RFID

David Stevens
MCS 760
April 30, 2007

RFID position paper

The idea of RFID tags have a George Orwell feeling to them. The idea of being implanted, wearing, or carrying an RFID tag makes some people feel that they are exposed to government tracking and other “big brother” concepts. The paranoia surrounding RFID does not make the ideas business applications any less attractive it just means that business must be careful from utilizing RFID to monitor or impose upon their customers’ privacy. Using RFID tags to manage inventory is going to replace the current barcode method. RFID tags will allow business to process their inventory with greater ease. A palette of goods could be pushed through an arch that reads the passive RFID tags on the boxes to count the units and then send the number to be added to the inventory total.

Another way to use RFID tags is to create a keycard with an RFID tag to open a lock. I have had personal use of such a key to get into work. The key made it a lot easier for management to monitor their employees by serving multiple functions. The keycard did not hold any private information that could intrude on the employee’s privacy rather it only held the employee ID number. This small amount of information was able to grant or restrict employee access into the building and function as a employee time clock. This freed up management resources from having to monitor when an employee showed up for work, and the frequency of fixing payroll problems when an employee had forgotten to punch in on the old time clock was decreased. Some problems could still arise from requiring each employee to wave their keycard within a couple of inches from the reader to start their shift. A flaw in the system required that employees enter the building one at a time to allow the system to monitor access to the building and make sure that employee records would indicate when the employee arrived for work and to make sure that someone was not in the building when they were not authorized to be there. This problem would seem like the largest burden placed upon the end-users, but actually it was the need to swipe the keycard on the way out of the building when one was done working that caused the most problems. The door was not locked from the inside, so employees were able to exit without clocking out once their shift was finished. This would force management to go into the time log and manually clock out the employee. It was not a major inconvenience for the management, but requiring them to manually correct a system that was intended to be automated just lowered the managers’ efficiency.

The passive RFID tags placed on keycards, in the US passport, and on boxes for inventory tracking are low cost and relatively safe. There is the possibility that someone will try to clone the tag; however, for it to be cloned the tag needs to be in close proximity of the criminal’s scanner. Criminals are able to gain the information on the tag if they are able to get close enough to scan it. However, the information on the tag itself is not always of value to the criminal. The database should be setup in a way that only a few individuals have access to the building at anytime, so if the criminal obtains the ID number of a typical employee then their access to the building will be restricted from times when they would be hoping to commit criminal activities. In some instances it might almost be safer to provide the top management with ordinary keys for their access into the building during atypical hours. The active RFID tags are the type that evokes the feeling of a police state. An active tag is capable of sending out its signal without relying on the scanner. The passive tag does not have power to send out its signal, the scanner that reads the tag provides the power source. The active tags would be capable of sending out signals in a clandestine manner, but the fear of being spied on through the use of an active tag is not that intimidating when the ability to track people through GPS is widely available.

The major issue that I have with RFID tags is the information that is stored on the tag. The data on the tag should be small and should not contain information that can be used without a corresponding database. It is reckless when the information on the tag is useful to criminals on its own. The new US passports contain a RFID tag that contains personal information about the passport holder. It not only contains the information that identifies the passport holder, but it also contains a digital photo of the individual. This is an example of RFID tag usage that is frightening. To have all of your information capable of being stolen without even losing the passport is not an appealing prospect for people. When personal information is stored on the RFID tag it makes the belief that one needs a Faraday cage / shield to stop unauthorized reading of the tag seem more prudent than paranoid.

follow up paper

David Stevens
MCS 760
April 30, 2007

Mesh Networking Follow-up Paper

The use of networks from linking systems to sharing an Internet access point makes the stability of these networks paramount. The stability of a mesh networked system makes the network design layout appealing. The network is not reliant upon one source to gain access to the Internet, and the network is also not reliant on a server hub for accessing or sending information among the end-users. A mesh networking setup is cost affective because it is easy to maintain and is not always crippled by the failure of an access point since there are multiple.

