Enterprise-class RFID is still maturing

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: JOANIE WEXLER ON WIRELESS IN THE
ENTERPRISE
10/12/05
Today's focus: Enterprise-class RFID is still maturing

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Industry works toward easing mgmt. of RFID reader nets
* Links related to Wireless in the Enterprise
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Enterprise-class RFID is still maturing

By Joanie Wexler

In addition to radio frequency identification encryption,
discussed last time, there are a few other RFID infrastructure
issues that are still maturing.

Also on the security front, for example, the industry is working
on making sure only the organizations contributing to a stream
of information (such as those in a supply chain) have access to
the components of that information to which they are entitled,
based on their roles and their various business agreements.

This discipline is known as "federated security," and is not
solely an RFID issue. About 150 global organizations, for
example, have been at work under the auspices of the Liberty
Alliance Project for about four years to build what they call a
"trusted digital ecosystem" that controls identity and access in
shared information systems. However, with the momentum behind
RFID, some pundits are hopeful that RFID could help fuel
federated security solutions.

Also, the industry is still working on standards for managing an
RFID infrastructure. Currently, there are standards for what
information goes on RFID tags, how a tag communicates with a
reader and, most recently, how a reader infrastructure
consolidates, or filters, data gathered from tags before
forwarding it to upstream applications. This standard, recently
ratified, is known as application-level events, or ALEs, and the
function takes place in RFID middleware, which can reside in a
number of locations in the network.

But for management of the reader infrastructure itself, Sun says
it is working through the EPCglobal standards group for at least
an SNMP management information base, which would allow readers
to be managed by SNMP-based systems. An IETF effort, the Simple
Lightweight RFID Reader Protocol, specifies the discovery of
readers and might contain more detail on reader-specific
management capabilities <http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir1470>.

Meanwhile, the industry is still working on typical scalability
issues for RFID readers, such as how to do firmware upgrades
consistently across all readers, particularly in multivendor
environment, and maintain them with all the latest security
patches.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine has serious bug
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir8478>
2. Bechtel says move to IPv6 is all about business
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir8621>
3. You won't find this book on Oprah's list
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir8480>
4. IETF effort promises fewer net failures
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir8479>
5. The ABCs of SOA <http://www.networkworld.com/nlwir8622>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Joanie Wexler

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology
writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most
of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer
networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles
published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future
article topics. Reach her at <mailto:joanie@jwexler.com>.
_______________________________________________________________
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