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

Motorola, Avery team to deliver RFID solution

Motorola Inc. and Avery Dennison Corp. announced a strategic relationship under which Avery Dennison RFID will supply EPCglobal Gen 2 RFID tags to Motorola, increasing the speed of RFID deployments and product availability to large markets.

The agreement aligns Avery Dennison's cost effective inlay manufacturing capabilities with Motorola's hardware and tag design expertise. Motorola will now be able to more quickly fulfill the growing demand for its portfolio of custom RFID tags, including its high-performance airline baggage tag and durable tags for asset tracking. In addition, by working together on RFID solutions, both companies will be able to optimize RFID systems for real world deployments.

"Together, Motorola and Avery Dennison can build on successful customer engagements with an even stronger reader-and-tag solution," said Joe White, vice president of RFID marketing and business development for the enterprise mobility business, Motorola Networks & Enterprise. "Motorola's broad portfolio of intellectual property in EPC RFID tags and readers, combined with Avery Dennison's expertise in high-volume inlay manufacturing, will provide Motorola customers with a reliable supply of quality, high-performance RFID tag products."

"By working together, Avery Dennison and Motorola will enable customers to better manage their assets and enhance their return on investment in RFID," said Bob Cornick, vice president and general manager of Avery Dennison RFID.

Motorola plans to start shipping Avery Dennison-supplied Gen 2 tags in 2H 2007.

Source : EE-Times

Nike + iPod Sport Kit RFID Flaw

You've no doubt seen them: those fitness buffs jogging in the neighborhood or park with their Nike shoes and the tell-tale white iPod earwires, listening to music while getting healthier. They might just be the owner of the RFID-enabled Nike / iPod Sport Kit, which lets runners monitor their efforts.

But researchers from the University of Washington think that a security flaw in the Sport Kit (which uses an active RFID tag) lets stalkers also monitor runners. They claim that someone with a scanner can track a jogger's regimen from a distance of up to 60 feet, even from a car. They could go as far as skimming RFID data and recording jogging times and even plotting routes on Google Maps for later use. [Info Shop via RFID News]

While this potential threat shouldn't be taken lightly, one thought comes to my mind. The average human being isn't going to go to such lengths. Anyone who does go to all that effort to stalk someone doesn't need to utilize the Sport Kit flaw to do so. Their sickness would prompt them into doing it by other methods. In this scenario, I think, it's the person and not the technology that's to blame. On the other hand, this flaw can be exploited by more than just stalkers, possibly encouraging borderline personalities into surveillance activities that they might not otherwise bother with.

Source : RFID Gazette
 

Operators want RFID in phones

David Meyer ZDNet UK

Published: 20 Nov 2006 16:57 GMT

Mobile phones could have moved a step closer to being used as credit cards, car keys and concert tickets, after operators around the world said they would work together on the technology.

The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents operators serving more than 40 percent of the world's phone users, said on Monday that it was pushing for a global standard on near field communications (NFC).

The short-range wireless technology would be based on having a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip embedded in the handset, along with some sort of NFC software. As for cost, a GSMA spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Monday that "we don't have a figure for it but we reckon it's a relatively modest cost to add it to the handset".

There could be wide-ranging applications for such technology. "You could have it as a key for your car — it would recognise who you are, open the car door, put the right music on the stereo, that kind of stuff," the spokesperson said. Such a phone could also act in a similar way to Transport for London's Oyster card, itself an NFC device, or as a payment device in shops

A user could also use the phone to download a concert ticket which would then be recognised by an RFID reader at the venue, suggested the spokesperson, who added that NFC would, in effect, let you "integrate both your wallet and your keys into your mobile phone".

However, the timeframe for phones with integrated NFC remains unclear. The GSMA's spokesperson said the organisation was hoping to submit a white paper on the subject to the NFC Forum and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) by the end of this year. Beyond that, said the spokesperson, "it depends on how fast those particular bodies move".

The GSMA represents operators around the world. The 14 operators working together to develop business cases and user requirements for NFC include Orange, Vodafone and 3.