A Taxonomy for RFID Systems

Ben Clacy and Brian Jennings presented their recently published paper with the title of “service management: driving the future of IT” [1], which highlighted service oriented is very important. How is the situation of RFID systems? There is a proliferation of RFID systems – tags, sensors, readers, middleware and applications each attempting to solve a specific business need. RFID technology can be found embedded in almost everything from razor blade packages, clothing and books to prescription medicines to parts of an aircraft, indeed it forms a new area titled silent-commerce (s-Commerce). Despite the pervasive nature of RFID, surveys have consistently shown a lack of RFID awareness, an overall lack of understanding and general confusion about what it actually is, its capabilities and limitations. This is due in part to a lack of a comprehensive, principles-based and systematic RFID classification scheme. This paper makes its contribution that first proposes taxonomy of currently available RFID technology and systems. The taxonomy is based on a sound service-oriented RFID architecture framework. It can be used by both novices and RFID practitioners to gain an understanding of the “next big thing” technology, the architectural considerations for designing and implementing a successful RFID system. Moreover, RFID researchers will also benefit from this taxonomy.