The presentation covered the history of mesh networking and showed examples of the present use of mesh networking; however, the importance of mesh networking for future networking endeavors should not be lost. As mobile computing devices become smaller and more versatile the concept of a global network providing information access is an attractive prospective. The ability to provide cheap wireless access in residential areas by spreading the cost of Internet access over multiple end-users for each node with a backhaul to the Internet was discussed during the presentation. In this manner, communities will be able to fight the cost of high-speed internet access while utilizing their bandwidth in the most efficient manner. This is an appropriate option with the present technologies of MIMO (multiple in multiple out) routers and draft-N signal strength for residential communities. However, the users will get good performance from their network, but the setup will not be ideal for prolonged downloading (the usage of BitTorrent could cripple the network). The current community mesh network lacks the power to appease bandwidth gluttony; however, the stability of a mesh network allows the node administrators to spend more of their time limiting single users from draining the community bandwidth cache.

The idea of a regional to global mesh network makes the prospect of mobile computing devices inviting, and it also allows people to look at other options for staying connected. A regional mesh network would make the prospect of owning a mobile VOIP phone a cheap alternative to the cost of owning a cell phone. The topic of Fonero was discussed during the presentation. This idea of making a global mesh network is having a hard time overcoming the resistance people have to sharing their Internet access. The amount of spy-ware and computer viruses on the Internet does not make people feel comfortable about providing and utilizing a mesh network. It is hard to be trusting with all of the bad things that have been put onto the Internet in the past. However, if the regional mesh network movement is to gain a foothold people are going to have to trust the security programs and the other users that they allow into their mesh network. In an ideal world, people could trust one and another without having to worry about someone taking malicious actions against them. This is not the case presently so people need to set up a mesh network that repeats a wireless signal while being protective of the content on their own computer.

RFID the good and the bad

My Fourth Position Paper

By Nancy

There are many times that we run into the applications of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in our daily activities without realizing what they are, for example, shopping in supermarket store such as Wal-mart and Walgreen, or paying electronic toll like i-Pass when driving to the toll way. Typically, a basic RFID system are composed of an antenna, a transceiver (with a decoder), and a transponder (RFID tag) electronically programmed. The antenna (packaged in the transceiver and decoder) emits radio waves in ranges from one inch to 100 feet or more, depending upon its power output and the radio frequency used. When the RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) which is then passed to the host computer for data processing, i.e., count the number of products sold in the store or reduce the amount of money paid from the transportation payment account.

RFID tags are categorized as either passive or active. Passive tags require no internal power supply whereas active tags do. Consequently, passive tags are much lighter and less expensive than active ones. However, they can be used within shorter distance and require a higher-powered reader. RFID tags come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes depending on their applications. RFID systems are also distinguished by their frequency ranges: low-frequency system (30-500 KHz) used in security access, assets tracking, and animal identification applications, and high-frequency system (850-950 MHz or 2.4-2.5 GHz) used in automated toll application. The higher performance of high-frequency RFID systems results in higher initial and operating cost.

Advantages over Barcode Technology:
Even though the barcode label (a visual-format surface that contains information which will be read by an optical scanner making computer entry process much faster) is very cost-effective, however, the significant advantage of all types of RFID systems is the non-contact, non-beam-of-light nature of the technology. Tags can be read through a variety of substances such as snow, fog, ice, painted/crusted surface, or other visually and environmentally challenging conditions, where barcodes or other optically read technologies would be useless.

RFID tags can also be read in challenging circumstances at remarkable speeds (electronic toll collection) and in most cases responding in less than 100 milliseconds. The read/write capability of an active RFID system is also the significant advantage in interactive applications such as work-in-process or maintenance tracking. Though it is a more expensive technology (compared with barcode), RFID has become indispensable for a wide range of automated data collection and identification applications that would not be possible for the barcode technology.

Business Applications:
There are many RFID applications that are beneficial to business industries. For example, they are used in supply chain management, product tracking, and inventory systems.

One of the most important features of RFID technology is that it can collect a wealth of real-time data. It is going to generate gigantic amount of data about the location of individual products in the supply chain, information about when and where merchandise is manufactured, picked, packed and shipped, and numbers of products that will have to be stored, transmitted in real-time, and shared with warehouse management, inventory management, financial and other enterprise systems.

