IPICO Offers ISO New RFID Air Protocol Which Can Optimize Logistics, Counter Violence And Enable RFID Worldwide

IPICO's proposed IP-X air protocol addresses major security challenges through elliptic curve cryptography and in-motion authentication

IPICO Inc. (TSX VENTURE: RFD), a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and supply-chain solutions supplier, announced today that it has offered its IP-X(TM) RFID air protocol to ISO18000-8 and other standards bodies on an intellectual property free basis. It is bringing IP-X(TM) into the ISO framework to supplement established standards and fill gaps, a move which will ultimately expand RFID's applications, overcome key security challenges and enable the technology's global rollout to jurisdictions with limited ultrahigh frequency (UHF) and 2.45GHz spectrum availability, such as China and Europe.

IP-X(TM) provides for FreeFlow Spotting(TM) of tags in all frequency bands, which means it can enable an RFID tag to be read or authenticated even while it is rapidly moving through sorting or continuous manufacturing processes or attached to a person, container, or vehicle moving at a speed of up to 240 kilometres an hour.

This protocol's unique benefits offer the potential to save millions of dollars in transportation and logistics, supply chain management and other processes. More importantly, low frequency IP-X(TM) tags can counter violence and save lives by tracing explosives and hazardous materials in pallet, case and unit levels, as well as people who have access to them or track dynamic populations of people, such as miners, over long ranges.

IPICO and various other companies have successfully implemented IP-X(TM) on Integrated Circuit (RFID chip), tag, reader and at the application level and RFID systems based on this protocol are currently being deployed in up to 80 countries.

"We decided to offer IP-X(TM) free of Intellectual Property during this crucial time to enable organizations worldwide to share the cost-saving, productivity boosting, security enhancing and tragedy averting benefits it offers," says Gordon Westwater, President, IPICO Inc. "Bringing IP-X(TM) into the ISO framework is imperative to provide global end-users, vendors and competitors with the assurance that RFID products are under the control of international standards bodies. This will ensure that such products can be sourced from more than one vendor, are interoperable and that different technologies can co-exist."

IP-X(TM) provides a platform to solve two key security problems and reader restrictions under consideration with RFID standards: the ability of readers to authenticate tags, without stopping a process or obscuring the identity of an item from unauthorized parties and to provide source and off-line authentication even when network connections are inconsistent or the reader is unreliable due to its inability to store keys or other limitations. The latter feature is enabled by asymmetrical (or public key) elliptic curve cryptography with the IP-X(TM) data structure.

According to Bertus Pretorius, chairman of the South African standards committee for Automated Identification, "an RFID standard should apply to most processes within automated identification applications, without the requirement to stop the process and/or use expensive portals simply to read the tags. Neither can we compromise the integrity and authenticity of the data on the tags."

These RFID tags offer cost saving and productivity benefits to inventory tracking, fleet management, railway transport, manufacturing, warehouse management and other business applications. In many of these applications, convergence takes place as the same IP-X(TM) reader infrastructure is used to read tags for multiple applications.

For example:

- Tens of millions low cost UHF tags are successfully used in narrow spectrum bands to control stock levels of garments in retail stores in Europe, while complying with its limiting UHF regulations. This is achieved without having to resort to limiting approaches, such as listen-before-talk.

- Reliable and low cost UHF vehicle tags enable the identification of vehicles and items, even when travelling at very high speeds and in high densities. Tamper evident UHF container bolts and seals enable the identification of containers at speed, as well as providing off-line tamper status and trail of custody. UHF railway tags are used to identify and monitor trains and other rail management applications.

- Low frequency IP-X(TM) enables the tracking of large numbers of high moisture content objects such as meat and fish without disrupting normal process flow.

- Low frequency IP-X(TM) tags offer a traceability solution to the global explosives industry, which conventional RFID cannot fulfill due to safety requirements and hostile radio frequency environments. This capability is currently being tested by some of the largest explosives companies in the world.

Other unique benefits IP-X(TM) offers compared to other RFID standards that are already part of the ISO framework include:

- Enables very high densities of UHF reader populations through effective spectrum utilisation, which means readers do not need to transmit modulated signals in order to identify tags. This allows for the deployment of large numbers of co-located readers in the same frequency band and global rollout of RFID applications.

- Equips low frequency systems with a very efficient multi-read capability over long ranges.

- Maintains variable length tag data without requiring interrogation from the reader.

- Supports ISO data structures, as well as barcode symbologies and short digital signatures, while retaining FreeFlow Spotting(TM) of fast moving tags.

ABOUT IPICO INC.: IPICO (Intellectual Property and Innovation Company) is an RFID and global visible commerce supply-chain solution supplier with operations in Canada, USA, France, South Africa, China and Australia. IPICO produces smart labels and tags based on the IP-X(TM) air protocol. IPICO's low interference readers comply with regulatory requirements in major geographical regions, and allow for multi-reader rollout in close proximity. The IPICO DIMI(TM) middleware platform manages applications in large-scale, distributed systems, and allows for effective device management, data switching and data security. IPICO's low cost RFID products excel at long read range, fast multi-read anti-collision and high thru-beam read-speeds of dynamic tag populations. These products are used to optimize the management of items, people, animals and processes within the logistic supply chain and other values chains.