2007.10.03
NTT Comware obtained EPCglobal certification for RFID Middleware EPCIS as a global standard
NTT Comware Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yuhji Imai; below, NTT Comware) obtained an EPCglobal (*2) (Head Office: the United States) software certification for RFID Middleware EPCIS (*1) on September 26, 2007 (U.S. Time). This is to meet one of the global standards as EPCIS Version 1.0 Specification specified by EPCglobal.
Background
EPCglobal, an international organization for standardization, is leading the development how to effectively use RFID as an advanced automatic identification method or maintain coexistence with barcodes. The organization aims to use RFID tags with unique IDs called EPC (Electronic Product Code) to track objects online as "an advanced registration and search service" in the future. However, there was an issue to solve for this service as that it might be difficult for players using various interfaces to interconnect to send and receive data. EPCglobal has been studying a specification of EPCIS Version 1.0 Specification to establish an open network system and its standardization.History of Certification Award
RFID data is shared and used through a network for the purpose of "visualization of business processes" beyond boundaries of countries and industries. NTT Comware considers that RFID system needs to be linked with various systems.NTT Comware released RFID Middleware in compliance with a specification of Auto ID Center, the forerunner of EPCglobal, in February 2004, including revisions of the specification to date. In October 2006, NTT Comware was awarded GSRN (Global Service Relation Number) 950110126000000650, which is complied with ALE (*3) specifications, from EPCglobal for RFID Middleware Savant. The certification contributes to achieve a scalable architecture of global system link and configurations.
This led to the certification award of RFID Middleware EPCIS. RFID Middleware is a product to facilitate smooth interface and architecture of various systems beyond boundaries of countries and industries to secure compatibility with higher-level applications and EPCIS made by other companies.
Achievements and Future Scenario
NTT Comware's RFID Middleware is adopted in various business scenes such as a crossover stock management system used by department stores and whole sellers, as well as for security and safety measures of schoolchildren, an international distribution management of products and management of importance assets. This product achieves an advanced network-type RFID system to establish data link of multiple locations, smooth control of high volume data and high level IT securities.Based on the achievements, experiences and technologies applied for NTT's enterprise resource systems and networks, NTT Comware aims to apply RFID Middleware to NGN areas in the future.
Terminology
*1:EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services)EPCIS is a service used to track the progress of objects as they move through a supply chain. A tag for EPCIS is attached to each object to allow users to register or search its status through the network.
*2 EPCglobal EPC promotional group. A non-profit organization established in October 2003 by GS1 (former EAN International), the international organization for barcodes, and GS1US (former Uniform Code Council (UCC)), the U.S. organization for distribution codes
*3:ALE (Application Level Events) The ALE is a software specification for a middleware to provide aggregation and filtering of tag data scanned by a RFID reader. An ALE allows you to specify when to start collecting data, when to stop collecting data, how to organize and sort EPC patterns and different filtering logic and timing for various applications using API. An ALE enables an efficient tag data collection by avoiding unnecessary information from a number of events scanned by a RFID reader, which will reduce loads to the server to store and organize the tag data.
Certification Mark
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