RFID Industry Standards

The lack of standards in the RFID industry has been one of the major limiting factors.
That limitation is now being addressed in numerous areas.

As a reader of this document, you are advised to check the progress of all documents before making any decisions based on this information.

A lot of different standards have been published, are being revised, or are in progress.Click her to visit AutoID.org for a current summary of International Automatic Data Capture standards work.

AIM (Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility) has a web page which sets out to review all the RFID standards, or standards of relevance to RFID that exists today. The list is not all encompassing, as new work is being started every day, but it does give a broad overview of the work at this date. Click here to go to the AIM RFID Standards page.

Microchipping of companion animals in the US is an example of one of the industry failures due to the lack of an industry standard.  See Microchipping Your Pet for more information.

Standards Efforts

AIM, is working to initiate standards in the RFID industry.

Listed below are highlights of a few of the RFID Standards published or in progress. The activity in the RFID standards area has accelerated beyond my capability to keep up with them. I strongly advise my readers to consult the links provided above to check on the current status of any effort listed here. This page is NOT updated frequently.

JTC 1/SC 31 Automatic Identification and Data Capture Techniques

Web Site http://www.uc-council.org/sc31/home.htm
WG 4 - Work Group on RFID for Item Management

ISO/IEC 18001 Information Technology AIDC Techniques-RFID for Item Management – Application Requirements Profiles.
Introduction: The Air Interface Standards of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 are contained in the various Parts of ISO/IEC 18000, Radio-frequency Identification Standard for Item Management -- Air Interface. These are:

Part 1, Generic Parameters for Air Interface Communication for Globally Accepted Frequencies
Part 2, Parameters for Air Interface Communication below 135 kHz.
Part 3, Parameters for Air Interface Communication at 13.56 MHz.
Part 4, Parameters for Air Interface Communication at 2.45 GHz.
Part 5, Parameters for Air Interface Communication at 5.8 GHz.
Part 6, Parameters for Air Interface Communication - UHF Frequency Band

ISO/IEC 18000 Information Technology AIDC Techniques-RFID for Item Management Air Interface
Part 1 – Generic Parameters for Air Interface Communication for Globally Accepted Frequencies.

Introduction This Standard has been developed by ISO/IEC SC31 WG4, Radio Frequency Identification for Item Management, in order to provide a framework to define common communications protocols for Internationally useable frequencies for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and, where possible, to determine the use of the same protocols for ALL frequencies such that the problems of migrating from one to another are diminished; to minimize software and implementation costs; and to enable system management and control and information exchange to be common as far as is possible.

ISO/IEC JTC1 SC31/WG4/SG3 - RFID Air Interface Standards
The following are the links to the work being done by the SG3 subgroup of SC31/WG4. The documents are posted on Autoid.org. This group is working to create air interface standards for RFID.

These documents are not standards, they are work in progress and should be treated as such. For any questions regarding the work, please contact the convener, Steve Halliday (steve@hightechaid.com) or the secretary, Craig Harmon (harmon@ia.net).

Documents are contributions/opinions of individual members, not necessarily approved positions of WG 4 or SG 3.

The official web site for ISO/IEC JTC1/SC31 and all official SC31 documents are available at this site - http://www.uc-council.org/sc31/home.htm. SC31/WG4/SG3 Documents Web page

TC 104 / SC 4 Identification and communication

Web Site TC 104 "Freight containers"
Committee information for TC 104/SC 4/WG 2 can be found at: http://www.autoid.org/tc104_sc4_wg2.htm

Three ISO standards under the direct responsibility of the SC Secretariat

ISO 6346:1995 Freight containers -- Coding, identification and marking. Published
This International Standard provides a system for the identification and presentation of information about freight containers. The identification system is intended for general application, for example in documentation, control and communications (including automatic data processing systems), as well as for display on the containers themselves.

ISO 9897:1997 Freight containers -- Container equipment data exchange (CEDEX) -- General communication codes

ISO 10374:1991 Freight containers -- Automatic identification
Published
Amendment 1:1995 to ISO 10374:1991
(Note: Covers 888-928 MHz, and 2.4 - 2.5 GHz)
Introduction: This International Standard specifies a system of automatic identification of freight containers and the electronic transfer of the identity of the container and permanent related information to third parties in a standard format. It is intended that the Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) system will facilitate documentation, resource control, and communications (including electronic data processing systems). The visual container identification markings specified by ISO 6346 are not affected. Future additions to this international Standard will specify modulation, encoding and an open protocol.

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

ERO European Radiocommunications Office

ANSI American National Standards Institute

Universal Postal Union

ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials

The ISO has already adopted international RFID standards for animal tracking, (ISO 11784 and 11785.)
Developments concerning the controversial ISO 11784/ISO 11785 standard
If you want to see what other countries are doing, go to Microchipping Your Pet

Industry Specific Standards

• Title 21- California Department of Transportation Title 21, compatibility specifications for automatic vehicle identification equipment.

• AAR- Association of American Railroads S-918 mandated standard for automatic equipment identification.

• UIC- Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer standard for European rail transport equipment.

• ATA- American Trucking Associations standard for automatic equipment identification.

• Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)’s Tire and Wheel Label and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Standard (also known as AIAG B-11)

• ATA - (US) Air Transport Association Recommended Practice #1620.

• IATA- International Air Transport Association Recommended Practice #1740c.

DRAFT/4-Feb 97. Radio Frequency  (RF) Specifications for interline baggage.

AIRLINE INDUSTRY SMART CARD DEVELOPMENTS