Do RFID networks demand new management infrastructure? These days, I’m helping to design the user interface for an application that manages hundreds or thousands of servers on a distributed network. The application doesn’t involve RFID, but we’re dealing with some interface issues that overlap.
As RFID deployments grow, they will depend on widely distributed networks involving thousands of RFID readers serving information collected from RFID tags. Technology vendors and standard leaders have focused attention on describing the middleware that’s necessary to collect, filter, aggregate and rout the information collected from these readers. A number of new startups here in the valley are aiming to create new middleware, believing that existing middleware from established vendors is not up to the task of collecting so much data from so many networked readers. I don’t agree with this approach.
To date, not much has been said about reader device management. Several vendors including Alien Technology and others have defined management interfaces for their readers and plan to build more capabilities over time.
But what about open network management infrastructure that already exists? As with middleware, there seems to be an appetite for reinventing the wheel on behalf of RFID. Wouldn’t it be simpler if reader manufacturers just made their devices fully compatible with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and integrated them with established products such as Hewlett Packard Open View and Tivoli Net View from IBM?
8:54:37 PM 
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