Rugged RFID Edge Controller Industrial Enclosure

Arcom’s RFID Edge Controller (RFID-EC) works in conjunction with IBM’s WebSphere RFID Premises Server to provide a complete end-to-end solution. The basic premise of the RFID-EC is to provide the hardware and software interfaces required by many of the individual devices (sensors, discrete I/O, PLC’s, etc) within a customer’s facility. This level of device and sensor “abstraction” presents a common platform interface to the backend system. Customer’s can now integrate existing “legacy” sensors and equipment along with new RFID equipment, into the overall RFID solution while maintaining common back end middleware components and business IT applications. This approach greatly reduces the risk of ending up with outdated solutions overtime due to “point in time” solutions and the common “islands of automation” incompatibilities.

The Arcom RFID Edge Controller is built upon a fan-less, disk-less embedded hardware platform offering very high MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) and a large number of physical interfaces including 4 x RS-232 ports, 1 x RS-485 port, 10/100BaseT Ethernet, CompactFlash Type II socket, and 2 x USB Host ports as standard. A wide array of discrete I/O and expansion interfaces can be added to the RFID-EC using standard PC/104 interface boards.

In conjunction with a robust industrial hardware platform, the RFID-EC incorporates the latest version of IBM’s WebSphere RFID Device Infrastructure. The WebSphere RFID Device Infrastructure is based on IBM’s Workplace Client Technology Micro Edition (WCTME) which provides a Java based application environment supporting the OSGi architecture. This provides a rich Java centric environment for continued long term development and support along with the inherent device management and application code deployment offered by the OSGi framework. As system requirements change and new devices are required in the infrastructure, the RFID-EC can be updated with new software (referred to as “OSGi Bundles”) from the Premises Server.

In addition to providing the required connectivity to the Premises Server, the RFID Device Infrastructure provides support for EPCglobal RFID data standards, RFID data filtering, and event based data reporting along with integrating physical device interfaces such as light towers, proximity/motion sensors, industrial automation equipment, and a number of RFID reader/writers and RFID label printers. Additional device interfaces can be integrated into Device Infrastructure both as time and need dictate to ensure future compatibility with new equipment and changing data consumer requirements.

For a greater level of detail on the RFID-EC hardware and software components please refer to the RFID-EC Development Kit.