Information Technology - Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for Item Management - Data Protocol: Data Encoding Rules and Logical Memory Functions

The data protocol used to exchange information in an RFID system for item management is specified in ISO/IEC 15961 and in this International Standard.

Both International Standards are required for a complete understanding of the data protocol in its entirety; but each focuses on one particular interface: - ISO/IEC 15961 addresses the interface with the application system. - This International Standard deals with the processing of data and its presentation to the RF tag, and the initial processing of data captured from the RF tag.

This International Standard focuses on encoding the transfer syntax, as defined in ISO/IEC 15961 according to the application commands defined in that International Standard. The encodation is in a Logical Memory as a software analogue of the physical memory of the RF tag being addressed by the interrogator.

This International Standard - defines the encoded structure of object identifiers; - specifies the data compaction rules that apply to the encoded data; - specifies a Precursor for encoding syntax features efficiently; - specifies formatting rules for the data, e.g. depending on whether a directory is used or not; - defines how application commands, e.g. to lock data, are transferred to the Tag Driver; - defines other communication to the application. NOTE Conventionally in International Standards, long numbers are separated by a space character as a "thousands separator".

This convention has not been followed in this International Standard, because the arcs of an object identifier are defined by a space separator (according to ISO/IEC 8824 and ISO/IEC 8825). As the correct representation of these arcs is vital to this International Standard, all numeric values have no space separators except to denote a node between two arcs of an object identifier.