• Intelligent network-centric architecture
• Scales to serve demanding environments
• Provides rapid, repeatable RFID deployments
• Decouples applications from implementation details
• Standards-based to promote interoperability
• Leverages existing enterprise network infrastructure

Whether the business applications that rely on RFID data reside locally at the edge, somewhere central to the corporation or even within a trading partner's enterprise, the network plays a fundamental role. The application of a networking perspective to RFID installations has produced a new architecture that provides the platform to transform the state of RFID adoption from pilot and trial projects to production deployments. It is an approach that leverages standards to deliver the utility and scale enterprises require. This architecture is the Tag Acquisition Network (TAN).

Enterprises should consider employing the TAN architecture in any facility that needs to be RFID enabled. TANs are appropriate for environments as diverse as retail stores, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, hospitals, entertainment venues, and government installations among others.

The first principle of a TAN is to leverage a network-centric approach. Specifically, RFID readers need to belong to the network and these devices must be integrated with, and managed as part of, the overall enterprise network. There are networking technology precedents for this approach. For example, a significant catalyst for the adoption of Local Area Networks (LANs) was shared access to printers and file systems. Today's Storage Area Networks (SANs) provide shared access to enterprise-managed storage devices. Wireless LANs (WLANs) and the Internet evolved along similar network-centric layered models allowing many applications to take advantage of their collective resources without being exposed to the lower level detail of their operation. Similarly, TANs apply many of these same principles to facility-based RFID implementations for the operation of RFID readers and the collection of RFID data.

Tag Acquisition Networks (TANs) in the Enterprise may be viewed as a peer to other more established networks.

A TAN is built on standards. Standards at the Tag-to-Reader level, such as the EPCglobal Gen2 Air Protocol, provide a great starting point. A Reader-to-Network interface standard is the next logical candidate for standardization. Standards for RFID data access will also emerge that will likely include new offerings such as EPCglobal ALE as well as SQL, ETL and other methods from existing data access and integration frameworks. While not all of these standards exist today, enterprises would be wise to plan for this evolution and approach RFID initiatives with a layered architecture that will be able to take advantage of these industry standards as they emerge.

The TAN architecture promotes a layered model to insulate the applications that use RFID data from the deployment details and equipment complexities related to the physical environment of RFID-enabled facilities.

Tag Acquisition Network (TAN) architecture.

A TAN would typically be comprised of RFID tags and RFID readers from multiple vendors and an RFID Network Infrastructure layer. The RFID Network Infrastructure layer is the optimal domain to introduce intelligence to compensate for site specific behaviors and utilize a facility's RF spectrum as a shared resource. The RFID Network Infrastructure layer can also provide a reader independent view of the RFID data collected by readers at a particular facility for both local and remote applications. These collective capabilities help to normalize the site-to-site variability of RFID installations making multi-facility deployments more practical. The TAN approach also provides the ability to use best-of-breed tags and readers from any manufacturer without necessitating programming changes at the application layer. This architecture fosters innovation and competition at each layer of the stack which ultimately results in value and choice for the enterprise.