RFID Survey Reports Lack of Man Power

The talent pool of RFID professionals is shallow and could impact the successful adoption of the technology by companies keen to comply with the expectations of major retailers, a recent industry report shows, writes Simon Pitman.

Eighty per cent of companies participating in the survey said they do not believe there are sufficient numbers of professionals skilled in RFID to hire from today - the report from the Comupting Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) finds. Two-thirds of organisations (66.7 per cent) said training and educating their employees in the technology is one of the biggest challenges they will face in order to succeed in the RFID market.

"We believe the market needs hundreds of systems integration companies with RFID capabilities; and hundreds of thousands of individuals knowledgeable in this technology to meet current and future demand," said David Sommer, vice president, electronic commerce, CompTIA.

Sommer presented the findings of the CompTIA survey in a presentation today at the RFID World 2005 conference in Dallas, Texas.

CompTIA says it is working with a cross section of major players in the RFID market to address the skills shortage. Product manufacturers, distributors, system integrators, education and training providers, and end-user customers are active in an effort to craft a vendor-neutral professional certification of RFID skills for individuals working with the technology.

The survey of CompTIA members found that customer adoption of RFID solutions is relatively modest. A significant number of companies - 71.4 per cent - said their customers have not implemented RFID solutions. For those organisations with customers that implemented RFID solutions, responding companies said that fewer than 20 per cent of their customers have done so.

Similarly, 80 per cent of the responding companies said either they have yet to go past the investigation stage of RFID implementation; or have done no investigation at all. Just 16 per cent have implemented one or more RFID pilot projects for themselves or their customers.

Survey respondents said their customers come from a variety of industries, including services, government, manufacturing, retail, health care, communications, and financial services and real estate.

When asked if they see their company offering RFID products and services in the next three years, 37.3 per cent of organisations said they definitely will; and 39.2 per cent said they would consider it if there is interest from their customers. Companies expect to offer hardware installation and maintenance services (82.1 per cent), software implementations (61.5 per cent) and other services (51.3 per cent).

The majority of respondents to the survey were value-added resellers and solutions providers (33.3 per cent); consultants and systems integrators (21.6 per cent); and manufactures (19.6 per cent). Two-thirds of the companies have annual revenues of up to $25 million; while 22 per cent are companies with annual revenues of $100 million or more.

So far companies in the US have been quickest to take up on the technology. In the manufacturing sector a lot of this movement is being driven by companies trying to comply with RFID requirements implemented by major retailers such as Wal-Mart.

This action has prompted many major players in industries such as the food and beverage industry, as well as the cosmetics and personal care industry to introduce the technology as a key part of their supply chain. Following on from this movement in the US, these companies are also starting to implement RFID systems to their operations in Europe, but at a slower pace.

Source: The Navigtor

In-Stat: Wi-Fi RFID tag market to double annually

Market research firm In-Stat reported there were 135,000 shipments of Wi-Fi RFID tags in 2006 and the market is set to double each year until 2010. This would result to more than 2.1 million units in three years.

According to In-Stat, shipments under the AeroScout brand accounted for the majority of Wi-Fi RFID tags shipped in 2006 and the key application areas for growth are health care, heavy manufacturing, transportation and logistics.

"Historically, one of the key weaknesses of this market has been the short battery life of asset tags," said In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar in a statement. "G2 MicroSystems, the only tag-specific chip vendor, has made strides in overcoming this weakness, with multiyear battery life now a reality."

Source: EE-Times

RF switch enables seamless enterprise mobility

In order to become 802.11n compliant, Motorola Inc. has introduced what it claims the industry's first RF wireless switch that bridges the gap between Wi-Fi and RFID, future RF technologies and indoor and outdoor wireless networks. The enterprise-class RF switch supports location, management and security services. The RFS7000 can accommodate Motorola and third-party vendor services, providing seamless enterprise mobility indoors to large businesses requiring a WLAN.

It is capable of supporting 256 802.11a/b/g access points and enables a new switch clustering concept, providing redundancy and high-performance scalability for up to 3,000 access points, Motorola said.

The RFS7000 is part of Motorola's end-to-end enterprise WLAN product suite, which comes under the company's MOTOwi4 portfolio of wireless broadband solutions and services that complement IP networks.

The RF switch's "locationing" capability enables real-time tracking of Wi-Fi devices and active tags. With this service, businesses have the ability to locate employees for safety or track high-value and mission-critical assets. In a healthcare setting, locationing services could be used to track crash carts, transfusion pumps, defibrillators, and portable X-ray and dialysis machines. Locationing can also be used to find and track inventory for customers.

Motorola's integrated management suite, comprised of a LAN planner and mobility services platform, is a set of tools to help enterprises centrally plan, deploy, manage and secure their RF infrastructure and environment, said the company. The integrated wireless intrusion protection system solution detects and locates rogue devices, protecting the network against denial-of-service attacks. The sensor-based system also provides compliance reporting and advanced forensics, as well as monitors, detects, protects and prevents intrusions to a wireless network.

