Abstract
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), one of the key technologies of silent commerce
has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years. The introduction of the
Electronic Product Code (EPC), which is likely to succeed the current Universal Product
Code (UPC), together with various other standards for the new “RFID network”, is
poised for wide scale adoption by the corporate community in the foreseeable future. One
area that will benefit from the use of RFID is supply chain management. A wide
spectrum of benefits will be unlocked when adoption across the entire supply network is
realized. These benefits would eventually ripple through all industries and sectors and
open up a host of additional applications that will benefit both the corporate and civilian
community. In the first part of this paper, the discussion is framed around the
architectural depiction of the RFID network, illustrating the functionalities and
importance of the various components and standards that have been developed. The next
focuses on the various network communication technologies that will support the new
RFID network. We map these technologies to the various segments in the supply chain,
hereafter referred to as the supply network.
Keywords
Silent Commerce, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Radio Frequency Identification
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