OATSystems, IBM and Alien Technology unveil directly deployed RFID applications

OATSystems, Inc., IBM and Alien Technology have unveiled the first RFID software applications to be deployed directly on a RFID reader. Specifically, OATxpress 5.0 best practice RFID applications may be flexibly deployed based on business requirements on any combination of enterprise and premises servers and edge controllers and readers. 

This flexibility is critical to mitigate the risk of locking into a single architectural approach that may not scale past a pilot or may fail to address the requirements of various RFID-centric business processes. Alien Technology’s ALR-9800 is the first RFID reader to be validated for OATxpress 5.0 deployments by leveraging IBM’s WebSphere RFID Device Infrastructure (WRDI).  WRDI provides a standards-based, embedded environment for deploying distributed applications directly on readers and edge controllers.

‘This is a major milestone for the RFID industry,’ said Scott Burroughs, solutions executive for IBM’s Sensor & Actuator Solutions group. ‘For the first time, end users can deploy RFID software applications to enterprise-class intelligent RFID readers. This greatly simplifies implementation and ongoing management – enabling users to more easily innovate and implement distributed business processes that provide the key to maximizing the power of RFID technology to drive real ROI, on top of IT class middleware.’ 

‘OAT’s Flexible Architecture enables companies to deploy RFID applications on any combination of devices or servers to best meet use case requirements and mitigate risk,’ said Marc Osofsky, VP marketing & product management, OATSystems. ‘With our latest release, OATlogic provides a single, graphical design environment to manage all RFID applications regardless of where they are deployed and OATxpress provides best practice RFID applications which are pre-configured to deploy directly on IBM WRDI-enabled devices such as the Alien ALR-9800.’ 

RFID applications deployed directly on readers (application readers) are well suited to address use cases with local operational events that require rapid sense and respond actions such as pallet verification, shipping, conveyor routing, receiving and many more. The OAT-Alien application reader enables real-time business processes while simplifying implementation, ongoing management and reducing bandwidth requirements.

OATxpress applications may be remotely provisioned to the ALR-9800 reader with no manual configuration required and the browser-based, user interface may run directly on the reader reducing network dependency for operation.

‘The integration of the IBM WebSphere RFID Device Infrastructure (WRDI) on the ALR-9800-WRDI reader in 2005 enabled enterprise integration for end users using WebSphere,’ said Susan Pearson, VP Alliances, Alien Technology. ‘The deployment of OATxpress 5.0 applications on the reader now brings business logic to the edge of the RFID network, enabling real-time, local response to data, and the inherent reliability and efficiency of a distributed system.’