Agenda

Taming the RFID Data Explosion

Agenda

Adding value to raw data Avoiding data overload Edge processing with RFID Anywhere Creating valuable information for the enterprise

The RFID System

RFID Tags RFID Readers Middleware Enterprise Systems

Many points from start to finish where you have the ability to touch data and add value

Focus on processing along the way to minimize volume and ensure value

Data at the hardware layer

Very little data on RFID tags• 64, 96, 128 bits + of encoded data for passive RFID tags• Unique identifier, possibly custom data• Other systems can also send location and sensor info

RFID readers can read multiple tags simultaneously, multiple times per second• The data read by a reader and exposed to middleware is lots

of raw, unprocessed data• HEX or binary data that needs to be decoded• This raw stream of data is one potential source of data

overload if it isn’t handled immediately at the point of activity

Data overload

10,000 RFID-tagged items in a warehouse

Inventory taken every 2 minutes

1000 items added, 1000 items removed every day

Every 2 minutes: 10,000 x 96 bits = 117 kilobytesEvery hour: 30 x 117 kilobytes = 3.5 megabytesEvery day: 24 x 3.5 megabytes = 85 megabytes

But we only care about inventory changes(1000 added + 1000 removed) x 96 bits = 192000 bits

Therefore, < 1% of data above is “useful”

Edge processing

You often hear about massive amounts of RFID data being generated by a system, and the concerns of data overload• However, only a small amount of this data is actually valuable

Smoothing• The ability to ignore temporary data inconsistencies to avoid

generating meaningless events to business logic– i.e.: if a tag seemingly disappears during a 5 second span, but then

gets read again, was it ever really gone?

Filtering• The ability to not report on tags that match a specific criteria

– i.e.: certain application cares about tags on pallets, not about tags on cases or items

Where does filtering/smoothing occur?

At the reader? • Other applications might want to share the data from the

reader

At the enterprise or in a central database? • Network/bandwidth/storage impact of the abundance of

useless data

In your application code? • Requires developers to write a filtering/smoothing engine

At middleware layer?• Yes. Then developers work with important events only

RFID Anywhere

Flexible options for tag decoding, filtering and edge processing• Data Protocol Processor architecture enable powerful and

flexible tag encoding and decoding• Filtering and smoothing engine at heart of various

development and reporting methods

Knowledge state transitions

Smoothing configuration

Smoothing parameters configured at each hardware or simulator connector• Glimpsed Timeout• Observed Timeout• Observed Threshold• Lost Timeout

Changing these values has a SIGNIFICANT impact on how and when RFID events are generated in RFID Anywhere

Smoothing example

Don’t consider a tag Lost until the tag is not seen for 5 consecutive seconds

Publish and subscribe

RFID Anywhere has a publish/subscribe model for data generation and flow• If no components are subscribed to the data, it will be

automatically discarded• Multiple components can share the same data

Application Level Events (ALE)

Provides a standards-based method for applications to request and receive EPC tag data

Filter and consolidate data from multiple sources Exposes data in the form of periodic, XML-based ‘event

cycle reports’ or ALE reports• An event cycle is a configurable series of h/w read cycles• Reports summarize tag activity during the event cycle • Application that receives report process report and adds

business context Reports and event cycles are configurable

• Filtering, grouping, tags to report (current, added, deleted)

ALE Basics

Read Cycle 2 Read Cycle 3

EPC1

EPC2

EPC3

EPC1

EPC2

EPC4

EPC3

EPC5

Read Cycle 1

App 1 Event Cycle 1

Report Report

Read Cycle 5 Read Cycle 6

EPC3

EPC4

EPC3

EPC5

Read Cycle 4

Report

Report

EPC5

EPC3

EPC5

Read Cycle 7

EPC3

EPC5

App 2 Event Cycle 1

App 3 Event

Cycle 1App 2 Event Cycle 1

Report

Report

Defining Properties of ALE Event Cycle

Configure event cycle connector to only report on desired tags, group like tags, etc.• Use Exclude/Include pattern properties for filtering

