2008 RFID Outlook

By Matthew Teskey

2008 is poised to be a great year of progress in the RFID and sensor space. Whether due to the type of hardware being used, the size and scope of the projects, or the industries adopting the technology, the RFID deployments of 2008 will be unique and exciting.

Looking ahead to 2008, the vision of and technology behind the "intelligent sensor network" are set to enable a new set of powerful projects. When looking at the range of sensor hardware available today – passive RFID, active RFID, mobile devices, RTLS, environmental sensors, and PLCs – it is easy to see how they can be used together to create some very interesting use-cases. Sure, we will continue to see RFID deployments on the retail side and small proof of concepts, but 2008 will be the year of larger deployments in other industries.

Taking the lead will be forward-thinking companies in industries with real business challenges while many other companies will capitalize on the distinct opportunities that RFID enables. The decision-makers in these companies will have high-level knowledge of what is possible with RFID and sensors – perhaps from attending a conference or from hearing how the technologies are used in other industries – and will invest in projects because they see the real ROI benefits. Many of these projects will be closed-loop as it gives these companies flexibility in timeline and scope and allows them think outside the box. Recent examples of RFID being used in industries that you may not, at first glance, associate with RFID include deployments at companies such as Correos (the Postal Service of Spain) and ThyssenKrupp Steel. (Learn more about these leading-edge deployments at www.ianywhere.com/success_stories/rfid_success.html)

Expect to see system integrators and well-constructed project teams, which also include hardware and software infrastructure vendors, drive the majority of RFID projects. This will introduce the combination of technologies and business logic that fit well together, the best technology for each job and the effective use of software infrastructure and custom business logic to tie it all together. The industry players who offer cutting-edge technology/experience and who partner most effectively are in the best position to be included in these project teams.

When we look at project growth in 2008, we see small deployments from the past few years growing in a variety of ways. Some that started out as successful pilots in a few locations will span to cover many more sites. Projects that started with a few fixed RFID readers will evolve into solutions requiring more or different hardware and additional business logic. Regardless of the type of growth, these growing projects will be the real test to see if the chosen infrastructure and products are scaleable.

On the device side, expect mobile devices – both handhelds and vehicle-mounted readers – to be an integral part of many new projects and second-phase rollouts. Mobility is enabling many new use-cases, but it is a different paradigm than traditional fixed RFID thanks to on-device logic, offline capabilities, and flexibility. Large projects will look at deploying a handful of RFID-capable mobile devices to cover a work area instead of a large number of fixed readers and antennas. Add in a layer of business logic and even some location tracking technologies to get the position of each mobile device and a number of new use-cases and applications will begin to emerge.

Regardless of the use-case, however, if mobility was not considered early on, this could spell the need to retro-fit existing applications or infrastructure to take advantage of these devices. Companies will need to look to vendors that are capable of addressing large, distributed, intelligent sensor network projects by providing the software infrastructure that enables them.

One way to go about this would be to select a product that: has been built from the ground up to work in distributed and embedded deployments; provides flexibility in device selection and; offers a framework for custom development. One example would be Sybase iAnywhere's RFID Anywhere, which, in addition to the broad range of devices and hardware families supported, includes support for mobile devices and a partner-focused strategy that includes an ecosystem of hardware, integration, and implementation partners. This partnership strength is extremely important for the types of projects expected in 2008.

Matthew Teskey is a Senior Product Manager at Sybase iAnywhere, where he has played a key role in bringing new products to market in both RFID and mobility for the last six years. In addition to working with customers and partners, Teskey is a key contributor to the RFID Anywhere Insider Community (www.ianywhere.com/rfidinsider), a portal for RFID developers to learn about the RFID industry and to work with a free development version of RFID Anywhere. He can be contacted at mteskey@sybase.com.