RFID Regulations

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Radio communication legislation: Why?

• Need to ensure reliable radio communication – Interference will always cause problems– Governments legislate how spectrum is to be used– Variations around the globe, with drive for harmonisation – Surprisingly dynamic nature

• Both licensed and licence free bands– RFID traditionally uses licence-free bands– Shared with other users (mostly low power communications)

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Radio communication legislation: What?

• Who can use which frequencies – Public, military, commercial

• What the frequencies can be used for– Voice, video, telemetry, radio control

• How the spectrum is to be used– How long it can be used for– How it’s shared with others– What modulation schemes/air interfaces are possible– Power levels allowed

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UHF Band legislations

• Not fully harmonized worldwide

• Huge progress has been made in last three years– Europe (46 countries) adopted one band for UHF – Japan & Korea released a band for UHF– Singapore approved new regulations in November 2004– India and China are making progress

• A key UHF functionality: – Tags optimised for a certain frequency will be readable across

the whole 860 to 960 MHz range with very little loss of performance

– For example, tags programmed at 915 MHz in the US will read at 866 MHz in Europe or 950 MHz in Japan

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Electromagnetic spectrum

ElectricWaves

RadioWaves

Infra-red VisibleLight

Ultra-Violet

X-Rays GammaRays

CosmicRays

9kHz 30kHz 300kHz 3000kHz 30MHz 300MHz 3000MHz 30GHz 300GHz 3000GHz

VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF Notdesignated

LongWave

MediumWave

ShortWave

VLF Very Low Frequency VHF Very High Frequency

LF Low Frequency UHF Ultra High Frequency

MF Medium Frequency SHF Super High Frequency

HF High Frequency EHF Extremely High Frequency

Radio Spectrum

125-134 kHz 13,56 Mhz860-960 MHz

2,45 and 5,8 GHz

The “RFID” Frequencies

UHF

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HERE Map of the ITU regions

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ITU Region 1 (EU and Africa)

• CEPT countries– 869.4 - 869.65 MHz : 500mW erp : DC<10%

– 865.6 - 867.6 MHz : 2W erp (new standard)

• South Africa– 869.4 - 869.65 MHz : 500mW erp (proposed)

– 915.2 - 915.4 MHz : 8 W eirp

Notes: EIRP = Effective Isotropic Radiated Power

ERP = Effective Radiated Power

2W ERP is equivalent to 3.2W EIRP

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ITU Region 2 (Americas)

• USA, Canada and Mexico902 - 928 MHz : 4W eirp FHSS, 500kHz wide channels permitted – relaxed emission requirements within the whole band.

• Central & South AmericaGenerally similar to North America but varies from country to country.

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ITU Region 3 (Asia)

• Australia– 918 - 926 MHz : 1W eirp, FCC emission regs. Insufficient power

• New Zealand – 864 - 868 MHz : 4W eirp

• Japan– 950 - 956 MHz : Provisional test allocation

• South Korea– 910-914 MHz: Provisional allocation, to be confirmed soon

• India– UHF allocation being discussed with government.

• China– Good progress recently; Testing in progress

• Singapore (as of 2 November 2004)– 866 – 869 MHz: 0.5 W erp; 923 – 925: 2W erp (licence required above 0.5W erp)