The Design of a Lightweight RFID Middleware

Fengqun Lin,Bocheng Chen,Wenhuang Liu,Andy Mai,Chun-Ho Wu ,W H Ip ,Ching Yuen Chan ,Wang Hong-Yang

doi:10.5772/6776

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) middleware is often regarded as the central nervous system of RFID systems. In this paper, a lightweight RFID middleware is designed and implemented without the need of an Application Level Events (ALE) structure, and its implementation process is described using a typical commerical enterprise. A short review of the current RFID middleware research and development is also included. The characteristics of RFID middleware are presented with a two-centric framework. The senarios of RFID data integration based on the simplified structure are provided to illuminats the design and implementation of the lightweight middleware structure and its development process. The lightweight middleware is easy to maintain and extend because of the simplified and streamlined structure and the short development cycle.

Highlights

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a non-contact automatic identification technology, can automatically identify targets by RF signals returned from tags attached to the targets, and relevant data can be obtained without any human intervention
In order to ensure the system can adapt to all working environments, RFID middleware should be used because it provides the applications with a device-neutral interface to communicate with different hardware
The design of a lightweight RFID Middleware structure and its implementation is reported in this paper

Summary

Introduction

RFID, a non-contact automatic identification technology, can automatically identify targets by RF signals returned from tags attached to the targets, and relevant data can be obtained without any human intervention. In order to ensure the system can adapt to all working environments, RFID middleware should be used because it provides the applications with a device-neutral interface to communicate with different hardware. There are still some shortcomings found in the standards, for example, it is complex, bulky, expensive, and is lacking in advance system management It seems that the standards are not suitable for domestic uses and small-sized and medium-sized applications. Simplicity and flexibility, fulfillment of domestic needs, and easy implementation should be included in the design of middleware for the small-sized and medium-sized applications. In order to drive the application of RFID in small-sized and medium-sized domestic enterprises (as well as large enterprises), more of the aforementioned solutions are needed, such as applying light-weight middleware scenarios. As long as the particular enterprises have staff with basic programming capability, they can develop their own lightweight middleware system, based on their specific needs, with the proposed framework

Related Work

The Structure of the Middleware and the ALE Norms

The Design and Development of the Lightweight RFID Middleware

The Programming Issues for the Lightweight Middleware

Conclusions