RFID technology is also one of the most important key elements for being a real-time enterprise. Applications of RFID technology are also going to need to rely on a novel computing architecture, in which vast amounts of data processing will take place.

Standard Issues:
Until now, there is no global regulation that governs the frequencies used for RFID. Many documents that are set out to review today’s RFID standards or standards relevant to RFID express no warrantee that they will become out of date after they are published. A number of standard organizations regarding to RFID technology include FCC, ANSI, ASTM, and ISO.

In general, low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) RFID tags can be used without any license. Ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) cannot be used globally since there is no single global standard. For example, the US UHF standard is not accepted in France as it interferes with France’s military bands. Most of Asian countries have no regulation for the use of UHF. Application for UHF in some countries needs a license, which can be applied at the local authorities and later can be revoked if necessary.

Privacy Issues:
The expanding uses of RFID — embraced by large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, ePassport by US government with RFID Tag, or Verichip implanting, have raised some concerns on privacy issues. Because scanners can read RFID chips from a short distance for security, convenient, and commercial purposes, privacy advocates worry that the technology could eventually be used to track people’s movements that would later lead to wrongful uses.

Members of the groups including IT vendors, RFID users, and consumer advocates recommend all companies using RFID tags on products to always tell their customers that RFID tags are active in their stores and also make sure they know whether they can deactivate the tags or how that data will be used.
For ePassport, US government is now working on the process on how to prevent the privacy and identity theft on the ePassport’s RFID tag. Form what I heard, current RFID trackers cannot be accessed to obtain information if our passports stay tightly closed in our briefcase or pocket.

The implementations of Verichip, the human body implanting chip, which could be used to track and access the individual medical record, employment, and personal information or allow gain in different level of data access for an employee, are still in dispute. The developers argue that the level of authorized access to personal information will depend upon the receiver equipment. General tracker tool would be able to get only the tag ID. However, in my opinion, I would not feel comfortable anyway. Technology moves around so fast, perhaps shortly there after, some hackers may come up with the new method or tools to steal our information. And the idea of implanting a chip into human’s body may also make one terrified.

Security Issues:
There are two main concerns in terms of security issues on RFID technology. The first one is tag cloning that may cause data stealing or unauthorized reading. Several cryptographic protocols are developed to solve this problem. One major challenge is to shortage the computational resources within the tag. Standard cryptographic techniques require high performance circuits than ones available in most low cost RFID devices. Various policy measures have also been proposed, such as marking RFID tagged objects with an industry standard label.

The second concern is RFID database protection. There was a report in 2006 on viruses that could infect airport terminal RFID databases for baggage, and Passport databases that obtain confidential information on the passport holder. One core issue is whether RFID data should be centralized, decentralized or both. The product information should be associated with the tag on the network, or off. And if product information resides on the tag, how can a company protect consumer privacy? There are still on-going debates among these issues.

Summary:
Developments in RFID technology continue to yield higher capacities such as larger memory, wider reading ranges, and faster processing and its applications grow tremendously into different areas of interest including medical, business transportation, and automobile industries. It is believed that the technology will ultimately replace the barcode since RFID has so many benefits to offer such as real-time data processing and read/write capabilities even in harsh environment. If some standard issues are resolved, whereby RFID equipment from different manufacturers can be used interchangeably, the market will likely grow exponentially.

Privacy and security issues are also one of the most important concerns in RFID implementation. How well one’s individual information including medical, financial, personal records are maintained and properly used is still in a lot of arguments. For business applications, better management in terms of data analysis plans for such high amount of data in real-time manners and integration strategies to better suit the company’s organizational structure are needed for future RFID business demands.

RFID What?!?

Tanner Dabel

4^th Opinion paper

RFID

RFID What?!?

Radio Frequency Identification (aka RFID) actually isn’t a new concept. It’s been around its been around as RFID for at least the last two – three decades and even more if you look at its predecessor technology from as far back as the 1920’s and 30’s. What you might have noticed however, is that RFID technology is currently in the state of rapid devolvement and has become the latest technology trend. What is RFID? Well it’s the fairly simple idea of having a RFID tag in or on something and will respond to radio waves sent by a near by transponder or antenna. In the most general sense, RFID is used to tag and track something. RFID can be coupled with other type of sensors so that it can gather readings of humidity, shock, temperature, light and vibration (among other things). This allows for RFID tagging to be very flexible in its use.

