Building the RFID network

-- Modern Materials Handling, 12/1/2003

While the radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled supply chain is still years away, here's how it might work, according to Provia Software and the Auto-ID Center.

At the heart of the RFID-network is an "Internet of things." The electronic product code (EPC) assigned to a pallet, case, or individual item will also be associated with an object name server, or ONS. Think of the ONS as a product information address, like an Internet DNS, where information can be updated in real time.

The ONS is associated with a "physical markup language" server. The PML server is the equivalent of a Web site that stores comprehensive data about the product associated with the EPC.

Pallets, cases, and even individual items will receive an active RFID tag. Those tags can be rewritten with new information every time the tag is read as it travels through the supply chain.

When tags are read, the EPC codes are sent to a unique server, now called the "Savant" server, with software which decodes the EPC, and then passes that information to the ONS server.

The ONS server then looks up the product information address—in other words, the PML server—for that EPC. Information from the new read can now be updated to create a complete history of the product or order associated with that EPC every time it is scanned.

Information on the PML server is now available to an enterprise's application software, including supply chain execution and management systems like warehouse and transportation management systems or an enterprise resource planning system.