Examining the Elements of a Basic RFID System

The middleware transforms the system into a network of objects

The basic elements of an RFID system are rarely useful in isolation. They gain

value as part of a production or logistics system. In this way, the use of more than one system in an industrial process becomes a local network. The connection of local networks constitutes a global network. You can think of the local networks as a node of hardware (a reader, antennas, and tags) that interacts within itself to exchange information over RF waves. A bunch of nodes connected together creates a global network that connects to an application that creates useful information out of the data.

In order to move data from a single node to the local network and/or to the global network, you need the data-collection component, which ties readers, antennas, and tags together. This component is called by many names — middleware, reader interface layer, Savant — all describing the very simple glue that sticks together each node in an RFID system.