uc berkeley nest retreat june 3, 2004 kenneth r. traub cto, connecterra, inc

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

UC Berkeley NEST RetreatJune 3, 2004

Kenneth R. TraubCTO, ConnecTerra, Inc.


Agenda

• Introduction to EPC & RFID• RFID “Middleware”• Data Language for EPC/RFID:

Application Level Events (ALE)


The Aware Enterprise

RFID

Sensors

Smart Devices

Use real-time data from autonomous devices to gain visibility, and thereby improve business processes and results

…epc:38000.171.234epc:38000.1571.3987epc:38000.171.2392epc:38000.171.1342…

…1500rpm1501rpm1600rpm1540rpm…

…PoS #1345Store 7, Aisle 6Scans: 3,495Transactions: 286Print lines: 5,987…

Internal Business Process and Applications

Suppliers &Customers


ConnecTerra

• Mission: Infrastructure software for the Aware Enterprise

• Focus on real-time data gathering from smart devices– Technologies which enable custom Device

Computing solutions – RFTagAware: EPC/RFID infrastructure

software


Two Innovations: EPC & RFID

• The Electronic Product Code (EPC)– Gives a unique identity to individual

physical objects: items, cases, pallets, locations, loads, assets, etc

• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)– Cheap sensing of object EPC codes

• The Yin and the Yang– EPC enables new, value-creating

business processes– RFID will make those processes practical

EPC

RFID


Electronic Product Code

• Every item has distinct serial number• Capacity for 200 billion serial numbers per

item (on 96-bit tag)• New business processes based on tracking

individual things

1732050807+

Company Code Product Code Unique Serial Number

= EPC


Applications: Drug Anti-Counterfeit

• Give every vial of drugs a “pedigree” by:– Assigning unique EPC at point of manufacture– Record sighting of EPC at each point in supply chain

• Suspect any vial lacking a proper pedigree:– Invalid EPC– Duplicate of previously seen– Inconsistent/inexplicable trail of sightings

Supplier InventoryHub

Manufacturing DistributionCenter Pharmacy


Radio-Frequency Identification

• Each tag carries unique EPC code (64 or 96 bits)• Cheaper to read than bar codes:

– Can read many at once– Direct line of sight and orientation not required

• Makes practical those business processes requiring many EPC sightings

Tags ReaderReader’sAntenna


Applications: Retail Out-of-Stock

• Give each clothing article an RFID tag• Track with readers throughout store• Notify stock clerk when:

– a given size is out of stock– inventory not in proper place

RFID tag on each item

RFID antennanear each rack

Inventory system and stock clerk display


Applications: Retail Promotions

• Give unique EPC to each case of promotion-packaged item, on RFID tag

• Equip facilities with RFID readers: loading dock doors, trucks, retail back-room door, dumpster

• Can now measure & drive promotion:– Timeliness: is promotional packaging reaching consumer in

time?– Effectiveness: is promotional item selling better?

Manufacturing Mfr’s Distribution

Center

Retail Store

Retailer’sDistribution

Center


Agenda




Large Scale RFID Deployment

Satellite

Warehouse

Stores

= RF tag Reader

= Local compute server

Firewall

S

R

Enterprise Apps:- Track & Trace- Promotions

- Factory Efficiency- Ship & Receive

etc.

Firewall

Management/ControlApplications

Enterprise Site (1 or more)

Distribution Ctr

Firewall

VPN

Internet

3G CellularExchange with

Trading Partners

R R R

S

R R R

S

R

R

R

1,000’s

10,000’s


Scale – Big!Readers/ Facility

Tag Reads/ sec

Bytes/ day (raw)

Pilot “Slap & Ship” Compliance App

10 1 106

Dist Ctr – entry/exit visibility

200 103 109

Dist Ctr or Retail Back Room – full visibility

1000 105 1011

Retail Floor – full visibility

10,000 106 1012


Multiple Applications, Evolving Technology

Tags, Readers, etc.

Track & Trace Out-of-stock

Data Path

Control Path

Promotions Ship & Receive

ConnecTerra RFTagAware™

- Real-time data collection & distribution

- Monitoring & management of infrastructure


RFTagAware - Manageability

RFTagAware Control Server

• Manages reader configuration, setup, reboot– Handles individual quirks of each reader model

• Monitors reader health– “No tag reads: am I not receiving any goods, or is my reader broken?”

