extend and develop future policies
[5].
5.0 ECONOMIC COST
Radio Frequency Identification technology is a
cross-cutting and enabling technology and is
considered to be the next wave of the IT revolution.
In the same way like IT, RFID will foster
innovation, economic growth, and global
commerce. However, RFID technology is still in its
early stage of deployment.
It is almost impossible to obtain systematic and
reliable data to analyse the economic impact of
RFID. For example, a study from 2005 finds that
RFID related spending represents round about 9%
of the companies IT-budgets, the spending for
2006 is predicted with 16% and another 20% by
2007 [6]. Other reports analyse case studies and
extrapolate the findings, e.g. if a single company in
the retail sector is able to lower its inventory by
15% due to RFID, inventory holding costs that are
generally accepted in that specific industry (e.g.
35%) are used to analyse the economic impact in
its entirety [7].
Hence, the economic impacts of RFID based on
three general assumptions:
1.

2.

Because RFID is new in many processes it

is
easy
to
achieve
efficiency
improvements in a short time (e.g. by
elimination of manual scanning processes,
automatic inventory etc.)
RFID offers the opportunity to completely
redesign processes and not only to
enhance single tasks and therefore gaining
greater efficiency improvements.

3.

By adding/connecting additional users to a

network, RFID will help to generate
greater network externalities.

6.0 ADVANTAGES OF RFID

Though RFID is not likely to entirely replace
commonly used barcodes in the near future, the
following advantages suggest to additionally apply
RFID for added value of identification:

Tag detection not requiring human

intervention reduces employment costs
and eliminates human errors from data
collection,
As no line-of-sight is required, tag
placement is less constrained,
RFID tags have a longer read range than,
e. g., barcodes,
Tags can have read/write memory
capability, while barcodes do not,
An RFID tag can store large amounts of
data additionally to a unique identifier,
Unique item identification is easier to
implement with RFID than with barcodes,
Its ability to identify items individually
rather than generically.
Tags are less sensitive to adverse
conditions (dust, chemicals, physical
damage etc.),
Many tags can be read simultaneously,
RFID tags can be combined with sensors,
Automatic reading at several places
reduces time lags and inaccuracies in an
inventory,
Tags can locally store additional
information; such distributed data storage
may increase fault tolerance of the entire
system,
Reduces
inventory
control
and
provisioning costs,
Reduces warranty claim processing costs.

7.0 DISADVANTAGES OR LIMITATION OF

RFID
Although many RFID implementation cases
have been reported, the widespread diffusion
of the technology and the maximum
exploitation of its potential still require
technical, process and security issues to be
solved ahead of time. Todays limitations of
the technology are foreseen to be overcome
and specialists are already working on several
of these issues.
A. Standardization

Though the characteristics of the

application and the environment of use
determine the appropriate tag, the sparse
standards still leave much freedom in the
choice of communication protocols and
the format and amount of information
stored in the tag. Companies transcending
a closed-loop solution and wishing to
share their application with others may
encounter conflicts as cooperating partners
need to agree in standards concerning
communication
protocols,
signal
modulation types, data transmission rates,
data encoding and frames, and collision
handling algorithms.
B. Cost
The cost of tags depends on their type. In
the 2003 report RFID Systems in the
Manufacturing Supply Chain [8], ARC
This predicted decrease is still deemed
insufficient, as economic use of tags
taking the associated 535% decrease of
labour costs and zero tag information
generation costs into account as well
would require a maximum of 25 cents per
tag for high-end products, and 5 cents for
common item-level tagging. Prices of
active or semi-passive tags (at least $1 per
tag) are even more of a hindrance,
allowing their economic application only
for scanning high-value goods over long
ranges.
C. Collision
Attempting to read several tags at a time
may result in signal collision and
ultimately to data loss. To prevent this,
anti-collision algorithms (most of them are
patented or patent pending) can be applied
at an extra cost. The development of these
methods, aimed at reducing overall read
time and maximizing the number of tags
simultaneously read, still goes on [9][10].
D. Frequency
The optimal choice of frequency depends
on several factors, such as:
Transmission mode. RFID tags
basically use two kinds of data
transmission, depending on the
behaviour of electromagnetic
fields at the frequency used. In
lower frequencies (such as 125
134kHz in the LF band or
13.56MHz in the HF band),
inductive coupling is used, while

in frequency bands above (UHF

with typical frequency ranges of
433MHz, 865956MHz and
2.45GHz), wave backscattering is
the main means of transmission.
This also affects the safe reading
range, as it is easier to build
direction-selective devices with a
longer read range in higher
frequencies. This may restrict
design freedom if either reading
range or spatial selectivity are an
important issue [11].
Behaviour of tagged goods and
environment. Properties of some
materials may be an obstacle to
RFID application at a given
frequency, as they may corrupt
data transmission either by
absorption or by ambient
reflection
of
the
signals.
Typically, conductive materials
such as goods containing water,
or metal surfaces may be the
source of problems. However,
absorption and reflection being
frequency-dependent, failure at
one frequency does not rule out
applicability at other frequencies.
Electromagnetic disturbance can
also have external sources, which
is also a common though also
frequency dependent problem in
an industrial environment [12].
International
standards
in
frequency allocation. Due to
historic reasons, the world is
divided into three large regions of
frequency allocation for various
purposes, region 1 containing
Europe, Africa, the Middle East
and former SU member states,
region 2 with North and South
America and the part of the
Pacific east of the date line, and
region 3 with Asia, Australia and
the Pacific west of the date line.
The industry exerts pressure
towards an uniformization of
frequencies allowed for RFID,
yet there still are notable
differences between the three
regions,
forcing
companies
planning to employ tags in
several regions to restricting
themselves to bands shared by all

regions
concerned.
A
compromise for tags only
modulating the reader signal
without actively producing a
carrier wave on their own may be
their ability to work in a wider
frequency range than nominally
specified, allowing their usage
even in regions where RFID
bands are close enough.
E. Faulty manufacture of tags
Manufacturing of tags is not yet 100%
failure-free today; about 2030% of tags
used in early RFID pilots have been
defective [13].
F. Security and privacy Issues
Depending on the field of application
and in some cases, prescribed by lawit
may become necessary to prevent
unauthorized persons from reading or
writing data stored on or transmitted from
tags. To this end, encryption must be
ensured at all interfaces where data could
be intercepted or transmitted (on the
medium itself, as well as tagreader and
readerhost communication) [13].
CONCLUSION
The paper gave an overview of the fundamentals of
operation of radio frequency identification
technology and the application areas in which such
systems have traditionally been used. RFID
technology will open new doors to make
organisations, companies more secure, reliable, and
accurate. The first part of this paper has explained
and described the RFID technology. The paper
considers RFID technology as a means to provide
new capabilities and efficient methods for several
applications. For example, in healthcare, access
control, analysing inventory information, and
business processes. Even though numerous
limitations and unresolved issues still hinder the
widespread application of RFID. Furthermore,
extensive engineering efforts are under way to
overcome current technical limitations and to build
accurate and reliable tag reading systems. We might
also start to see economic pressure from the larger
distributors to modify product packaging and its
associated materials to more effectively integrate
RFID.
RFIDs potential benefits are large, and were sure
to see many novel applications in the near future
some of which we cant even begin to imagine. The
components that go into RFID readers and tags are
simple radio communications, but their smaller size

and broad deployment enhance the power of the

technology and raise concerns about the privacy
effects of RFID deployment. These concerns are
often premised on unlikely assumptions about
where the technology will go and how it will be
used.

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