A survey of applications and requirements of unique identification systems and RFID techniques

The paper contains an overview of unique identification issues and of the various radio frequency identification techniques that are available now or will become available in the short term. The paper also compares RFID with traditional ID technologies. It shows application possibilities and gives examples of current implementations. Each application has its own requirements that translate into specific RFID-techniques, -options and -parameters. Techniques include frequency range, tag energy supply and tag writing capabilities. The data to be stored in the tag and transferred to the reader must be selected as one of the options. Parameters influence reliability and confidentiality, among other things. Information interchange issues of identifier-based operations in supply-chains are discussed as well, while the last part of the paper presents a framework for choosing an auto-ID technique in a supply chain.