RFID Sourcebook

Radio frequency identification or RFID is not a new technology. The earliest US patent for a passive (no battery) RFID tag that I know of was issued in 1973. Others trace the beginnings of RFID to the use of radio transponders for aircraft identification in World War II. In recent years, RFID has become a pervasive technology; its use is widespread. The users do not often realize that they are using it. Examples include electronic toll collection, electronic credit cards like the Speedpass, employee access control, pet identification, and automobile immobilizers. These applications total tens of millions of users. The recent interest in the subject of RFID has resulted from the implementation of passive tags for the tracking of pallets and cases in the retail supply chain. The numbers of tags that may be used here figures in the tens of billions per year. If the RFID industry can make the tags at a low enough cost, the potential for labelling individual items is around one trillion per year. No wonder this industry is experiencing explosive growth and the interest to go with it. In this book, the author gives us a comprehensive introduction to the world of RFID. The presentation is quite clear, readable, and without technical jargon. It does not require a technical background. Details are kept at a high level. The author is careful to present the benefits and drawbacks to every technology discussed. Individual chapters include: Technology Overview, Advantages of the Technology, Limitations of the Technology, Privacy Concerns, RFID vs. Bar Code, Strategy, Business Justification, RFID Solutions, and Standards. The book is named appropriately. This is a sourcebook. There are lists of standards, vendors, conferences, organizations and their web sites. This is the best book on RFID that I have read.

I am just getting up to speed on RFID and found this book to be both authoritative and approachable, clear and complete. Mr. Lahiri lays out the important details and limitations of RFID technology and applications as they exist today and as they will evolve in the future. Helpful appendices provide very useful information on industry players, organizations, web sites, etc. I highly recommend this book.

Introduction I was interested in reading this book because I intend on deploying a large-scale RFID solution in the future and wanted to enhance my knowledge on the technology. I figured this would be a good start since the author is an IBM RFID Solution Architect, and perhaps something he would state could disqualify my intentions. "Learning more about the technology" is a very broad statement, and in my case covered just about everything from Frequencies and Business Applications to Public Scrutiny of the technology. Sandip does an excellent job of staying concise, unbiased and objective throughout this publication. Additionally, he provides insight as to why certain "sides" of public RFID critics/advocates may view things the way they do. The book mentions "getting beyond the hype" on the back cover, and Sandip does exactly that. Sandip wrote: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology uses radio waves to automatically identify physical objects (either living beings or inanimate items). Therefore, the range of objects identifiable using RFID includes virtually everything on this planet (and beyond). Thus, RFID is an example of automatic identification (Auto-ID) technology by which a physical object can be identified automatically. Other examples of Auto-ID include bar code, biometric (for example, using fingerprint and retina scan), voice identification, and optical character recognition (OCR) systems. I come from an environment where my RFID hypothesis is already laid out; I just need additional information on the technology to ensure my deployment is a success. Not only does he give consideration to the variations of RFID technology, he discusses the necessity of businesses using RFID versus other technologies available today and the processes of evaluation, experimentation, deployment, and post-deployment. Contents The book starts out with a quick preface that gives a general blurt about RFID and narrows down who could find themselves reading the book. Sandip wrote: * Corporate decision makers who have received an RFID mandate from a customer or who want to adopt RFID for their enterprise * IT managers who want to initiate a first RFID program * Architects or developers who want to get practical tips and guidelines on implementing an RFID system and avoid the potential pitfalls * Teachers who want to teach a course about RFID * Students who want to know more about the technology to prepare for the RFID job market * Consumers who want to be aware of how the technology is being used and its capabilities and limitations * Anyone who is interested to know about the technology and its aspects Although I can see "consumers" and "anyone interested" quickly becoming lost in his intelligent vocabulary, technical specifications and continuous references to variables and infrastructure. Recommended experience in a technical environment before jumping into this book...and NOT intended for your "everyday Wal-Mart shopp

RFID is a technology that has the good fortune of being forced upon end users from major players like Walmart and the DOD. Soon therefore, many IT managers should expect to get involved in RFID assessment and deployments. Unfortunately however, much of the information about the technology comes from the marketing material put out by vendors. Though useful, such literature does not provide a complete picture of what it takes to successfully deploy RFID. That is where this book is handy. I think it offers one of the most balanced coverages of managerial and technical issues in any book I have read concerning any information technology. The author's experience on the topic is evident throughout and the book is structured to guide the reader from an introduction to RFID to guidance in implementation. The first few chapters offer an overview of the technology, including frequency specifications and specifications of popular readers and sensors. To help answer some of the most frequently asked questions there are comparisons of RFID with Bar codes and a discussion on privacy issues, and many other issues. Some of the most practical offerings of the book are the templates for all phases of an RFID implementation. There are templates for building the business case, creating use cases and the actual implementation. Though there is no substitute for experience, this book provides a sound footing for managers to prevent shooting in the dark. I would have loved to see a description of a real case of a company implementing an RFID solution along with a discussion of the gotchas along the way. However, it is understandable that most companies are averse to providing such information for publication. Overall, this book is strongly recommended to any reader looking for a companion handbook on RFID.

I have been working as an Asst. Project Manager in a software development and maintenance company. I was looking for a good book on RFID for a long time. The good thing about this book is you will get all the required information to start a new project confidently. Especially, the advantages and the limitations of RFID. One of the first thing you need to do to initiate a project is to define the scope of it. This book is very helpful and provided the strong guidelines in this area. The cost-benefit analysis is very commendable. This book gives the detail real life figures and that is extremely useful to start a new project. I also liked the discussion between bar code and RFID. I would like to recommend this book for those who want to start a new project on RFID or just want to know all about it.