Radio-Mama: An RFID based business process framework for asset management

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Abstract

This paper discusses a framework (called Radio-Mama) using a FRID technology for real-time management of mobile assets. We decompose an asset management system into atomic or composite business processes (BPs). Triggered by RFID events, the business events are invoked automatically. Data gathering from RFID receivers are used to fill in required parameters specified in the descriptions of the BPs. The main idea behind the framework is a separation of business logic from sensor technologies for gathering data. This separation allows changes of BPs without effects on gathering sensor data and vice versa. We evaluate our approach through the development of a system for asset management called CSCE-AMS which can be thought of as an instance of Radio-Mama. The framework facilitates the rapid development and extension of sensor based systems.

Introduction

Automatic tracing of mobile objects plays an increasingly important role in managing the usage, safety, and maintenance of facilities within enterprises. RFID technologies have become the cornerstone for enabling this functionality. RFID tags can provide identification of objects (including people) they are attached to.

Radio-Mama is an RFID based business process framework for the development of asset management systems. The framework decomposes the functionalities of an asset management system into business processes (BPs) which are invoked by RFID events. We investigate both passive and active tags for capturing data. The scanned tags are then translated into meaningful business events and their data are used to fill in required parameters in BPs’ specifications which are described in the ANSI/CEA-2018 standard specification (Assoc, 2008). ANSI/CEA-2018 is a new standard which allows runtime execution and has mechanisms for binding activities to devices’ functionalities.

We investigate the suitability of different types of RFID tags (e.g., active and passive tags), receivers (e.g., different coverage distances), and their placement (e.g., single controlling zone, multiple controlling zones, overlapped controlling zones) for asset tracking.

The structure of the paper is as follows. We first give a brief overview of RFID technologies. Section 2 presents related work. Section 3 elaborates on the proposed framework, and presents the prototype implementation of the asset management system, which we view as a particular instance of Radio-Mama. Section 4 presents evaluation and discussion about the framework and our contributions. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper and draws out future research.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is an automatic way to collect product, place, time, or transaction data quickly and easily without any human interaction. These systems consist of a reader that uses an antenna to transmit radio waves to interrogate a transponder (a radio tag or RFID card). Most RFID tags store some sort of identification, from which the reader identifies a radio tag. A reader retrieves information about the ID number from a database and acts accordingly.

There are two broad categories of RFID systems—passive and active systems (Weinstein, 2005). Active RFID tags contain their own source of energy, usually an on-board battery. On the other hand, passive tags rely on external power source such as external readers. Because of their own power source, active tags transmit a stronger signal and readers can access them from long distances (20−100 m). Due to in built power source active RFID tags are larger and more expensive. These types of tags are generally used on large items tracked over long distances. Because of power source inside the tag, active tags operate at high frequencies—commonly 455 MHz, 2.45 GHz, or 5.8 GHz depending on the application requirement.

Passive tags are inexpensive as they are simple to build. Because of less complex circuits, passive tags can also be quite small. As passive tags do not have capabilities to transmit signals by themselves, a passive-tag reader which can constantly broadcast signals need to be setup. When the readers’ signal reaches a passive tag, it stores the energy in an on-board capacitor and will send a signal when it has enough energy to transmit signal to the reader. Because of low energy signals, passive tags are used only in small distance applications. Because of small memory capacity passive tags are considerably lower in cost making them ideal for tracking lower cost items (RFID Basics by Paxar Americas Technical Paper).

Basically there are two types of chips available on RFID tags, read-only and read−write. Read-only tags consist of information which is hardcoded during manufacturing process and cannot be changed at any time. Whereas in read−write tags, user can read or write into tags when the tags are in the range of a reader. Read−write tags are much more flexible and are programmable according to user applications, but these tags are much more expensive than read-only tags. A simple dual frequency LX1004 tag is shown in Fig. 1.

RFID readers consist of one or more antennas, via which data are received or transmitted to RFID tags. Sometimes, due to high sensitivity requirements, RFID readers can have separate paths for sending and receiving. The RFID readers need to be well positioned to read all the tags in a given application domain. Tag orientation can also affect the read range as the antenna on the reader may not be able to receive proper signals, based on the orientation. RFID readers can be a simple stand-alone device that can communicate with a host system via a serial interface.

A reader can be connected to multiple antennas to identify tags better and also to cover a wide area. Readers can also use wireless communications, but need to deal with multiple tags sending and receiving at the same time. This can sometimes cause collision and some data may be lost due to collision. In this case, a collision avoidance system needs to be implemented and ensure that the communication is structured in such a way that such collisions are avoided. A simple LX2002 Radio receiver is shown in Fig. 2. The tags and readers/receivers need to operate on a compatible frequency in order to send and receive effectively. The transmission power of the receiver can alter the distance it can read from and distance it can transmit to. By carefully calibrating the power of the reader/receiver, a user can adjust the covering range of the system.

Section snippets

RFID based asset management systems

RFID technology identification can be used in many different ways to create value for a business and also for personal applications (Roussos and Kostakos, 2009). One of the major advantages of having RFID technology is that it requires no human intervention, and can be used in real-time applications. The RFID technology provides huge advantages to manufacturers by offering tools and technology to plan production and respond quickly to market demand. Using RFID tags, retailers can track the

CSCE-AMS: a prototype implementation of Radio-Mama

Our fundamental aim of implementing an asset management system is to demonstrate the usage of the Radio-Mama framework for developing RFID based systems. There could be multiple implementations of Radio-Mama for tracking different objects. We call the prototype we describe below CSCE-AMS (short for “Computer Science and Computer Engineering” (our department name) Asset Management System) to differentiate it from possible future implementations of Radio-Mama. CSCE-AMS was developed to manage

Evaluation and discussion

So far, our current findings and outcomes relate to the pragmatics and architecture of deploying process-based RFID systems, as follows.

In order for RFID-generated detections to be meaningful, the detections have to be embedded within the context of a state-based business process (which can be modelled using a state-transition diagram).

Ambiguity in tag readings can occur especially in the border of two (or more) readers; positioning of readers cannot be determined easily theoretically but

Conclusion and future work

We have presented CSCE-AMS, a prototype system which we have deployed for asset tracking of laptops and projectors that are borrowed by staff. We also provided a general model of a business process framework for asset management called Radio-Mama and identified its key ingredients.

Future work will involve applying the framework to deal not just with asset tracking but also with tracking workflows involving tagged documentation/devices, and/or also tracking people involved in workflows (e.g., as

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