in070920
INCITS Subgroup Annual Report

Annual Report for: T-20 RTLS

Covering the Period from 7/2006 to 7/2007

Title of INCITS Subgroup: Real Time Locating Systems

Links:

• Subgroup's web site (if applicable)
• Executive summary
• Link to Subgroup's area on the Secretariat's Projects Database
• Significant accomplishments
• Significant challenges
• Expected challenges
• Previous year's meetings
• Next year's meetings
• Liaison activities
• Membership and Officers
• Future Trends
• Other administrative information

Informal Description of Work:

Provide a set of technology standards for Real Time Locating systems (RTLS). The standard includes 3 parts, two air interfaces between the asset and the readers which receive the transmissions from the asset tags, and a common API for the multiple air interfaces that are specified.

1. Executive Summary

The T-20 committee is in maintenance mode. The first iterations of the standards were released 3 years ago. There have been no meetings this year, and no requests for new activity. We will continue in that mode until there is a request to renew activities.

2. Significant Accomplishments

There has been no activity this year.

3. Significant Challenges

No significant challenges at this time.

4. Expected Challenges

We expect to remain in maintenance mode this year.

5. Committee Activities

a. Previous Year's Meetings:

No meetings have been held this year. There has been no new business.

b. Next Year's Planned Meetings:

Meeting Number	Date	Location
No Meetings Planned

6. Liaison Activities

No official liaison. However, Tim Harrington is also a member of the ISO WG5.

7. Membership and Officers

a. Officers:

Position (and training date)	Name and organization represented
Chair	Tim Harrington - WhereNet
Vice Chair
Secretary
International Representative
Vocabulary Representative

b. Membership:

Unknown, we will know after call for dues.

8. Future Trends and Related Technical Activities

RTLS is of growing significance in the tracking of assets through the supply chain. INCITS 371 compliant tags have been adopted by the MTO organization for the identification and tracking of drayage vehicles in all of the ports Los Angeles / Long Beach, Seattle, and Oakland. There is increased activity in solutions and investments by large companies in the auto industry including Ford, General Motors, and BMW.

RTLS will increase in significance as it is adopted by the DoD for tracking of assets and personnel. Additionally, as more portions of the commercial supply chain adopt this technology it will become a bridge between isolated islands within the supply chain.

RTLS will become part of a nested architecture of traceability that encompasses traditional RFID, including standards developed by T6 ISO, and EPC.

In the future fine-grain locate solutions such as those enabled by UWB, Ultra Wide Band, technologies will become viable. This is restricted by current regulatory restrictions with the US and Europe which severely limit the range of commercially available systems..

9. Other Administrative Information

No additional administrative information is available or required at this time.