Radio Frequency IDentification RFID 1 of 13 file F www cse574 06 ftp rfid index html Christoph Jechlitschek christoph jechlitschek gmx de This paper provides a survey on radio frequency identification RFID technology Initially RFID tags were developed to eventually replace barcodes in supply chains Their advantages are that they can be read wirelessly and without line of sight contain more information than barcodes and are more robust The paper describes the current technology including the frequency ranges used and standards With the increasing ubiquity of RFID tags however privacy became a concern The paper outlines possible attacks that can violate one s privacy and it also describes counter measures The RFID technology did not stop at item level tagging The paper also presents current research that focuses on locating and tracking labeled object that move Since the uses for RFID tags are so widespread there is a large interest in lowering the costs for producing them It turns out that printing tags might become a viable alternative to traditional production The paper reviews the current progress Keywords Radio Frequency IDentification RFID RFID tags Electronic Product Codes EPC Supply Chain Management Security organic printing Location and Tracking See also Other Reports on Recent Advances in Networking Back to Raj Jain s Home Page 1 Introduction 2 Historic Development of RFID 3 Current RFID Technology 3 1 Energy Sources 3 2 Frequency Bands 3 3 Standards 3 4 RFID Systems 4 Security 4 1 Privacy 4 2 Authentication 4 3 Attack ranges 4 4 Attacks against RFID Systems 5 RFID Location and Tracking 6 New Production Methods 7 Social Implications of RFID 8 Summary 9 References 10 List of Acronyms 11 27 2013 2 11 AM Radio Frequency IDentification RFID 2 of 13 file F www cse574 06 ftp rfid index html RFID tags or simply tags are small transponders that respond to queries from a reader by wirelessly transmitting a serial number or similar identifier They are heavily used to track items in production environments and to label items in supermarkets They are usually thought of as an advanced barcode However their possible area of use is much larger This paper presents a few new applications that are possible using RFID technology such as locating lost items tracking moving objects and others RFID tags are expected to proliferate into the billions over the next few years and yet they are simply treated the same way as barcodes without considering the impact that this advanced technology has on privacy This paper presents possible exploits of RFID systems and some proposed solutions as well Back to Table of Contents The first RFID application was the Identification Friend or Foe system IFF Wiki RFID Wizard Wars and it was used by the British in the Second World War Transponders were placed into fighter planes and tanks and reading units could query them to decide whether to attack Successors of this technology are still used in armies around the world The first commercial RFID application was the Electronic Article Surveillance EAS It was developed in the seventies as a theft prevention system It was based on tags that can store a single bit That bit was read when the customer left the store and the system would sound alarm when the bit was not unset In the end seventies RFID tags made its way into the agriculture for example for animal tagging In the eighties RFID technology got a boost when Norway and several US states decided to uses RFID for toll collection on roads EZ Pass In addition to toll collection the following decade brought a vast number of new applications such as ski passes gasoline cards Speed Pass money cards etc In 1999 the Auto ID Center at MIT was founded Its task was to develop a global standard for item level tagging The Auto ID was closed in 2003 after completing the work on the Electronic Product Code EPC At the same time the newly founded EPCglobal Inc continues the work The probably first paper related to RFID technology was the landmark paper by Harry Stockman Communication by Means of Reflected Power in October 1948 The first patent on RFID was issued in 1973 for a passive radio transponder with memory US Patent 3 713 148 Back to Table of Contents This section describes out of which parts RFID tags consist of how they work in principle and what types of tags do exist It focuses on how tags are powered and what frequency ranges are used The section concludes by covering a few important standards RFID transponders tags consist in general of Micro chip 11 27 2013 2 11 AM Radio Frequency IDentification RFID 3 of 13 file F www cse574 06 ftp rfid index html Antenna Case Battery for active tags only The size of the chip depends mostly on the Antenna Its size and form is dependent on the frequency the tag is using The size of a tag also depends on its area of use It can range from less than a millimeter for implants to the size of a book in container logistic In addition to the micro chip some tags also have rewritable memory attached where the tag can store updates between reading cycles or new data like serial numbers A RFID tag is shown in figure 1 The antenna is clearly visible As said before the antenna has the largest impact of the size of the tag The microchip is visible in the center of the tag and since this is a passive tag it does not have an internal power source Figure 1 A passive RFID tag from Wiki RFID used under the GNU Free Documentation License In principle an RFID tag works as follows the reading unit generates an electro magnetic field which induces a current into the tag s antenna The current is used to power the chip In passive tags the current also charges a condenser which assures uninterrupted power for the chip In active tags a battery replaces the condenser The difference between active and passive tags is explained shortly Once activated the tag receives commands from the reading unit and replies by sending its serial number or the requested information In general the tag does not have enough energy to create its own electro magnetic field instead it uses back scattering to modulate reflect absorb the field sent by the reading unit Because most fluids absorb electromagnetic fields and most metal reflect those fields the reading of tags in presence of those materials is complicated During a reading cycle the reader has to continuously power the tag The created field is called continuous wave and because the strength of the field decreases with
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