Principal Investigator Abel Sanchez
Many organizations have agreements with the European Commission (EC) that obligates them to track products that are manufactured, bought or sold in the European Union to the customer level. The agreement includes an implementation plan that increases the number of markets (and consequently shipping points) and levels of customers covered over time. In coming years, most existing in house systems will not scale. In addition, there is the potential for other regulatory bodies will also demand product-tracking information.
Large retail customers are beginning to request that suppliers attach RFID tags to products destined for their stores. It is important that organizations avoid product reporting to business partners using incompatible integration mechanisms. A viable alternative to unwieldy multiple point-to-point solutions is a standards-based secure network leveraging the Internet. The emerging global RFID Network, though admittedly in its early stages, promises to be just that.
Research project evaluates the global RFID network. It will outline the current gaps between the in house solutions and the anticipated RFID global Network and describe the path that organizations should take to make in house solutions compliant.