Current uses of RFID technology include; passports, transportation payment, product tracking, animal tracking, authentication, record keeping among many other tasks. RFID has proven to be a cheap and cost efficient way to record information about a certain item or thing. So, now that we’ve had a brief review of what RFID is, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how a business might use leverage RFID to gain a competitive advantage and a few potential pitfalls to RFID technology.

First up, let’s look at the RFID in a companies supply chain. Externally and internally speaking, using RFID is a good cost effective move to keeping a company competitive in today’s world market. As a large company, if you enforce that the suppliers of your products use RFID, shipments could be tracked easier and inventory records become more accurate. This would allow for more automation of some processes within the external aspects of the supply chain dealing with your suppliers. This automation can eliminate the cost human error while increasing productivity. Productivity is increased by the fact that this automation of processes can run near to if not around the clock 24/7. This automation ultimately over time will create a reduction of cost for those suppliers of your products. When this occurs, the suppliers will be able to charge less on their items and yet make the same profit, allowing your company to save when buying from the supplier.

Another benefit mentioned above is that of tracking. With RFID tagging, it is very easy to track shipments weather it be on a ship, truck or on a hand truck just about to be delivered. Your company can see the log of where the items are and when they are expected to reach specific destinations on the path to your stores warehouse. This is helpful because most of the time, the last leg of a trip for an item is via trucking service. There are many people on the road and accidents can happen. For this example, lets say there’s a five car pile up ten miles North on the interstate your truck full of RFID items is on (don’t worry, no one was hurt, just a lot of insurance claims). As the truck approaches the crash site, travel time is lost (and if the truck has to stop, a lot of travel time is lost!) At this point, little can be done about the shipment arriving on time. But, as soon as the truck hits its next check point, those RFID tags will get logged and your company will see there was a delay in reaching the check point. Because of this, the tracking system has already updated its manifest to show when the shipment will hit its next check points and when the shipment will ultimately arrive at the company warehouse. All this information can be communicated without a single person having to do anything outside of what they already were doing. The truck driver keeps their rig moving. The company checks its logs to see when the truck is expected, and the supplier continues to supply goods by filling trucks and sending shipments out. This is called added value to the company. The RFID has allowed for an awful lot of information to be communicated through an automated process. With this new information, a company can plan for the delay and work around it. As the saying goes, “Information is Power” and with this, more information can be recorded through less means of actual human interaction with a higher percentage of accuracy. In the end, this means saved dollars on the bottom line.

Lastly a company can help to better understand its own inventory through the means of RFID tagging. As an inventory control, RFID tags can help keep a better account of the physical inventory than a human could. It is also easier to scan and more can be scanned quicker through the means of RFID tagging. Because of this, internal inventory processes within a company can be streamlined, be more accurate and allow for better efficiency. Again, over the long term, this means more saved dollars and a better looking bottom line for such a company.

Moving on to the some of the more controversial aspects of RFID, let’s discuss such issues as security and privacy. The use of RFID in such things like security badges and building access cards are good examples. On the surface, having RFID used for security might seem like a great idea, but problems have occurred. Not everything is completely peachy with RFID when it comes to security. When using RFID there are some trade offs people sometimes forget, such as a.) RFID can be cracked and hacked and b.) full disclosure isn’t always provided.

RFID currently is susceptible to phenomena called illicit tracking. Meaning, a third party attempts (and sometimes is successful) in gathering information being sent or received by the RFID tag. Most encryption has held up, but where RFID has failed hasn’t been in the encryptions, but rather in bugs that were found and exploited. Once the bugs are known viruses can be used to compromise the information contained on a RFID tag. If the information on the RFID tag is limited, then I’d agree that it is a good idea to use them for security purposes within a company. To ensure that the employee’s right to privacy isn’t being compromised, the security aspect of the RFID technology needs to a.) be strongly encrypted with either a challenge-response authentication (which can be costly), or to a lesser degree, the rolling code scheme and b.) contain only the most necessary information on the tag required. Any extra information beyond that of what is essentially needed runs the risk of being compromised.

