Reva and Impinj Achieve RFID Performance Breakthrough in Europe
Reva Systems, an emerging leader among radio frequency identification (RFID) network infrastructure providers, and Impinj, Inc., a leading semiconductor and RFID technology provider, today 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.
Seattle, WA October 16, 2006 - Reva Systems, an emerging leader among radio frequency identification (RFID) network infrastructure providers, and Impinj, Inc., a leading semiconductor and RFID technology provider, today 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."
Monday, October 16, 2006
About Impinj
Impinj (NASDAQ: PI) helps businesses and people analyze, optimize, and innovate by wirelessly connecting billions of everyday things—such as apparel, automobile parts, luggage, and shipments—to the Internet. The Impinj platform uses RAIN RFID to deliver timely data about these everyday things to business and consumer applications, enabling a boundless Internet of Things. www.impinj.com
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