Standards for Passive UHF RFID

Abstract

Passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been widely adopted by retail and other industries for serialized item-level identification and data sharing. This article introduces the standards that support and define all procedures in various passive UHF RFID applications. Electronic Product Code (EPC) Radio-Frequency Identity Protocols Generation-2 UHF RFID Standard, or C1G2, is a foundational standard that defines the format, encoding, and procedures within the air interfaces of RFID systems. Low Level Reader Protocol provides a standard and portable interface between different applications and RFID readers from different vendors. The format and encoding of the EPC information are defined by the EPC Tag Data Standard, which enables each tag to be uniquely identified (e.g., item-level identity of many goods in a warehouse). Additional protocols, such as Discovery, Configuration and Initialization and Reader Management, specify and clarify more processes (e.g., the management of many readers) that can be deployed in various business applications. We provide a general introduction of passive UHF RFID technology standards and review each protocol's features and procedures.