Source: EE-Times

Epson invests in RuBee asset-tracking RFID tech

Epson Electronics has entered a "strategic" investment with Visible Assets Inc., an asset tracker specialist and one of the main backers of wireless RuBee technology.

RuBee technology is a low-frequency network protocol for tough to track goods. They work underwater and in underground environments that obstruct higher-frequency RFID signals. RuBee tags can be made as thin as 1.5mm and operate for as long as 10 years using a coin-sized lithium ion battery.

Last year, the IEEE started work on developing a standard—dubbed 1902.1—for the protocol, whose backers in the retail sector include U.K.-based Tesco and Germany's Metro Group, as well as technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Sony, Panasonic and Motorola.

Visible Assets is using its patented technology to offer supply chain and asset visibility platforms to retailers.

"This investment will provide both companies with new commercial opportunities in many markets," Epson Electronics America (EEA) CEO Toshio Akahane said. "EEA and our parent company, Seiko Epson Corp. in Japan, plan to offer RuBee-enabled silicon devices, as well as using the technology in a wide variety of products."

The RuBee protocol works with both active radio tags and passive tags that have no battery. A controlled reading range of 1-100ft and an integrated clock ensure high security and privacy.

Source: EE-Times

Skill Shortage Hits RFID Growth

Radio frequency identification is significantly hampered by the shortage of IT professionals who are trained in the technology

The IT industry is facing a shortage of professionals well-versed in RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, and this could affect the adoption of the technology, warned a senior official at Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

According to Michael Mudd, the industry body's Asia-Pacific director of public policy, there are fewer than 1,000 qualified IT professionals available worldwide who understand and know enough to deploy and service RFID technology. Mudd was in town for the RFID Connect Asia held here last week.

For instance, Mudd said, compared with the "hundreds of thousands" of technicians who are certified by CompTIA or other IT vendors such as Cisco Systems, and skilled in fixing PCs or servers, the current number of available RFID skilled workers is "very low".

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, he noted: "It's probably one of the things that's keeping back the deployment of the [RFID] technology."

Companies do not simply consider the cost of buying the technology when they look at deploying RFID, he added. "It's [also about] the cost of maintaining, training, servicing [and] replacement of spare parts," Mudd said.

"The RFID skills shortage must be addressed to help drive down implementation costs and make a better ROI (returns on investment) case", he said.

Mudd cautioned that the skills dearth can prove to be the next biggest inhibitor of successful RFID deployment after customers cross the implementation hurdle.

According to preliminary results of a CompTIA survey conducted in February this year, which polled 56 members from the industry group, 69.6 percent of the respondents indicated that there is an insufficient RFID talent pool. Some 64.7 percent also believed that the lack of skilled individuals will affect the adoption of RFID.

Mudd said: "RFID is not yet a plug-and-play technology. Each deployment is unique, and within each deployment, any number of variables can affect its success or failure."

"Most of the [RFID] skills that are lacking are in the areas of understanding how the physics of radio frequencies work, and how to tag items so that they are readable," he said.

He noted that to execute any RFID initiative successfully, there needs to be trained and certified professionals with knowledge and experience in radio frequency engineering and design, supply chain management, logistics, warehouse management, and familiarity in RFID products and standards.

According to CompTIA, the industry body has worked with over 20 organizations with "leadership positions in RFID technology" to develop an industry-accepted credential that validates a technician's knowledge and skills in the areas of installation, maintenance, repair and upkeep of hardware and software functionality of RFID products. For instance, the CompTIA RFID+ is a vendor-neutral certification that addresses critical skills related to the installation, maintenance, repair and troubleshooting of hardware and software functionality of RFID products.

EPCIS ratification boosts RFID industry

Giving a boost to the RFID industry, EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) ratification provided businesses a standard way to capture and share information collected by RFID chips. This is done by giving a standard set of interfaces for EPC data.

EPCIS provides a standard set of interfaces for EPC data. Chris Adcock, president of the standards organisation EPCglobal Inc., called the ratification as potentially having more impact than the 2004 release of the UHF Gen2 Passive RFID standard. Those are big words, since the Gen2 standard led to the development of considerably cheaper and better performing Gen2 RFID chips.

Five years after proponents began insisting that RFID would dramatically change the way companies track goods in the supply chain, RFID remains a niche technology partly held back by the complexities associated with exchanging information captured by RFID and turning it into knowledge that leads to such basic business goals as lower costs or higher revenues.

Vendors involved in the interoperability testing of EPCIS—and those likely to offer products that support the standard—include Auto-ID Labs, Avicon, BEA Systems, Bent Systems, IBM, Globe Ranger, IIJ, NEC, Oracle, Polaris Systems, Samsung and T3Ci.

