© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc. UC Berkeley NEST Retreat June 3, 2004 Kenneth R. Traub CTO, ConnecTerra,...

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

UC Berkeley NEST RetreatJune 3, 2004

Kenneth R. TraubCTO, ConnecTerra, Inc.

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

Agenda

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

Application Level Events (ALE)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

Agenda

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

Application Level Events (ALE)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

Agenda

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

Application Level Events (ALE)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

}

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

“Immediate” Mode

Client ALE Reader(s)

Immediate(ECSpec)

read cycle

read cycle

ECReports

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

“Poll” Mode (synchronous)

Client ALE Reader(s)

define(name, ECSpec)

read cycle

read cycle

ECReports

poll(name)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

define(name, ECSpec)

read cycle

read cycle

ECReports

start

subscribe(name, dest)

Destination

read cyclestart

…

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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)

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.

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

© 2004 ConnecTerra, Inc.