Reva and Impinj Call It a Breakthrough
17 October, 2006
category: RFID
Previous trials can’t touch this: Jointly conducted tests between RFID network infrastructure newbe Reva Systems and semiconductor provider Impinj achieved “breakthrough status” in recent tests, say reps at both companies.
It all unfolded at a working distribution center, where 36 pallets holding over 2,200 tagged, real-world consumer goods were loaded and simultaneously transported at full speed through 36 adjacent loading dock doors onto docked trucks, with the goal of measuring tag read performance …
Reva and Impinj Achieve RFID Performance Breakthrough in Europe
Reva Systems, an emerging leader among RFID network infrastructure providers, and Impinj, Inc., a leading semiconductor and RFID technology provider, announced breakthrough results in operational tests conducted at an operational distribution center in Unna, Germany.
The jointly-conducted tests were a follow-on to the multi-vendor RFID technology demonstrations conducted by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) task group 34 (TG34) to improve the performance of RFID reader deployments in Europe.
In tests conducted by Reva and Impinj at the working distribution center, 36 pallets holding over 2,200 tagged, real-world consumer goods were loaded and simultaneously transported at full speed through 36 adjacent loading dock doors onto docked trucks, with the goal of measuring tag read performance. All of the RFID tags were powered by an Impinj Monza Gen 2 chip. Each of the 36 dock doors were monitored by Impinj Speedway RFID readers, all centrally controlled by a single Reva Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP) appliance operating in conjunction with a Reva centralized LBT Sensor. The system complied with proposed ETSI listen before talk (LBT) requirements. Tags passed through the reader antennae field of view for roughly 1 to 1.5 seconds and the runs were repeated several times. The tests demonstrated average tag read rates between 98 and 99 percent, representing breakthrough performance in a dense-reader environment and furthering the viability of RFID adoption in Europe.
Dr. Chris Diorio, chairman and co-founder of Impinj, noted that previous European RFID trials have never scaled even close to 36 simultaneous readers. While the TG34 demonstration was actually designed to mainly focus on issues surrounding RFID channel selection, “The 36-door performance scores are the most compelling results to come out of that testing,” Diorio said. “Most European trials have only supported a handful of simultaneous readers, and inventory reliability has always been significantly lower.”
Europe’s RFID regulations have hampered the deployment of UHF RFID systems at large sites where many readers would operate in close proximity. In the United States, RFID technology operates in a generous 26MHz frequency band from 902MHz to 928MHz. In Europe, however, this band is occupied by GSM phones and other devices, so RFID is relegated to a much smaller 3MHz band between 865MHz and 868MHz. This smaller frequency band combined with the number of RFID readers operating simultaneously in close quarters required the TG34 technology demonstrations to focus on channel allocation and reader synchronization methods to ensure dense-reader performance.
“This testing clearly shows the benefits of centralized RFID reader control,” said David Husak, CTO and co-founder of Reva Systems. Other systems at the operational distribution center demonstration used localized reader control methods. “Only Reva and Impinj attempted the 36-door trial using centralized control, and the results were excellent. We demonstrated full system level operation under worst-case conditions with inventory reliability close to 100 percent,” Husak said. “These tests expand the global reach of UHF RFID solutions by conclusively putting to rest the concerns that the European regulations would hinder adoption of the technology at a commercial scale.”
About Reva Systems
Reva Systems develops RFID network infrastructure products that enable customers to rapidly deploy scalable solutions in any environment. Reva’s standards-based Tag Acquisition Network (TAN) architecture and Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP) products lead the industry with improved system performance, manageability and security. Reva products are deployed globally by enterprises using RFID readers from multiple vendors to enable scalable, repeatable and reliable enterprise RFID solutions. Reva was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Chelmsford, Mass. For more information, visit www.revasystems.com.
About Impinj, Inc.
Impinj, Inc. is a semiconductor and RFID company whose patented Self-Adaptive Silicon technology enables its two synergistic business lines: high performance RFID products and semiconductor intellectual property (IP). A leading contributor to the RFID standards for high volume supply-chain applications worldwide, Impinj leverages its technical expertise and industry partnerships to deliver the GrandPrix solution, comprising tags, readers, software and systems integration to offer RFID that just works. Impinj’s innovative IP products, core to the company’s RFID tags, are licensed to leading semiconductor companies worldwide, allowing them to seamlessly integrate crucial nonvolatile memory (NVM) alongside analog and digital functionality on a single chip. Impinj’s IP products include the popular AEON family of embeddable cores, which provides rewriteable NVM technology in logic CMOS manufacturing. For more information, visit www.impinj.com.