The other area where RFID sometimes gets in trouble is what information is being kept on the RFID tag and does the user know of what is all being kept on the RFID tag. This issue isn’t as concerned with security as it is with privacy. Full disclosure of what information is being kept and tracked on the RFID tag is the primary concern. To ensure information isn’t abused, business polices need to be implemented to explain why such information is being collected and how it will be collected. To give a new employee a security badge or building access card without explicitly stating what information is being kept on that badge/card and how that information is being used would be a violation of that employee’s privacy. Once a employee understands what rights to privacy they are giving up in exchange for the card/badge, then I’m entirely ok with this process, but an employee should have the right to know they are being watched and by how.

So as you can see, RFID has many uses and with that some uses are more suitable than others. When it comes to uses that strictly involve the tracking and monitoring of items through the supply chain (e.g. truck loads, or pallets) I feel there are more benefits to warrant such a use and things appear to be very black and white. My recommendation is that it be used for this purpose. However, when it comes other uses that directly involve an individual (such as access cards), things become greyer. When an individual’s rights and privacy are thrown into the equation I begin to question at what degree RFID should be used. With the policy of full disclosure and strong encryption I can reluctantly agree to its usage, but users need to be aware of the technologies pitfalls; weather it be weakness within the technology design or outside influences such as third party eavesdroppers and skimmers. Information is power and knowledge is power, without either, one would be a fool to use any such technology.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID)

Third Position Paper

By Kamakshi Samala

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method of coupling of electromagnetic or electrostatic in the RF (radio frequency) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which is used to transmit signals. RFID system consists of an antenna and a transceiver that reads the radio frequency and transfers the information to a processing device, and a transponder, or tag, (an integrated circuit containing the RF circuitry and information to be transmitted).

Even though the RFID technology is similar in theory of bar code identification, the key difference is RFID eliminates the need for line-of-sight reading that bar coding depends on. Also, RFID scanning can be done from a greater distances than bar code scanning. High frequency RFID systems (850 MHz to 950 MHz and 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz) offer transmission ranges of more than 90 feet, although wavelengths in the 2.4 GHz range are absorbed by water (the human body) and therefore has limitations.

RFID cards are also known as "proximity", "proxy" or "contactless cards" and come in three varieties: passive, semi-passive (also known as semi-active), or active.

Passive RFID tags – These tags have no internal power supply. A minute electrical current is induced in the antenna by the incoming radio frequency signal. This provides enough power for the CMOS integrated circuit in the tag to power up. This helps to transmit a response. Most passive tags have antenna designed to both collect power from the incoming signal and also to transmit the outbound backscatter signal. The response of a passive RFID tag is not just an ID number; the tag chip can contain non-volatile EEPROM for storing data. Since this lacks an onboard power supply, which means that the device can be quite small.

Active RFID tags - Unlike passive RFID tags, these tags have their own internal power source which is used to power any integrated circuits that generate the outgoing signal. As these tags have ability to conduct session with a reader, they are much more reliable than the passive tags. They also transmit higher power levels than passive tags as they have onboard power supply. This feature makes them more effective in "RF challenged" environments like water (including humans/cattle, which are mostly water), metal (shipping containers, vehicles), or at longer distances. Many active tags have practical ranges of hundreds of meters, and a battery life of up to 10 years. The smallest active tags are about the size of a cold capsule and cost a few dollars.

Uses of RFID

There are many uses of RFID. Some are as follows;

1. Used in passports as e-passports which not only records the travel information but a thin metal lining incorporated in the passport makes it difficult for unauthorized readers to "skim" information when the passport is closed.

2. Used in Transport payments. E.g. T-money cards (Seoul), SUICa (Japan), Octopus Card (Hong Kong), etc. are used for paying in public transportation; Public toll roads are equipped with an RFID payment system, for example, AutoPass (Norway), E-ZPass , SunPass, EZ Tag, K-Tag etc are used in U.S.

