
RFID ARCHITECTURE 53
RFID middleware and other system management solutions to stay ahead of the difficulties
that come with a fast-growing edge infrastructure.
Start with Architecture
Much of the time, enterprise architecture grows out of its selection of products. With
minor exceptions, over time, a proprietary architecture that is locked into a particular
product and vendor develops. Begin with well-defined interfaces between different layers,
such as event managers, applications, and integration servers, and then choose products
that fit your architecture. Later, this will pay in greater flexibility and independence.
Use RFID Middleware
As explained earlier in this chapter, you will find it necessary to use RFID middleware for
all but trivial implementations. RFID middleware helps decouple your enterprise applica-
tions from the physical architecture of your RFID systems; those applications don’t need to
know about the reader vendors, their APIs, or the physical configuration of readers and
antennas. In addition to this, RFID middleware provides the important function of filter-
ing the highly fragmented data that comes from the readers. By cutting down the volume
of data that passes over wide area networks, event filtering also allows you to define appli-
cation-level events and pass more meaningful information to your enterprise applications.
Summary
RFID and other, similar technologies are ...