• Provides real-time monitoring of health of radio (RF) environment– Helps answer the question “Is this data any good?”

RFTagAware Edge Server

DataEngine

RFID Reader

RFID Printer

RFID Reader

ExternalTriggers

Mgmt Agent


RFTagAware – Data Collection & Distribution

RFTagAware Edge Server

DataEngine

Promotions

RFID Reader

RFID Printer

RFID Reader

ALE API

ExternalTriggers

Out-of-stock

Ship & Receive

Track & Trace

Individual tag readsSeveral times / second

for every tag that is in range

“Please give me:-a report every 60 seconds

- from the readers at loading dock #5-only Acme products, no item-level tags

-only what’s changed”

Multiple applications sharing data from same/different readers

On-demand or autonomously


Agenda




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


Event Cycle Specification (ECSpec)

• What locations (logical readers)• Time boundaries:

– Start: One of: continuous, repeat interval, or start trigger

– Stop: Any of: duration, stable field interval, stop trigger

• One or more report specifications:– What EPCs: current, additions, deletions– What filters to apply: include patterns, exclude

patterns– Whether to group by a pattern– What to output: list or count (per group)


Example ALE Usage

Use Case Event Cycle Boundaries

Report Settings

Result Set Filter F(S)

Report Type

Shipping/ Receiving

Triggered by pallet entering and leaving portal

All reads Pallet & Case

Grouped count, grouped by product

Retail “Smart Shelf” out-of-stock

Periodic Additions & Deletions

Item Grouped count, grouped by product

Forklift Supervision

Single All reads Item EPCs


Formal Model

• Rr,I = EPCs read by r in read cycle i• E = U { Rr,i | r is reader named in ECSpec, i is

read cycle within boundaries }• S (“report set”) = one of

– E (current)– E – Eprev (additions)– Eprev – E (deletions)

• F(S) = filtered report set• Output = one of

– F(S) (list)– |F(S)| (count)


Formal Model (groups)

• Group operator G(epc) maps epc to group name

• Group list report =– { (g, { epc | G(epc) = g }) | all non-empty g }

• Group count report =– { (g, |{ epc | G(epc) = g }|) | all non-empty g

}


Operational Modes

• “Immediate” (synchronous)– Application presents ECSpec– ALE implementation returns reports (“do it now”)

• “Poll” (synchronous)– Application defined named ECSpec “A”– Application requests one event cycle from “A”– ALE implementation returns reports

• “Subscribe” (asynchronous)– Application defines named ECSpec “A”– Application subscribes to “A”, giving destination “D”– ALE implementation sends reports to “D” each time an event

cycle completes


“Immediate” Mode

Client ALE Reader(s)

Immediate(ECSpec)

read cycle

read cycle

ECReports


“Poll” Mode (synchronous)

Client ALE Reader(s)

define(name, ECSpec)

read cycle

read cycle

ECReports

poll(name)


“Subscribe” Mode (asynchronous)Client ALE Reader(s)

define(name, ECSpec)

read cycle

read cycle

ECReports

start

subscribe(name, dest)

Destination

read cyclestart

…


Async Operation – Notes

• Start conditions: – Continuous (next event cycle begins when

previous ends)– Repeat period (next event cycle begins N msec

after previous begins)– Start trigger

• Behavior for empty report:– Report (output includes empty report)– Omit (output includes other reports)– Suppress (no output at all, even if other report

specs are non-empty)


Other Notes

• Reader control:– Deactivate reader if no event cycles active

that use it.– Readers may have on-board filtering, to

improve RF protocol efficiency save network bandwidth

In such cases, push common filter down to reader


Implementation

• RFTagAware 1.1– Pluggable reader drivers (5), notification

delivery drivers (6)– 80,000 reads/sec throughput (on 350MHz

laptop)– 16Mb footprint (Java, includes JVM)– ALE-style extensions for tag writing

uc berkeley nest retreat june 3, 2004 kenneth r. traub cto, connecterra, inc

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