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Spotlight Part Three:

Do You Know What the “RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System” Is?

In the last two editions of our newsletter, we have had Part One and Part Two of this spotlight on the RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System. In Part One, we outlined the critical basics of what the RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System is, when you should use it and why. In Part Two, we gave an overview of actually encoding a RAIN tag with a sample value.

In this final part, we will take a look at how you can use the RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System to easily fix proprietary, “rogue” encodings that you may have been generating and using for years. Such proprietary encodings will eventually cause Tag Clutter, so we need to nip them in the bud. Fortunately, this installment is quite simple. 

Tag Clutter is one of two things:

1) Tags from one application get erroneously read by another application. I fly on Delta Airlines often. They use RAIN RFID to track baggage (take a close look at your bag tag the next time you fly Delta). But what if I am traveling with a suitcase full of RFID tags (which I often do)?  What happens if the tags in my suitcase have similar encodings to the industry-standard baggage tag Numbering System? This is not a great example, because the Numbering System used for baggage tags is fairly complex and therefore the chances of randomly encoded tags with similar data are small – but you hopefully get the point that as RAIN takes off, we will soon have tags “here, there and everywhere,” and if we do not encode tags carefully, then we will get tag interference. This problem is often referred to as “Acid RAIN.”

2) With so many tags all over the place, the second component of Tag Clutter is that reading systems can get overwhelmed. We call this “RAIN Flooding.” Many people think that RFID readers “instantaneously read all the tags.” This is not true. It is really a back and forth dialog between the reader and one tag, then the next tag, then the next tag. Each interaction takes only milliseconds, so reading is often perceived as instantaneous, but it is not. Readers need to be configured to read only tags of interest, and they generally need to do this in some limited timespan. Going back to my Delta airlines baggage tag example, if there are some big rolls of RFID tags in my suitcase, then Delta’s reading system may have only a few seconds to correctly communicate with the true baggage tag as my suitcase moves along the conveyor belt and not the thousands of irrelevant tags. With properly encoded tags, reading systems can be optimized to interact only with tags of interest and ignore other tags.

Hopefully you are now terrified of encoding tags with your own “proprietary numbering system.” But there are many people who have been encoding tags for years using their own numbering system (intentionally not capitalized). How can these people now start playing by the rules to avoid Tag Clutter without breaking their existing systems?

The answer is the RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System. The first step is to get a RAIN-issued Company Identification Number (CIN). When encoding, now you can wrap your proprietary numbering system in a proper RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System “envelope” and avoid causing any Tag Clutter. Just set your T bit to 1 and your AFI to 0xAE as part of the encoding (for details on this, see Part Two of this series). Then encode the Hexadecimal variant of your RAIN CIN to Memory Bank 01 (the basic bread-and-butter memory bank in RAIN RFID tags). Following your CIN, you can now continue using your proprietary numbering system. Problem solved. You continue with your existing system but you have wrapped it up in a standards-based encoding to preemptively avoid Tag Clutter.

Your reading system will still need to interact with your old tags, but over time, hopefully you can phase out the old tags and replace them with newly encoded standards-based tags.

RFID News

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FSMA 204 and DSCSA

Are you a reseller with customers in the Food and/or Pharmaceutical industries? If so, you may want to learn more about FSMA 204 or DSCSA.

AIM recently hosted a presentation covering these two similar – but different - topics.

To learn more, please watch the video replay here.

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RAIN RFID Alliance
Training Program

The RAIN Alliance is launching a training program. RFID is difficult, and we want to help resellers and end-users implement solutions more rapidly, more efficiently and using appropriate standards. Details of the RAIN training program have not been finalized yet, but look for an announcement from RAIN soon. We will also keep you posted. We are currently slated to conduct a training module on “Numbering Systems” (What should you encode to your tags? And how do you actually generate these encodings?). Our first session on Numbering Systems is tentatively scheduled for March 20, 2024, at the TSC Academy in Itasca, IL (Chicago area). The second is scheduled for May 13, 2024, in Taiwan preceding the co-located RAIN Alliance Summit.

If you would like more information, please contact TSC Auto ID subject matter expert Chris Brown directly at cbrown@tscus.com. Yes, we will even cover the RAIN Alliance ISO Numbering System with hands-on exercises.

Global Events

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You're Invited! Join TSC Auto ID at RFID Journal LIVE

Come see TSC Auto ID at the Granddaddy of RFID trade shows, RFID Journal LIVE, April 9-11, 2024, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Now in its 22nd year, LIVE! typically features more than 80 exhibitors from 26 countries showcasing best-in-class RFID printers, tags, readers, software
and implementation services. Visit the TSC Auto ID booth and see our RFID products in action.

Save The Date! Join TSC Auto ID in the Nordics

Come see TSC Auto ID at RFID & IoT in the Nordics, 4. June 2024, in Copenhagen.  

Next RAIN Alliance Meetings

 The next RAIN Alliance meetings will be held in Taiwan, 14-16 May, 2024. 

TSC Auto ID's Newest RFID Blogs

  1. 7 Reasons Why On-Metal RFID Tags Can Be Ideal For Asset Tracking — On-metal RFID tags are game-changers, offering unparalleled performance and versatility in even the most challenging environments. Whether you're managing a bustling repair facility, a high-tech IT department, or a rugged industrial factory, here are 7 reasons why on-metal RFID tags can serve you well for tagging difficult-to-read items.

  2. The Supplier's Ultimate Guide to Retailer RFID Mandates: From Surviving to Thriving — As a supplier, we hope you are ready to begin applying RFID labels to your products for your retail customers. In this blog, we’ll detail the steps you need to follow to properly tag your items with RFID.

  3. Tips to Comply with Retailer RFID Mandates — Do you supply products to a major retailer? If so, your customer might have mandated you begin RFID-tagging your products. What are some RFID basics to help you comply with this requirement?

  4. RFID Tips to Support In-Store E-Commerce Operations — Items with RFID labels are now arriving at your brick-and-mortar stores. Hopefully, you view this as great news. What do you need to keep in mind to take advantage of these newly tagged items?

  5. The Importance of RFID Standards for E-Commerce Solutions — Successful RAIN RFID implementations in the retail industry depend on global standards to ensure that products are trackable across the value chain from the manufacturer through logistics partners and ultimately to the retailer.

TSC Auto ID's RFID BLOG LIBRARY

Webinar Rewind: DLS & RFID

Are you a reseller just getting into RFID?  If so, TSC Auto ID and our sister company, Diversified Labeling Solutions, recently hosted an introductory
webinar to explain the basics of RFID printers and labels, and how resellers can begin joining the revolution.

TSC Auto ID: tscprinters.com