3. Used in product tracking. For e.g., Farmers use it to identify a bovine's herd of origin; used in library book or bookstore tracking, pallet tracking, building access control, airline baggage tracking, apparel and pharmaceutical item tracking; used to track supply chain from warehouse to consumer; also used to track shipping container, and truck and trailer tracking in shipping yards.

4. RFID is also used for animal identification; human implants, for example Night Clubs in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, use an implantable chip to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to pay for drinks.

5. Used in Automotives. Microwave RFID tags are used in long range access control for vehicles. It’s used as a Smart Key/Smart Start option in vehicles. The key uses an active RFID circuit allowing the car to detect the key approximately 3 feet from the sensor. The driver can open the doors and start the car with the key in his pocket. Ford, Honda, and several other manufacturers use RFID-equipped ignition keys as anti-theft measures.

Pros of RFID

RFID provides valuable service by which companies can track products in a more efficient manner. Military, retailers, suppliers, consulting firms, producers of the technology, and consumers, are benefited by it in many ways. It provides companies a better alternative to bar-code using as it contains information on the product that is easily readable and accessible for the reader. This in turn would also help to revolutionize the entire supply chain of the companies by improving its efficiencies and overall business intelligence and thereby reducing costs and human errors.

The U.S. military is also benefited by the use of active and passive RFID systems. The Department of Defense has created the RFID Military Compliance Solution to help suppliers and manufacturers meet the military’s new standards for RFID. This has helped to improve their communication and transportation system during wars and has also helped to save large amount of money. This way the military was successful in creating better visibility on their supply chain which thereby increased their productivity and stability.

Companies and retailers that have high demand for supply chain can gain advantage by using this system in their supply chain management. This would help to improve their productivity, save on human labor costs, and would give companies real-time visibility with their products. Wal-Mart was the first retailer to use RFID in their distribution centers and warehouses. Once Wal-Mart was successful, many companies started using this system.

Retailers and other companies that have a demanding supply chain can gain advantage by using RFID in the supply chain. By demanding that all levels of their supply chain be RFID, it’s capable to be a sizable investment. The productivity increase that follows the initial investment and implementation for companies will pay for their investment.

RFID makes the business world seem like a smaller place when the companies that combined their supply chain technologies with the RFID, started seeing great results. This will help to achieve the goal of companies supply chain by reducing the time needed to be productive, and by automating as much of the supply chain as possible. It also reduces human error, and machines are capable of running twenty-four hours a day and cost less than human labor. The application of RFID on a large company like Wal-Mart or Target, as well as smaller retail stores can ensure a better shopping experience with more in-stock items and a more knowledgeable store.

The market of RFID is booming. Many technological companies have gotten in this game of producing RFID parts and systems thereby allowing many companies to become consulting firms for the RFID technology. The RFID market was roughly one billion dollars in 2006 and is estimated to grow anywhere from $1.3 billion by IDC, to $4.2 Billion by the Yankee Group in 2008. Roughly 20-25% of the market is made up of consulting work for the technology and the last 5% is made up of software for RFID. The biggest challenge for producers and consultants of RFID is the reliability and durability of RFID systems and products. It is hard to predict the wear and tear a product will experience over a period time. But researchers say that it not only help the companies to control human errors but will also help the companies to prove their ROI (Return on Investment), can help save one time operating costs and will help to provide better customer service by having real time information on the products. It would also help to reduce theft in the store and warehouses.

Ultimately the consumers should be the winner with RFID being implemented throughout a company’s supply chain. Stores will save money in the long run by bringing down the costs of the products. This way the consumers can expect more informative customer service with the companies using RFID, by the way of the company sharing their real time data with the customers. Having RFID tags on certain products can also make people’s lives much easier. For example, a microwave reads and recognizes the tag of the food we put in and will automatically cook it according to the directions on the tag. It also helps environmentally because companies will use resources more efficiently, benefiting everyone. Once RFID tags are able to be used on food products it will make a recall on a certain item much easier and it could potentially save lives. Also consumers use RFID everyday and many do not realize the benefits they are receiving from the technology. For example, the “Speedpass” allows contactless form of payment thereby allowing customers to wave the card in front of a reader to pay for gas or anything in the convenient store. Visa and MasterCard allows people to have money on a card (either debit or credit) which decreases waiting time at check-out places and increases loyalty for the companies that offer this feature. Another use of smart cards is keyless entries, and many more. Therefore, RFID is a beneficial technology for consumers which help to save time and offer those conveniences that traditional bar coding, credit cards and keys cannot offer.

