Architecture for sharing the condition of networked smart objects based on wireless sensor networks and RFID integration

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are two emerging technologies with apparent disparate aims but with notable potential for complementing each other. The integration of RFID and WSN functionalities could expand the horizon of automatic product information gathering, giving birth to a new generation of ``smart objects`` that would seamlessly stream richer data to be utilized for their own supply chain and lifecycle management. These new capabilities would enable a full range of new product-centric applications and services, aimed at increasing business profits from manufacturers to retailers and asset management service providers. This thesis aims to demonstrate that RFID and WSN can effectively complement each other by providing an architecture design that integrates both technologies. The work presented here takes on the current defacto RFID standards, the EPCglobal architecture, and proposes a natural extension to its functionality by incorporating active networking and sensing capabilities to the objects that RFID uniquely identifies. The contribution delivered by our work allows users to track product information in a much richer form than any other previous work. This functionality is achieved by providing a common access to all the products taking part on the same contextual situation. The key objectives of this thesis are to provide a $\It{design}$ for an integration architecture of RFID and WSN, to $\It{evaluate}$ the proposed solution, and to prove its feasibility by $\It{implementing}$ the solution with current available technology. The architecture $\It{design}$ focuses on offering RFID and WSN functionality fusion by achieving dynamic object networking, structured data and information sharing. Active networks of uniquely identified objects with sensing capabilities aid the creation of groups capable of monitoring their own condition. Structuring the data coming from those networks into hierarchical relation...