Still, while EPCglobal and RFID vendors are working to create standards-based RFID technologies and processes, other challenges remain. RFID tags are still too costly in many instances, and RFID pioneers continue to struggle with what to do with all of the data they're collecting from the tags, and how to turn it into real business intelligence.

Source : EE Times-India

European Commission proposes RFID strategy

Exactly a year after launching an extensive Europe-wide public consultation on RFID tags, the European Commission unveiled proposals for an RFID strategy to address the privacy concerns of citizens.

"From fighting counterfeits to better healthcare, smart RFID-chips offers tremendous opportunities for business and society," said information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding when presenting the Commission's strategy at the CeBIT fair. "Last year I said here at CeBIT that we should stimulate the use of RFID technology in Europe whilst safeguarding personal data and privacy. The Commission's Europe-wide public consultation in 2006 identified a strong lack of awareness and considerable concern among citizens. The Commission's RFID strategy will therefore seek to raise awareness, stress the absolute need for citizens to decide how their personal data is used and ensure that Europe removes existing obstacles to RFID's enormous potential."


The economic potential of smart radio tags can hardly be underestimated. In 2006 alone, over 1 billion RFID tags were sold worldwide, and by 2016 it might be over 500 times this number. The European market is estimated to grow from $665 million in 2006 to $9.3 billion by 2016. Europe is also a leading international player for RFID R&D, and its industry is strongly placed, the Commission said.

However, awareness about the potential of RFID is low. According to the Commission, about 60 percent of the 2,190 respondents to the public consultation in 2006 said they did not know enough to adequately assess the pros and cons of RFID technology. Of those who are aware, 70 percent believed that technical solutions were the best way to reduce security, data protection and privacy concerns, 67 percent expressed their support for awareness-raising campaigns to educate consumers, and 55 percent called for RFID regulations.

To enhance Europe's ability to reap the economic and social benefits of RFID technology while answering consumer concerns, the Commission published last week the RFID Communication, enumerating the steps to be taken for by the Commission for its new RFID policy.

According to the RFID Communication, the Commission will create an RFID Stakeholder Group to provide advice and assistance to the Commission in developing a European policy position concerning RFID applications and propose amendments to the e-Privacy Directive to take account of RFID applications.

By the end of 2007, the Commission will publish a recommendation on how to handle date security and privacy of smart radio tags to Member States and stakeholders. In association with the Stakeholder Group, the Commission will then analyze the economic and social effects of smart radio tags and other technologies, particularly focusing on privacy, trust and governance, leading to an assessment of policy options and need for further legislative steps, by the end of 2008.

The RFID Communication also highlighted where the Commission wants to ensure that further development and deployment of smart radio tags are as safe, secure, privacy-friendly and effective as possible. This includes looking at research and innovation, the availability of radio spectrum, standardization, environmental and health issues, and also ensuring that digital identities are well protected against abuse.

Source : EE Times

TI unveils high-frequency RFID reader IC family

Using advanced design practices to increase reader efficiency while reducing the IC footprint, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has announced the availability of a high-frequency (13.56MHz), multi-standard RFID reader IC product family. The advanced package design of the TRF7960 family measures 5-by-5mm, and supports ISO/IEC 14443A/B, ISO/IEC 15693, ISO/IEC 18000-3 and TI's contactless commerce and Tag-It portfolio.

To maximise read range and reliability, said TI, the integrated on-board linear voltage regulators that turn up the analogue, digital and power amplifiers, provide power supply noise isolation. The reader has an integrated analogue front end and data framing system for all the supported standards, while the dual receiver input configuration of the TRF7960 reader family detects AM and PM. This feature helps to eliminate read 'holes' created when antenna orientation in the operating environment changes the tag return signal from AM to PM resulting in more consistent tag reads.

By providing an internal clock for the microcontroller, the TRF7960 powered reader uses only a single 13.56MHz crystal rather than the standard two crystals, reducing the total bill of materials of the end reader product. Designed with fewer components, TI's reader IC consumes less power, takes up less space, and can therefore address sensitivity and noise attenuation issues. Other integrated functions include error checking, data formatting, framing and anti-collision support for multi-reader environments. The TRF7960 is designed for both fixed and handheld reader devices.

Power consumption for the overall reader is reduced by providing seven flexible manual or automated configuration settings which shut down unused sections of the reader to save power. The TRF7960 IC operates between 2.7Vdc to 5.5Vdc input supply voltage and when in power down mode, consumption is less than 1µA while standby current is less than 120µA.

The TRF7961 supports ISO/IEC 15693, and ISO/IEC 18000-3 standards and TI's Tag-It portfolio. The TRF7960 supports the standards listed above plus the ISO/IEC 14443A/B standard and TI's contact less commerce portfolio. With a high level of integration, lower power consumption and a smaller footprint, both devices are available today from TI and its authorised distributors in the standard 32-pin QFN (IC to board) connection packages. A reference design and source code for an evaluation module, with TI's MSP430 ultra-low-power microcontroller, is available for easy evaluation of the TRF7960 family .