Cons of RFID

RFID has been around for more than fifty years but there has been a rapid development in technology since last five to six years. Even though it has many potential advantages but there are many disadvantages as well.

U.S. military was the early adopter of this technology. The biggest problem they faced was the security issues. The tags consisted complete product information which made easy for the enemy to collect information from the tags thereby creating more risks of attacks from the enemies.

Large companies using RFID tags also face some potential problems. RFID has no proven infrastructure which makes difficult for suppliers to keep up with the company’s demands to become RFID-ready. Therefore, suppliers cannot implement RFID into the business and retailers cannot get information about their supply chain. This way the retailers trying to solve their supply chain management problems by using RFID, cannot benefit from it.

Privacy issue is the main disadvantage of RFID. The retailers cannot have any specific information of the consumer if the tags are affixed to pallets and cartons of the product. But by having RFID tags on individual products, retailers can trace consumer’s buying habits; keep articles from theft and keep their inventory at an acceptable level. But this process leads to disclosure of other consumer information which the consumer would prefer to keep private.

RFID could also be bad for our health. Supporters of RFID predict a world where RFID reader devices are everywhere - in stores, in floors, in doorways, on airplanes, even in the refrigerators and medicine cabinets of our own homes. In such a world, our lives would be continually exposed to electromagnetic energy. Research is taking place in this area but researchers still do not know the long-term health effects of chronic exposure to the energy emitted by these reader devices.

The main disadvantages of RFID are the privacy concerns, technological imperfections, cost of the technology and no proven methods to set up an RFID system for a company. The government and corporations are the two main groups that are most concerned for privacy issues. Hidden tags and readers threaten to take away human mystery thereby offering a world where people see, feel and hear only what the government and large corporation want people to do.

Hence, in my opinion, RFID is at the very outset of its evolution and diffusion. The technology will surely witness many exciting and interesting developments over the next few years. But the future of RFID is still uncertain. The privacy issues will still persist even though the cost of RFID system decreases. If privacy issues are not watched closely, people will become tagged and there will always be someone watching and analyzing every person’s decisions. Therefore, in order to be successful in their business, the companies must work with privacy advocate groups in order to develop a fair way of using RFID system without making their customers hostile.

RFID: A New Identification Device

Chinnapong Somsueb
ID# 1671071
4th Position paper
MCS 760

RFID: A New Identification Device

RFID (Radio-frequency identification) is an automatic identification method relying on storing and remotely retrieving data. It is often used with devices called RFID tags or transponders. Currently, its usages are expanding and will become a part of our daily lives. Even though we do not recognize any RFID devices, the usage of them would be increase considerably. The common use of RFID would be a personal and unique identification, transport payment, and product identification.

RFID could be used for the personal identification like a biometric passport system which has already been implemented in several countries. It could prevent some kinds of skimming or cloning which could be done from the old system. Moreover, the RFID chip inside a biometric passport could store some information like smartcard does. Therefore, important information in a digital format such as signatures and images could be stored inside this chip besides the actual passport picture. Furthermore, we could also put a tiny RFID chip in our pets in order to track their position which could prevent losing them.

One of the common usages of RFID is in transportation. It could be used as the identification for toll payment. According to the fact that it would be detected in a very short period and within a few feet, several cities around the world have implemented their RFID system for years in order to avoid using actual money and papers. This system can also decrease a travel time in rush hour by avoiding paying a toll.

From a business perspective, RFID can be used instead of barcode. Merchants could track their inventory and link that data to an inventory system. Moreover, RFID can also be used as detection tool as well as theft prevention. Retailers can implement this for both item identification for matching with their inventory and prevent shop lifting.

