Book Review: RFID Essentials
Wanting to get smarter about Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID),
I welcomed the opportunity to read some new titles on the topic. I started
reading the first of these, RFID
Essentials by Bill
Glover and Himanshu
Bhatt (2006, O'Reilly, 276 Pages,
ISBN 0596009445), not knowing what to expect. What I walked away with was
not only a high level understanding of the technical aspects of RFID, but
also an excellent discussion of the compliance, governance, privacy and
security issues that surround its expanded growth and use. If there is
a title that truly matches its content, this would be it.
The authors write that they undertook
this book because there was no title like it on the market: a book that
could target readers in between senior management and electrical engineers.
As the child of an old-school software engineer with minimal knowledge
on the topic, I was eager to accept this as their goal.
The book begins with an introduction
to RFID. In doing this, they break down the use of the technology into
distinct eras, with the compliance era being the current time frame. Tracking
back to the post-war 1940's, they walk through an overview of how RFID
came to be with the birth of transistors. Fast-forwarding to the compliance
era, driven by vendors such as Wal-Mart, they seek to explain how most
RFID-based activities meet up with traditional compliance projects, with
the emphasis being on meeting requirements with the lowest total cost of
ownership (TCO). They then look at the "could be" as RFID-enabled
enterprises come on line. They look at the various RFID application types,
considerations for each of these types, and implementation of these types.
They conclude this chapter wit an outline of the challenges, as well as
some RFID adoption guidelines.
Chapter 2 of the book covers an overview
of a "RFID Architecture". In this chapter, the authors walk through
sequential items that need to be considered when looking at the implementation
of an architecture. If there is an important lesson to be taken from this
chapter, it would be the need to focus on business requirements.
Chapter 3 focuses on RFID Tags. They
walk through basic tag capabilities, physical characteristics of tags,
power sources, the "air interface", and more. They key in on
the how and when to use various types of tags. A key understanding of this
chapter is to look beyond the hype and at the realities. In chapter 4,
they cover tag protocols. This discussion begins with a discussion of RFID
Protocol terms and concepts. They then discuss how tags store data, as
well as tag features that address security and privacy.
Starting in Chapter 5, the authors begin
their discussion of readers and printers. This chapter includes important
discussions of the types of readers that are available, and how to determine
which ones make the best sense for a RFID implementation. Chapter 6 extends
this discussion to include reader protocols.
From a business perspective, Chapter
7 offers insight into the important topic of data integration through middleware.
A bit more technical in depth, this chapter covers issues associated with
polling and managing the data provided by tags. Aside from the "commercial"
for their employer (Sun), they do a good job covering high level discussions
of middleware considerations, laced with technical content for systems
architects to start their thinking. This line of thought continues in Chapter
8 in their coverage of the RFID Information Service.
Chapter 9 gets into the sensitive topic
of manageability. Because RFID lives on the edge and the architecture has
the potential to be massive in size, there are a number of areas that need
to be planned for, including automation, The authors cover this with discussions
of required capabilities, as well a standards and technologies.
Chapter 10 gets into a topic near and
dear to my heart: privacy and security. The authors, while discussing the
fact that public reaction to RFID is based on a great deal of speculation
and misinformation, acknowledge that public perception will win, Without
managing that perception with the realities of controls, the enterprise
implementing RFID introduces additional risk into the environment. Unlike
the authors of another RFID title I will be reviewing this week, they take
a low-key, non-reactionary approach to this issue. This allows for the
reader to think about the issues without being broad-sided by fear,uncertainty
and doubt.
The book wraps up with a discussion
of RFID futures in Chapter 11.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book should be read by anybody
who needs to get up to speed quickly on RFID technology and issues. This
includes business managers and systems architects. It is also an excellent
resource for information technology auditors who need to gain in understanding
of the technology (in fact, it can serve as the basis for developing the
skeleton of a RFID audit plan, fleshed out with more details later.
The book is not designed for high-end
tech heads or people who want to look at specific ERP-type applications.
It was not written for this audience.
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