Interoperability Test Methodology for ISO 18000-7 Active RFID

Abstract

Standards are developed by highly reputed organizations with a genuine intention that the document acts as a reference requirement and specification record for all manufacturers, and in this process the consumer is presented with a list of conforming products that are all interoperable. Active RFID tags and readers are designed with commercial intent by different manufacturers according to the ISO 18000-7 standard. Through intensive research and tests, it has come to our attention that it is possible to design two active RFID systems that in their entirety conform to the ISO 18000-7 standard and yet be not interoperable with each other. From this statement it can be inferred that conformance is not the sufficient condition for interoperability as is popularly believed, but only the necessary or minimum condition to satisfy interoperability. Therefore apart from preliminary conformance testing, it becomes absolutely essential to include additional and supplemental interoperability tests into the verification process of the production cycle. This research primarily establishes the requirement for interoperability testing giving instances where the standard fails to insure interoperable products. The traditional method to test interoperability currently in practice are investigated and their limitations are exposed. Further this research paper introduces an innovative and ingenious methodology to test active RFID systems for interoperability at the physical layer.