TagMatiks Core 4.0 WHITE PAPER

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Introduction

TagMatiks Core is the heart of RFID4U’s TagMatiks platform that enables businesses worldwide to harness RFID and AIDC technologies. The Core module provides the ability to abstract the data capturing technology and to integrate seamlessly to a TagMatiks business suite application or to extract data to external systems. The cloud-ready solution enables effortless management of RFID ecosystems and provides business layer applications with real time data.

TableofContents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….……..3

Overview………………………………………………………………………………………...……4TagMatiks Core 4.0 Architechture……………………………………………………………...…4RFID Device Manager……………………………………………………………………………...5

RFID Reader Manager...................................................................................................................6RFID Printer Manager....................................................................................................................7RFID Read Zone Manager.............................................................................................................8

RFID Integration with External Systems..............................................................................11RFID Business Process Manager........................................................................................11

End Points Supported in TagMatiks.............................................................................................12TagMatiks API..............................................................................................................................13

User Management................................................................................................................14Tag Operations....................................................................................................................14 Tag Data Settings.................................................................................................................15

Overview

The TagMatiks Core is a middleware application, which helps the enterprise applications to integrate with RFID operations and collect the RFID data. It works as an abstract system for the enterprise applications and performs the RFID operations based on the request received from the source system. Read Points can be configured for the individual devices, grouping of devices or splitting the antennas that belong to a single device into different read points. The required business processes can be defined and attached to appropriate read points and executed in order to collect the RFID data. This application can be used as a service in order to collect RFID tags based on the business processes configured and will generate flat files with the required RFID data. The generated RFID output files can be given as an input data (Data Feed) to the other external legacy systems in order to track the assets.

TagMatiks Core 4.1 Architechture

TagMatiks Core includes a TagMatiks RFID Device Manager, which helps enterprise applications to easily integrate and perform the RFID operations such as read, encode and print RFID tags and automate the tracking and inventory processes.

Below are the major components involved in the TagMatiks Core application:

1. RFID Device Manager

a) RFID Reader Manager b) RFID Printer Manager c) RFID Read Zone Manager d) Tag Operations Manager e) Location Manager

2. RFID Business Process Manager

a) Business Process configuration b) Business Process Execution (Windows Service)

RFID Device Manager

RFID Device Manager will provide options to configure the RFID devices by selecting the provider, IP address and the port number. This includes a Read-Point Manager where the devices can be grouped together to map the read point for performing specific processes. Users can configure the RFID printers to perform the print operation initiated from the enterprise applications or through TagMatiks Core (RFID Device Manager) user interface. User can also read the Tag ID and the User memory bank data using this application.

RFID Reader Manager

• Enables Reader Configuration (Network IP / Port /Provider) • Shows each of the device’s last heartbeat information • Supports various providers: Alien, Impinj, Zebra, ThingMagic, any reader using LLRP • Allows for configuration of Reader Settings for Antenna(s) Power, RSSI, and shows you the

settings for the Read mode, Search mode, Session, and number GPIO available • Enables aggregation and filtering of tag data: Tag duplication elimination duration, Tag

Mask value • Easily find any specific reader or group of readers quickly with the built-in search and filter

functionalities • Use Auto Discovery to find all readers on the network

RFID Printer Manager • Enables Printer Configuration (IP, Port) • Provides Printer Templates Configuration (ZPLCommand) • Controls Printing jobs • Easily find any specific printer, print job, or job template quickly with the built-in search and

filter functionalities • Edit the printer settings for each printer from the application, instead of at the printer itself

RFID Read Zone Manager Read Zone Manager enables grouping of RFID Readers and Antennas into various zones. There are three type of read-points that can be configured.

1. Multiple readers can be grouped together, with any number of antennas, and can be

configured as a read point (single read zone). a. This will support a process that needs more than one device to capture all the data it

needs.

2. A single reader can be configured as a read point.

a. This will support a process that can be executed using only a single device, with any number of that devices antennas.

b. Using only one antenna for this zone would be useful for encoding purposes.

3. A single device with specific antennas grouped together can be configured as a read point. a. This will support a process that can be executed by specific antennas in a reader.

For example, a process called “Receiving” can be mapped with Antenna 1 & 2 of the device and the antenna 3 and 4 can be configured for “Distribution” process.

