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  • What is RFID ?
  • Wireless communication and
          the air interface

  • Carrier frequencies
  • Data transfer rate and bandwidth
  • Range and Power Levels
  • RFID System Components
  • Transponders/Tags
  • Basic features of an RFID transponder
  • The Reader/Interrogator
  • RF Transponder Programmers
  • RFID System Categories
  • Areas of Application for RFID
  • Standardisation

  • The Reader/Interrogator

    The reader/interrogators can differ quite considerably in complexity, depending upon the type of tags being supported and the functions to be fulfilled. However, the overall function is to provide the means of communicating with the tags and facilitating data transfer. Functions performed by the reader may include quite sophisticated signal conditioning, parity error checking and correction. Once the signal from a transponder has been correctly received and decoded, algorithms may be applied to decide whether the signal is a repeat transmission, and may then instruct the transponder to cease transmitting.

    This is known as the "Command Response Protocol" and is used to circumvent the problem of reading multiple tags in a short space of time. Using interrogators in this way is sometimes referred to as "Hands Down Polling". An alternative, more secure, but slower tag polling technique is called "Hands Up Polling" which involves the interrogator looking for tags with specific identities, and interrogating them in turn. This is contention management, and a variety of techniques have been developed to improve the process of batch reading. A further approach may use multiple readers, multiplexed into one interrogator, but with attendant increases in costs.