RFID Middleware
Date:
By: Simon Holloway
Classification: Market Update
This market update will look at the RFD middleware space. This is the first area in the Bloor RFID stack and is software related.
There are three primary motivations behind using RFID middleware:
- To encapsulate the applications from device interfaces
- To process the raw observations captured by the readers and sensors so that applications see only meaningful, high-level events, thereby lowering the volume of information that they need to process
- To provide an application-level interface for managing readers and querying sensory device observations.
RFID and other remote sensing technologies provide a level of automation that was not previously possible with labelling technologies such as bar codes that needed human intervention. However, this level of automation requires that the readers and sensors be monitored and managed remotely. A middleware solution that operates at the edges is best suited to monitoring and managing edge devices. Thus, in addition to the three functions described above, an RFID middleware solution should also provide, or at least integrate with, a management and monitoring interface.