On the other hand, RFID technology is more expensive than barcode. Its cost would affect both consumers and retailers. In addition, being a new technology, RFID will take time for people to be familiar with it. Several mistakes can happen by using RFID system, such as misuse of the RFID toll lane without the device, forgetting to deactivate before leaving the store, or vulnerability through stored information.

In conclusion, this technology could lead to a new emerging firm, such as an automobile identification, auto payment, and retail theft prevention business. In my point of view, I think that this technology has a strong potential for growth due to a variety of applications which are expanding dramatically. Not only retail, transportation, and packaging business, but also health care, pharmaceutical, and chemical businesses could implement this technology in order to improve their productivity. According to cio.com’s information, the 1.3 billion RFID tags produced in 2005, and predicted that more than 33 billion RFID tags will be produced globally by 2010. As a result, if there are a number of usages, the price of RFID would be reduced. We can use this technology with any additional features with any unpredictable applications, which can lead to convenience and accuracy.

Mesh Networking

Rokeshia Robinson
3rd Position paper
Mesh Networking



Wikipedia states that Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between nodes. It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by “hopping” from node to node until the destination is reached. A mesh network whose nodes are all connected to each other is a fully connected networks. Mesh networks differ from other networks in that the component parts can all connect to each other via multiple hops, and they generally are not mobile.

Like every other topic that we have discussed in class, there are several advantages and disadvantages with mesh networking. Advantages of mesh networking can allow organizations to revolutionize the way they communicate, helping them to cut costs, boost employee productivity, improve community service, and increase public safety. Mesh networks allow organizations to extend the reach of their wired infrastructure to deliver affordable managed wireless broadband services. A managed service offering helps enable employees and customers to:

• Shift expense from capital outlay to operational expenses, making it easier to win budget approval
• Eliminate the need for new hires and incremental staff to deploy and operate equipment
• Minimize backhaul transport costs
• Pay as they grow, allowing organizations to scale services as needed
• Get service rapidly deployed
• Provide wireless roaming and access in facilities such as plazas, office buildings, libraries, community centers, etc.

On the most basic level, a mesh network is appealing to businesses and other organizations because it saves money on cabling. With a mesh network, a business only has to run a power cable, not a data cable, to most access points. The data is transmitted over the air from one access point to another until one finally ties into the hard-wired network. Using such a system, a network manager might only have to connect one of every five or 10 access points to the hard-wired network.

Instead of moving data from a device to a wireless access point to a wired network, a mesh network moves data from access point to access point, depending on availability and proximity, and then eventually onto a wired network. Mesh network traffic flows in much the same way that data travels across multiple points on the Internet before reaching a final destination. In its most complex form, a mesh network could work like a peer-to-peer network, where devices both send their own data and forward data on for other devices. In an environment like that, the more devices on a network, the better the network functions.

Mesh networking technology lets providers augment their wired backhaul infrastructure to provide wireless broadband services with very high security, reliability, and scalability. It relies on the mature 802.11 standard for wireless networking and thus is a highly stable technology, unlike other emerging transport methods that are unproven and do not utilize the ubiquitous installed base of 802.11 clients. Mesh networks also feature self-healing and dynamic route optimization capabilities, making them simple and cost-effective to deploy and manage.
In addition to advantages, there are several disadvantages to mesh networks. Mesh networks are a great concept. But the challenge lies in managing the dynamics of mesh networks so users receive an acceptable level of performance in terms of both latency and throughput. One disadvantage to mesh networking is that it requires a lot of access points, so deploying in a mesh architecture can be expensive, initial cost. The other issue is scalability. In a very large network there would be so much routing information moving from access point to access point, it would be unclear how much these networks can scale and maintain their bandwidth for users. Last, but no where near least, a mesh network is not pure 802.11, so it does not integrate well with WLAN.

In conclusion, there are several advantages and disadvantage that can be argued when supporting and implementing mesh networks in organizations. I believe that mesh networking works well in public organizations such as universities, parks, etc, but can be a real headache for some smaller public and private organizations. All in all, I can’t wait to hear what issues and concerns that are going to be addressed in class tonight.