The Trend of IoT
Over the last few years, the IoT technology has been adopted by many industries across the globe. The trend of IoT will significantly be increased in the near future as it is estimated that by the end of the 2020 year there would be 31 billion IoT devices.
On similar lines, the higher availability of Internet connectivity and lower cost of Wi-Fi devices will further boost the market segment of IoT architecture.
Overview of RFID Technology
From our previous blogs, you’ve gained the idea that RFID is essential pre-requisite to track, identify and detect objects. To extend the idea of RFID transmission process, RFID readers are distributed across various zones of the world and connected to Internet terminal, it will perform the identification, tracking and tracing of multiple objects attached with RFID tags around the world. The strength of RFID readers is, they can monitor these objects in real-time and automatic mode, enabling the industries to acquire IoT structure through RFID technology.
Relation between RFID and IoT
In simple words, the relation between RFID and IoT can be defined and formed if we connect RFID tags to our daily life products, then they will get ambient intelligence and can be identified or monitored through a computing device. Moreover, the establishment of specific communication protocols in RFID technology empowers the RFID readers to transfer RF signals to any device.
We can conclude from the above definition that RFID technology is the base of IoT architecture and all the objects or things could become part of IoT infrastructure through RFID technology enabler.
To simply put, the power of passive RFID tag can connect any type of object, asset, thing to Internet and allow them to communicate with each other.
Role of RFID for IoT
The leading role of RFID technology can be seen with the objects that surround human lives as compared to intelligent devices. For example, smartphones, TVs, computers, electric appliances and power instruments are the part of intellectual systems.
These smart devices are powered by either battery or AC power socket connected to the wall. These devices can be connected by mobile transmission, Wi-Fi signals or wired cables. IoT assigns IP addresses to each of these devices, enabling the Internet to uniquely identify, monitor and make them visible to each other.
However, objects that don’t have any power source, potential communication systems, and unique IP address can’t access the Internet. Objects like wood furniture, water bottles, books, toys, clothes are all examples of such devices. And thus, here comes the idea of the RFID transmission process.
Deployment of perfect passive RFID system comprising of RFID labels, antennas, RFID readers, RFID middleware induces intelligence in these devices and make visible them to the Internet platform. Since the capacity, sensitivity, and ranges of passive RFID tags have been improved over the last decade, they are suitable for metal, plastic, liquid or any other surrounding material lying around us.
The passive RFID readers have the following characteristics;
- They have AC power supply
- They can provide Wi-Fi transmission capabilities, Ethernet communication or cellular transmission
- They can assign an IP address
Therefore, RFID readers can transform non-relational objects into relational and smart devices and make them join IoT architecture.
