By Calvin Biesecker
A cross-industry alliance of technology firms has been created to promote a standard for wireless data that is used in technology that tracks shipments by the U.S. military and is increasingly being used by commercial customers, the DASH7 Alliance said yesterday.
The wireless data standard, known as 18000-7, is used in active radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions such as asset monitoring tags to track shipments of containers, hazardous materials, pharmaceutical products, vehicles and other goods. The U.S. military uses these tags and accompanying RFID reader infrastructure for logistics tracking.
Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Savi Technology business unit has been supplying the asset tracking tags for a number of years although recently the Defense Department brought additional vendors into the program through a new multi-vendor contract (Defense Daily, Jan. 7). Lockheed Martin, along with Northrop Grumman [NOC], which is also on the new RFID-III contract, Unisys [UIS], Texas Instruments [TI], Analog Devices [ADI], France’s Michelin and more companies are all part of DASH7.
For asset monitoring, having a common wireless data standard will ensure that one vendor’s tags communicate through another vendor’s readers, Pat Burns, head of licensing for Savi, said during a teleconference with media.
Backers of the new alliance hope that it will be able to promote the 18000-7 standard to a wider range of applications to expand the market for active RFID technology.
“The DASH7 Alliance will bring stakeholders together to share and discuss ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 18000-7 technical issues such as advancing the standard on a global scale, identify and eliminate potential gray areas, and share information about wins and pitfalls,” says a report by ABI Research, a technology market research firm that favors the standard. “The Alliance will also work to build applications on top of the core standard, including electronic seals, real time location systems, sensing and monitoring, long distances communication, and more.”
“By assembling this coalition of both end users and technology companies, we can promote greater interoperability and reliability, but also inspire greater innovation around a common standard,” David Stephens, CEO of Savi, said in a statement.
In addition to the member companies, DASH7 will be assisted by the Department of Energy and three of its national laboratories and the Univ. of Pittsburgh as technical advisers.