2006 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Letterkenny Institute of Technology
Ruth Lennon
Radio frequency identification in Letterkenny Institute of Technology

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been around for a long time but is gaining in popularity. For example in the commercial world a tag on a given product is read using an RFID antenna and transceiver. In this way stock items may be monitored within a given area. Work is currently underway between Letterkenny Institute of Technology and Internetalia, a software company based in Donegal town into the capabilities of RFID. The work involves the further development of RFID technology in conjunction with a GPRS system to manage stock from creation to delivery. Further the stock management system will include performance engineering techniques to reduce the network load during the monitoring process.

The main aim of the proposed research is to develop a methodology for the integration of RFID and GPRS in the remote monitoring and management of products applying ISO standards having performance engineering techniques applied to the process to ensure efficiency. The potential of the proposed technology is recognised as an opportunity to exploit a lucrative Irish RFID market. On Friday 24th March 2006 The Irish Times devoted half a page to the increase in popularity of RFID, citing IBM as having Ireland's largest RFID facility. The market growth coupled with the strong backing of IBM, with an investment of �210.77 million in 2005, indicates the potential for the market. Further work currently underway by Internetalia in the development of software for PDA systems in remote working environments has established the potential Irish market for the technology.

The study of the surrounding issues aims to improve the integration of the proposed technologies in providing a remote stock management system while implementing software development enhancements on a sample system based on previous feasibility studies funded by Enterprise Ireland.

The project is of twenty four months duration and includes partners from Ireland and England. The Computing Department in Letterkenny Institute of Technology is keen to foster new alliances in this area and to further exploit the wealth of potential for research within the Institute.

Contact: Ruth Lennon,
Department of Computing, Institute of Technology,
Port Road, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
E-mail: [email protected] , Web www.lyit.ie