RFID in the Aviation Industry

Posted by Winnie Melda on February 21st, 2018

The technology has had tremendous advances and is the next resort in Information Technology revolution. For the aviation industry, the major airports and airlines are gradually adopting the RFID technology in handling baggage, identifying, tracking, and detecting various objects, and also in improving efficiency in the management of operations and maintenance (Wyld, David, Jones, Totten & Jeffrey, 2005b). The Aviation industry faces several challenges regarding the mishandling of baggage, increased congestion, and cost implications of employing a large workforce, security challenges, and challenges in the management of the routine operations. Without the implementation of RFID technology, it is challenging to track and trace passenger luggage and also to reduce the operating costs. RFID technology has the potential of enhancing baggage tracking, dispatch, and conveyance to the respective owners, improving security and easing congestion through fast movement of operations (DeVries & Peter, 2008). The implementation of RFID in the Aviation industry has a great potential in enhancing efficiency in the major airport activities. 

An overview of the Aviation Industry RFID system

Basics of the RFID components

            RFID is an automatic identification technology that is used to identify, track, and detect different objects. The RFID system comprises of tags and reader-writer that has an antenna and scanner. The tag is an electronic label attached to objects and used to store data. Tags have a small circuit chip and antenna mounted to a protective shell. The reader-writer antenna and scanner reads and sends data to the RFID tags through radio frequency waves. The major components of the RFID technology as applied in the Aviation industry are tags, antenna, reader, communication gadgets, and software. Communication is achieved by the use of both wired and wireless network communications to transfer data between the tags and the reader as well as the server and the application software. 

 Advances in RFID system

            In the aviation industry, the major airports have been searching for opportunities to use RFID in baggage handling area. There have been many pilot tests on RFID and have found them to be far more accurate and efficient than the use of bar codes especially in baggage handling activities. The use of the tags eliminates the need for manual inspection and routing by the staff (Viswanadham, Prakasam & Gaonkar, 2006). RFID technology has matured up as a reliable technology over the recent past. It has been used in logistics to provide access to data and information quickly and accurately. The airline industry is aware of the technology’s potential and is keen to take advantage of what it can offer. 

Industry Standards used in the RFID system

            The aviation industry is significantly influenced by the government regulations as well as well as aerospace standards. Many people claim that there are standards in RFID due to the lack of common references. However, there are many established standards and other emerging ones. Among them are the numbering system and network infrastructure and ISO protocols as the standard for the air interface. Others are the Global Tag (GTAG) and different classes of tags labeled as 1 to 5. Class 1 has the simple, passive, and read-only backscatter tag with onetime non-volatile memory. Class 2 has a passive backscatter tag; class 3 with semi-passive backscatter tag, class 4 has the active tag that uses an inbuilt battery to run the microchip circuit. Class 5 has an active RFID tag that communicates with other devices. The Electronic product code standards require tags to identify classes of products as well as individual objects. The aviation industry requires standardized RFID components to allow easy communication between the different objects passed through the system for identification.  

Benefits and disadvantages of the RFID system

            The adoption of RFID technology in the aviation industry has several advantages over other common auto-ID technologies. It offers unique identification to the objects linked with the system whether as individuals or in a class (Wyld, David, Jones, Totten & Jeffrey, 2005). The technology uses no line of sight since the tags can read without a direct line of sight. It also allows bulk reading, has a high storage capacity of information and keeps dynamic information which can be updated as required.

            The disadvantages of the RFID tags include the high cost of installation whose return on investment remains unclear for the small industry players (Bottani & Rizzi, 2008). The signals from the tags are affected by metal and liquid, and also the existence of multiple standards makes their adoption slow. The system collects and communicates with significant information which leads to huge amounts of data. The integration of the data to the enterprise information systems remains challenging.    

Security concerns or practices associated with the RFID system

            RFID data security is crucial to companies required to protect their data as they adopt the use of RFID technologies. The major security threat to the use of RFID technology is the risk of tamper of the readers and the network for the RF communication between tags and readers. Other security concerns are profiling, denial of service attacks, and inventory jamming. Many businesses have adopted the use of RFID without resolving the issues surrounding security, especially regarding multiple standards. The control of privacy of information is challenging due to the likelihood of tag sniffing. The information can be altered, corrupted, or deleted.   

Impact of implementation

            The implementation of RFID in the aviation industry is likely to cause increased efficiency in managing the major operations. Some human workforce becomes irrelevant since most of the tasks previously handled by man can be handled more efficiently by the technology. The organizations have to change their policies to allow the implementation of the technology. Among them are the compliance with the standards, personal safety rules, and maintenance guidelines. Training is mandatory for the use of the technology to allow fast implementation and adoption. 

 References

DeVries, Peter D. (2008) The state of RFID for effective baggage tracking in the airline industry, International Journal of Mobile Communications, Vol. 6(2),  pp. 151 – 164

Eleonora Bottani & Antonio Rizzi (2008) Economic assessment of the impact of RFID technology and EPC system on the fast-moving consumer goods supply chain. International Journal of Production Economics, 112(2):548–569, 2008

Viswanadham, N., Prakasam, A., Gaonkar, R. (2006) Decision support system for exception management in RFID-enabled airline baggage handling process, Automation Science, and Engineering, 2006. IEEE International Conference on, CASE ‘06, 8-10; 351-356

Wyld, David C., Jones, Michael A., Totten, Jeffrey W. (2005) Where is my suitcase? RFID and airline customer service, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 23 (4), 382 – 394

Wyld, David C., Jones, Michael A., Totten, Jeffrey W. (2005b) I'm on Beale Street, but my Luggage is in Memphis … Egypt?: Deploying RFID-enabled Baggage Tracking Systems to Improve Airline Customer Service, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, Vol. 9(1), Jan-July, 2005

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