The seal is an obvious target in the challenge to secure the supply chain and the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Freight Management and Operations, all part of the US Department of Transport (DOT), has published some useful material on the subject as part of its Intermodal Freight Technology programme.
An RFID System consists of one or more RFID Tags, two or more antennas, one or more interrogators, one or more host computers and the appropriate software to transform the raw data into actionable information. In a basic RFID tag read operation – the reader initiates tag collection and sends messages to all tags. All the tags in a reader’s field respond by transmitting their tag ID to the reader. Then the reader forwards all collected Tag IDs to the main system through a middleware platform that filters and aggregates data before passing it on to other systems. RFID tags can be read only (passive) or read-write (active). Some active RFID tags have high memory capabilities of up to 512kBytes or more. Readers can be either fixed or mobile.
Fixed readers can be installed at any location, ideally where the tags frequently pass through such as gates or chokepoints, at a point of sale, or in a warehouse. Mobile readers are usually smaller, handheld devices with a tethered cable or wireless communication.
