EPC Gen2 RFID Reader

What is EPC Gen2 RFID reader ?

EPC stands for Electronic Product Code, and the GS1 organization responsible for unifying global identification standards is replacing the old UPC (Universal Product Code) barcode with EPC Gen 2. UPC was first launched in 1963 and has exceeded its limitations in terms of scalability and feature set. The EPC standard extends the unique identifier beyond our current needs, and carefully considers future expansion and the requirements that we may make in the future.

EPCglobal is a trade organization that leads the development of global industry standards and the use of EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID in today's information-poor trade network​​. The EPCglobal organization is present in every country dedicated to making EPC an end-to-end supply chain standard.

As with most technologies, the lengthy name of the electronic product code category 1 and generation 2 has been shortened to a number of abbreviations, including Gen 2, EPC Gen 2, and EPC C1G2. It also uses the unofficial name of UHF RFID or UHF RFID because it is the most famous UHF technology. EPC Gen 2 products include EPC Gen 2 card readers and tags.

How does EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID reader work?

EPC Gen 2 or EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 defines the physical and logical requirements of a passive backscatter system, where the priority dialogue (ITF) of the interrogator between 860MHz-960MHz depends on the country/region. the EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID reader sends a signal to power the tag and allows it to respond. The previous EPC label standards were called Class 0 and Class 1, neither of which was widely deployed. EPC Class 1 Gen 2 represents an important step in standardization, performance, and quality. UHF RFID, EPC Gen2 and ISO 18000-6C usually have the same meaning.

EPC or electronic product code is the name of a product related to the ISO/IEC 18000-6C RFID standard. It is also the most famous UHF (Ultra High Frequency) technology, which is why it is sometimes called UHF. UHF actually refers to any technology that operates between 300MHz and 1GHz. In addition (2.4GHz or 5.8GHz) is UHF or SHF.

Benefits of EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID reader:

Data integrity

As other electronic products increasingly use the 860-960MHz UHF range, EPC uses FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum), which is a technology that quickly switches the carrier between multiple channels during radio signal transmission to obtain the Best read EPC Gen 2 tag. Using FHSS, the EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID reader can obtain multiple different readings from the tag, and then compare the results to determine whether the reading was successful.

Bulk reading technology

EPC takes full advantage of the higher UHF bandwidth by supporting reading multiple tags at once, which is not possible with most other RFID technologies. The EPC reader achieves this by asking the EPC tags to randomly select 2 numbers, and then the reader gradually reduces the first number until all tags have been read. The second number creates a priority sequence for tags that have the same first number selected.

EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID reader option

EPC Gen 2 readers use the same O/S (operating system), low-level reader command set (LLRP), and can be fully interchanged with other manufacturers without any changes. Simple swap in and swap out. The differences between manufacturers are related to features beyond the Gen 2 standard, such as enhanced read and write sensitivity or tag orientation sensing. 3 reader modes required by the Gen 2 standard (single, multiple, and dense) Reading speed; high speed (FM0) that can read more than 1,600 tags per second and low speed (Miller) that can read less than 600 tags per second.

Gen 2 readers can read all Gen 2 tags, but they cannot be interchanged between manufacturers, or even between models of the same manufacturer. Generally, their performance is 30% to 50% lower than Gen 2 certified readers, and the price reflects this.