Asset tracking technology overview
The asset tracking technology that RFTRAQ has pioneered in recent years encompasses a wide range of technologies, each of which plays a part in the unique range of products we are able to offer. One of the most common questions that we get asked is "So you're an Active RFID company then?" - the answer to this is that we are have products and solutions that include Active RFID, but our technology is such that it's capabilities and functionality are so far in excess of what is covered in the term "Active RFID. We are a provider of automonous and wireless asset tracking solutions with capabiltiy including, but far in excess of Active RFID.
As Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) plays a part in the solutions that we are able to offer, this page serves as a point of reference regarding the evolution of Radio Frequency Identification technologies.
RFID comprises 3 generations of ‘tagging’ technologies used for the purpose of tracking goods and assets - barcodes being the first, passive tags the second and active tags the third.
What distinguishes these generations of technology is their functionality - barcodes are read or tracked at a foot or less by a laser scanner; passive tags are read or tracked by an RF signal emitted by a reader at up to 2 metres; Active tags have their own battery, which enables the tag itself to emit a signal, and they can be read by a reader at over 500 metres (RFTRAQ’s technology) or more.
The table at the bottom of this page sets out in very broad terms the technical and cost differences between these tracking technologies.From a commercial point of view it should be noted that:-
- Because barcodes and passive tags are only read at very short distances, more infrastructure will be required to service a client's requirements;
- Whilst at item level the capital cost of barcodes and passive tags are lower than active tags, they are often thrown away after a single use. Active RFID tags can be reused and so the cost per use - for example for each cycle in a logistics chain is significantly reduced. The cost of an active tag can thus be less than a bar code.
- No business case assessing cost for a tagging platform is complete without an analysis of functionality and reliability - given that a properly working active RFID platform is capable of c100% reliability enabling assets to be seen 'All the time in Real time', so the 'cost' of an application should reflect the savings from it in addition to any capital costs.
RFTRAQ has demonstrated that in its own asset tracking solutions, the individual tags are lower cost than barcodes and passive tags in a variety of applications.