RFID Passive

There is no international body governing the use of RFID frequencies. Each country decides its own practices, usually the national communications authority. This introduces some restrictions on the use of RFID tags. For example, ultra high frequency tags cannot be used on a global basis without common standard. Frequencies licensed for RFID use in one country might conflict with ranges allocated to civilian or military use in another country.

Despite this, a number of standards are in place dealing with specific aspects of RFID technology.
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) lists over 30 current standards covering areas such as reader protocols, performance test methods, guidelines for use in item management and in animals. Over 20 additional standards are currently at various pre-issue stages.

EPCglobal is a venture founded by the global standards organisations GS1 and its American member organisation, GS1 US, who are primarily involved in the development of standards for supply chain management, and previously set global standars for barcodes. EPCglobal’s brief is to provide similar standard for commercial applications of RFID technology, and works with both suppliers and end users to set standards benefitting both.

EPCglobal was responsible for developing the EPC Gen 2 standard in 2004, which provides a protocol for communication for UHF RFID tags operating in the 860-960MHz range. This standard was subsequently ratified by the ISO and incorporated into ISO 18000-6. This standard provides for uniquely numbered RFID passive tags acting as an Electronic Product Code (EPC), which can be read globally by any EPC-compliant RFID reader.

The benefits of a guaranteed unique EPC serial number are obvious – any such RFID passive tag can be tracked worldwide. The EPC also provides a specification for a network through which this tracking can be done – the RFID reader passes the information to a computer which queries a name service to determine where to access further details on the tagged object, in a similar fashion to how a DNS resolves a web address. Together with standards for how data is stored, read and updated, EPC Gen 2 provides a complete framework for international use of RFID passive tags for supply chain management.

The issue of available UHF frequencies in different coutries is still present, however. EPCglobal maintains a list of UHF RFID regulations in both GS1 member countries and major non-members, which includes permitted frequencies and power levels in each country.

EPCglobal also provides a set of recommendations on how RFID passive tag use should respect consumer privacy, making consumers aware of the presence of RFID passive tags on products, advising them on how to disable or remove them or learn more about them, and ensuring that personally identifying information is not retained.