ARCwire -- A group of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology organizations announced their support for the open-source development of EPCglobal-compliant Low-Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) software libraries that enable EPCglobal UHF Gen 2 communications via the LLRP universal reader-to-network interface.
The initial group, consisting of IBM, Impinj, Intermec, OATSystems, Pramari, Reva Systems, and the University of Arkansas, is calling for contributions from other organizations or individuals to accelerate adoption and create a rich set of tools in C, Java, and other popular programming languages. These tools reportedly will enable customers to deploy RFID solutions easily and quickly and reduce long-term deployment costs while providing system flexibility to help unlock the business process impact of RFID technology. The group expects that LLRP development will benefit all end-use RFID application segments, including transportation, manufacturing and logistics, supply chain management, point-of-sale, security, and asset management.
Recognizing the important role that well-defined technology development guidelines and standard interfaces play in widespread RFID adoption, IBM, Impinj, Intermec, OATSystems, Pramari, Reva Systems, and the University of Arkansas have created the LLRP Toolkit, a "one-stop shop" that includes a software library for LLRP programmers. The library is modeled after other successful open-source software developments, such as the Berkeley sockets application-programming interface. The LLRP standard addresses the reader-to-network interface layer, providing a globally available mechanism to fully leverage the Gen 2/ISO 18000-6C standard, which has addressed the tag-to-reader air interface layer.