More features of the Read Zone Manager include:

• Easily locate a specific read zone quickly with the built-in search functionality • Enables aggregation and filtering of tag data:

§ Tag Duplication Elimination duration

§ Tag Duplication Elimination level by Antenna, Device, or Read Zone

§ Tag EPC Mask value

• Configuring a Location for the Read Zone

• Enables configuration of Direction data: Bidirectional or Unidirectional, using antennas or sensors

• Ability to read from a read zone for testing

• Enables the configuring of GPI settings

§ Set a motion senor to trigger the start of a read, with a timeout to stop the read

§ Set electric eyes to trigger the start and stop of a read

• Enables the configuring of GPO settings § Set feedback for the reader status when it is ready, or when it is reading

§ Set feedback based on external system settings and see a response based on a success or

failure

§ Set feedback based on whether the EPC’s read match or do not match a specified Tag Mask

§ Choose the feedback state that you want change when an event happens, to either high, low, or blink and designate how long the state will be changed

RFID Integration with External Systems

For integration, the external system must refer to the TagMatiks RFID Manager components (DLLs) and configure the necessary settings. The required RFID operations can be initiated by calling the appropriate methods with necessary input parameters. After integrating the TagMatiks RFID Manager, for all RFID based requests from the enterprise application, the TagMatiks RFID Manager will perform the required RFID operations and respond back with the appropriate information. For example, if the enterprise application initiates a read operation by selecting a particular read point, the TagMatiks RFID Manager will read the RFID tags from the selected device/device group and send the RFID tag details back to the enterprise application. Similarly, encoding can be done by selecting a particular read point which is configured in TagMatiks RFID Manager. RFID Tag printing can be done by selecting the printer configured and initiating the printing operations using the TagMatiks RFID Manager objects (DLL).

RFID Business Process Manager

The required RFID based business processes are configured and managed by the RFID Business Process Manager. Users can create, start and stop the business processes. RFID Business Process Manager processes the RFID data collected from the configured Readers and pushes the data to the external system connected end-points.

Process Configuration Steps:

1. Add/Name new Process

2. Read Zone Selection

3. End-point Configuration

4. Start / Stop Process

End Points Supported in TagMatiks

• Database (Table & Stored Procedure)

o SQL Server o MySQL o Oracle o Postgres o NoSQL

• RESTful Web API (Secured) o JSON and XML format support o Basic Authentication support (username/password) o Token based authentication support

• ERP’s o Salesforce Connect

• File Generation o Supports Flat File / CSV o Support FTP to move the files to the External System FTP site configured

“Online” process mode will follow online integration mode which will execute the business process and send/populate the processed RFID data back to the external system immediately using database connectivity or API or message queue configured. “Offline” process mode type will follow offline integration mode which will execute the business process and generate the RFID data processed as an output file in each file path in each period.

TagMatiks API

• TagMatiks supports external applications to perform below RFID operations by

calling appropriate RESTful APIs

• RFID Tag data will be transmitted over the network using SSL after user authentication

• For all API calls, the application must pass the authentication token to perform the

RFID operation

• Prerequisites:

o A user account must be registered in TagMatiks Cloud (For API Authentication)

o The Devices (RFID Readers and Printers) must be configured in TagMatiks Cloud

o Devices must be connected to the local network

o TagMatiks Core Service must be running in the local network

• API List:

o Get Devices (Device Type, Provider)

o Get Read Zones()

o ReadTags (Reader / Read Zone)

o Get PrinterTemplates()

o PrintTag (Printer, ZPL Command)

o EncodeTag (Reader, TargetTagEPC, Memory Bank, Data)

o OnDemandRead (Reader / Read Zone, Duration)

User Management

TagMatiks Core gives you full control over managing users by supporting multiple levels of users with various levels of permissions based on the user role that you assign to them. It is also easy to add new users, edit existing users, and delete old users.

Tag Operations

The Tag Operations page is where you can perform all of the basic tag operations of read, write, lock, and kill. You can choose to read from either a single reader, or a configured read zone, and can start and stop the reads. Not only will this page show you the tag read data, it will also show a summary which includes the total number of reads, the total number of unique reads, and the duration of the read. You can also export your tag read data directly to a CSV from here, without going through a process.

Tag Data Settings

TagMatiks Core allows you to leverage GS1’s TDS (Tag Data Standards) so when you read a tag, it will make an association to the TDS and automatically break down that EPC number into its different, meaningful elements before being extracted, so your end systems will not have to do this decoding process. Equally, you can also print using various standards as well as generate EPCs for a TDS.