RFID

Omni-ID tag aids interoperability

The Power 415, developed by Omni ID, is useful in harsh environments such as the oil and gas sector

Omni-ID has announced its support for the IEEE 802.15.4f-2012 standard to increase interoperability for asset tracking using active RFID based tags and systems. The company also announced it has developed an active tag operating on this standard – the Power 415.

“Passive RFID tags are based on a universally accepted standard protocol (EPC Gen 2) to provide interoperability between products, which has increased market acceptance – active RFID on the other hand is based primarily on proprietary protocols,” said George E Daddis, Jr, CEO of Omni-ID. “The proprietary nature of these products not only continues to limit market acceptance but customer choice and competition for providers. As a leading developer of RFID technologies, our aim is to participate within key industry groups and support open standards for active RFID. A standards-based market benefits customers and manufacturers alike. As a start, we’ve launched an industry-leading product operating on the IEEE standard for active RFID, the Power 415. We’re also very pleased to announce the interoperability of the product with a GuardRFID reader-further demonstrating the possibilities.”

Omni-ID has recently participated in several industry group events and has presented its recommendations to utilise a popular IEEE protocol for North Sea Oil asset tracking operations to the standards group GS1 at their Norway Smart Centre Partner Day event.

Swire Oilfield Services is also a sponsor of the GS1 Norway Smart Centre. Chris Hook, commercial manager, Track & Trace Solutions at Swire, presented Swire’s view of the application of auto-ID solutions in the oil and gas industry at the GS1 Norway Smart Centre Partner Day. Hook commented, “Swire consistently advocates the use of international standards compliant auto-ID components and interoperability in our industry, which we know benefits our customers. We were pleased to see the material presented by Omni-ID and look forward to continuing our participation in promoting the utilisation of standards compliant solutions in the oil and gas industry.”

IEEE is widely recognised as a universally accepted standard for wireless communication networks. The IEEE 802.15.4f -2012 standard was specifically developed for active RFID and RTLS applications.

The company unveiled its first product operating on this standard – the Power 415. The Power 415 is also the first combination UHF passive/active RFID tag. This powerful combination allows standard 96 bit encodings (EPC Gen 2) to be commissioned through standard passive readers and broadcast across the active network. Standard GS1 encoding formats such as GIAI (Global Individual Asset Identifier) or GRAI (Global Returnable Asset Identifier) and several others are supported. This provides the ability to create systems that include barcode, passive and active RFID to allow vendors and operators to encode and identify assets over a common format.

Certified as intrinsically safe (ATEX and IEC-Ex), the Power 415 active RFID tag is ideal for tracking assets in harsh outdoor environments where high impact, temperature fluctuations and exposure to chemical or other hazardous materials are part of the day–to-day use case. The tag has been designed for extreme durability and use in dangerous environments, such as the energy industry. Additionally, the combination of passive and active provides the assurance to end users that even if the battery fails, the tag information can still be retrieved. Omni-ID has also collaborated with active RFID technology developer GuardRFID to test the interoperability of their Tag Reader Receiver (TRR) with Omni-ID’s
Power 415 tag.