– Value urn:epc:pat:gid-96:2.*.* in Include pattern property will only report GID 96 tags with a General Manager Number of 2

• Use Grouping patterns property to group like tags– Value urn:epc:pat:gid-96:X.*.* in Grouping pattern property groups GID

96 tags by General Manager Number in report

• Use Duration property to specify length of event cycle– Value 5000 in Duration property sends event cycle report to

Subscribers every 5 seconds

• Define what readers to receive raw data from • Define which messaging connectors to send event cycle reports to

Report Engine MP

An alternative for ALE• Outputs ALE-style XML• Declarative model for report properties

Some significant improvements• Multiprotocol support to collect data from different protocols

– Combine data from ISO and EPC tags into one report– Can use multiple DPPs in concert to create a report using data from

multiple protocols

• Scheduling support– “Send me this report every day at 5:00pm except on weekends.”

• Use SQL statements to build report– Create filtering and grouping sets using SQL instead of URI pattern

matching and simplify access to data fields– select * from sgtin96 where CompanyPrefix=1

Business modules overview

Focus on creating business logic• Wizards provide shell code and framework• Logic runs inside RFID Anywhere engine• Simple interaction with other RFID Anywhere components,

libraries, applications, databases, etc.• Libraries to help with common tasks

Business logic runs at the edge• Add value to raw data from hardware• Send important, processed information to enterprise• Orchestrate devices at the edge• Expose methods as Web Services

RFID tag events

During successive reads, tags move from state to state (knowledge state change is the ‘event’)• Each state change generates an event in RFID Anywhere

– i.e. New > Observed generates TagEventType.Observed event

• Triggers the OnRnEvent method of the business module• Developers check for the type of event, then details of the event

– New or observed, which reader/antenna it came from, tag ID, etc.

RFID Anywhere’s smoothing engine enables these events• Developers configure timeouts and thresholds on each connector

for when these events should occur• i.e.: if a tag is not read for 30 seconds, consider it lost, and

generate a TagEventType.Lost event for the tag

Business modules handle events from controllers

Business modules have high level

OnRnEvent( RnEventArgs[ ] args) method that gets called automatically for any hardware event

Developer iterates through event arguments, checking for:

• Specific types of events– RfidMPEventArgs, GPIOEventArgs, BarcodeEventArgs,

ProximityEventArgs, PlcEventArgs

• Values of event object properties– RfidMPEventArgs.TagID, ProximityEventArgs.Status

Then act on the event

• For example, if ProximityEventArgs.Status is TRUE, then instruct an RFID reader to begin reading

What do you do with the output?

Send to enterprise applications or processes Persist in a database for future reporting or to drive

other applications• What data should be stored – raw, reports, individual fields?• Schema design choices – existing or new?

Don’t have to overload these systems or databases with abundance of useless data because decoding, smoothing, filtering and edge processing make it possible for all information coming out of RFID Anywhere to be meaningful

Database persistence

RFID Database Schema and Persistence in RFID Enterprise automates the loading of RFID data into SQL databases• Provides a specialized RFID database schema for storing all

other data required to maintain the business context of the data, relating items to groups, reports, assets

• By using Sybase’s RFID offerings, you can get valuable RFID information into your database – no need to store every RFID tag read

Summary

Two key aspects to turning RFID data into information:• Converting raw tag data to meaningful context

– Need flexible architecture for current and future needs• Avoid data overload through filtering, smoothing and edge

processing– Whether using publish/subscribe reports-driven model (ALE,

Report Engine MP) or custom business logic, you want useful information

– Important to expose important EVENTS and processed information, not mounds of raw data

– Output suitable for integrating into the enterprise, persisting into a database, or feeding into local applications

RFID Anywhere’s powerful and flexible architecture enables both

RFID Anywhere Insider Program

Free access to technical resources to make your RFID project a success• Free version of RFID Anywhere Developer Edition

– Build and test with the simulator or with physical hardware

• Various documents on a wide range of topics– Whitepapers, tutorials, Tech Tips, and more

• Newsgroups– Interact with iAnywhere, or with other developers/integrators

Register now at www.ianywhere.com/RFID

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