Network-intelligent device designed for plug-and-play facility-based radio frequency identification rollouts
Chelmsford, MA October 18, 2005 Reva Systems, a startup company focused on delivering network-intelligent products for radio frequency identification (RFID) installations, today announced the availability of its Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP), a rack-mountable device designed to help companies manage facility-wide RFID readers as one cohesive unit.
With today's announcement, Reva said it was marking an important milestone in its vision for the Tag Acquisition Network (TAN), a scalable, facility-based architecture for RFID, leveraging industry-standard tags, readers and protocols. "The introduction of a Reva TAP to a customer's facility transforms a collection of autonomous readers into a reliable and scalable TAN," Reva said.
Extending the Enterprise Network
The TAP creates an RFID infrastructure layer that resides above the reader layer and represents an extension of the existing enterprise network. Reva said that the TAP can help ensure predictable operation of an RFID-enabled facility, optimal usage of available RF spectrum and data integration with enterprise applications. The TAP includes a management console for configuration, commissioning and monitoring of RFID systems.
"Customers tell us that the level of investment required to build, operate and maintain an RFID system may be prohibitive due to the problematic and complex nature of deployment, the total cost of ownership for RFID solution components and the degree of hardware and software customization that is typically required," said Ashley Stephenson, CEO of Reva Systems. "The Reva TAP was designed to meet these challenges, deliver superior performance and accelerate the investment payback period."
The promise of RFID remains compelling for many customers, but broader adoption requires new approaches to RFID implementations. According to Scott Langdoc in the October 2005 AMR Research report "RFID and Retail: Little Return for Case and Pallet Tagging," "While many retailers believe that RFID technology will eventually transform their supply chains and make their operations more efficient, the reality is that even thought-leading retailers haven't been able to develop a clear-cut case for moving forward from research investments or pilot projects to an enterprise-wide rollout of the technology."
Addressing Deployment Challenges
With today's RFID market poised to transition from mandate-driven pilots to ROI-driven production deployments, Reva believes that the Tag Acquisition Network architecture and Tag Acquisition Processor directly address the performance requirements and infrastructure investment needed to successfully deploy RFID.
The solution provider said that TAP addresses key RFID infrastructure deployment challenges, including:
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Chelmsford, Mass., Reva is backed by Charles River Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.
Additional Articles of Interest
RFID technology has the potential to change the way supply chains are managed, but in order to be effective businesses need to take a holistic look at the deployment. Read more in the SDCExec.com article "Time for RFID: Applying RFID in the Supply Chain."
For a contrary view of the future of the RFID market, see the article "The O'RFID Factor: A 'No Spin' Look at Where Radio Frequency Identification Is Headed," in the October/November 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
For more information on trends relating to radio frequency identification (RFID), follow this link for an extensive listing of SDCExec.com articles, featuring the latest research findings on the RFID, including adoption, return on investment and barriers to implementation.
Chelmsford, MA October 18, 2005 Reva Systems, a startup company focused on delivering network-intelligent products for radio frequency identification (RFID) installations, today announced the availability of its Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP), a rack-mountable device designed to help companies manage facility-wide RFID readers as one cohesive unit.
With today's announcement, Reva said it was marking an important milestone in its vision for the Tag Acquisition Network (TAN), a scalable, facility-based architecture for RFID, leveraging industry-standard tags, readers and protocols. "The introduction of a Reva TAP to a customer's facility transforms a collection of autonomous readers into a reliable and scalable TAN," Reva said.
Extending the Enterprise Network
The TAP creates an RFID infrastructure layer that resides above the reader layer and represents an extension of the existing enterprise network. Reva said that the TAP can help ensure predictable operation of an RFID-enabled facility, optimal usage of available RF spectrum and data integration with enterprise applications. The TAP includes a management console for configuration, commissioning and monitoring of RFID systems.
"Customers tell us that the level of investment required to build, operate and maintain an RFID system may be prohibitive due to the problematic and complex nature of deployment, the total cost of ownership for RFID solution components and the degree of hardware and software customization that is typically required," said Ashley Stephenson, CEO of Reva Systems. "The Reva TAP was designed to meet these challenges, deliver superior performance and accelerate the investment payback period."
The promise of RFID remains compelling for many customers, but broader adoption requires new approaches to RFID implementations. According to Scott Langdoc in the October 2005 AMR Research report "RFID and Retail: Little Return for Case and Pallet Tagging," "While many retailers believe that RFID technology will eventually transform their supply chains and make their operations more efficient, the reality is that even thought-leading retailers haven't been able to develop a clear-cut case for moving forward from research investments or pilot projects to an enterprise-wide rollout of the technology."
Addressing Deployment Challenges
With today's RFID market poised to transition from mandate-driven pilots to ROI-driven production deployments, Reva believes that the Tag Acquisition Network architecture and Tag Acquisition Processor directly address the performance requirements and infrastructure investment needed to successfully deploy RFID.
The solution provider said that TAP addresses key RFID infrastructure deployment challenges, including:
- Reader management: As RFID deployments grow, it becomes increasingly important to manage readers at a system level, coordinating read schedules, avoiding interference and optimizing the use of RF spectrum across an entire facility. The Reva TAP supports current and Gen2 readers and improves whole-facility tag-read performance, optimizes throughput and allows RFID systems to scale, the solution provider said.
- Location management: While early pilots assumed each reader represented a specific location or role, production RFID deployments require administrators to divide facilities into virtual locations that support diverse application demands. Reva said that the TAP delivers location virtualization capabilities so that applications see only refined, high-quality tag observation events linked to locations they understand.
- Data management: As RFID is more broadly deployed within organizations, requirements emerge for a high-quality RFID data service. According to Reva, the TAP delivers the necessary infrastructure to ensure organizations can leverage their RFID data across a range of applications, business components and enterprise IT investments. The TAP supports standard and application-specific interfaces for RFID data access, including ALE, JMS, SQL and SAP-AII.
- Operations management: To be successful in production rollouts, the RFID infrastructure must be a reliable, manageable system consistent with the existing enterprise network infrastructure and skill sets. Reva said that the TAP offers real-time 7x24 failover redundancy. The Reva Management Console allows organizations to remotely manage and monitor RFID-enabled facilities, offering a drag-and-drop GUI and capabilities for configuring data services and reader layout, as well as analysis of RF coverage and monitoring.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Chelmsford, Mass., Reva is backed by Charles River Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.
Additional Articles of Interest
RFID technology has the potential to change the way supply chains are managed, but in order to be effective businesses need to take a holistic look at the deployment. Read more in the SDCExec.com article "Time for RFID: Applying RFID in the Supply Chain."
For a contrary view of the future of the RFID market, see the article "The O'RFID Factor: A 'No Spin' Look at Where Radio Frequency Identification Is Headed," in the October/November 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
For more information on trends relating to radio frequency identification (RFID), follow this link for an extensive listing of SDCExec.com articles, featuring the latest research findings on the RFID, including adoption, return on investment and barriers to implementation.
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