Design and Construction of an RFID-enabled Infrastructure : The Next Avatar of the Internet

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is one of the game-changing technologies of the 21^st century. This book explores the prospects of RFID and its transformative impact on the design and operation of complex systems governing human and computer interactions. The text examines the informatics challenges involved in integrating the physical and cyber worlds and in analyzing large volumes of raw data to derive decision-aiding information, particularly in the context of large-scale, globally distributed infrastructures. It also details the near- and long-term potential of this technology, including its expanding role in the service sector. Case studies illustrate the role of RFID.

Internet 2.0 (previously called the Internet of Things) presents a tantalizing vision of bridging the cyber and physical worlds to forge a seamless planet-wide infrastructure in which cyber resources and physical objects can interact without human intervention. The technology needed to build the infrastructure already exists. However, more than a decade after the vision of Internet 2.0 was articulated, it remains largely unrealized except in isolated settings.

Following a background discussion, Design and Construction of an RFID-enabled Infrastructure: the Next Avatar of the Internet addresses three questions: what are the barriers to the emergence of Internet 2.0 as a global infrastructure? What are the features that Internet 2.0 architecture must have if it is to become a successful global infrastructure?How can one build a prototype of Internet 2.0?

The quest for answers to the above questions threads the narrative through the birthing process and maturation of two successful global infrastructures—the Internet and the web. Based on a review of the design philosophies underlying the Internet and the Web, their histories and the strategic stewardship that midwifed their births, the book presents the architectural guidelines for the Internet 2.0 infrastructure as well as a blueprint for the construction of its prototype. The discussion in the book is consolidated into a list of technical and strategic guidelines intended to facilitate the incubation of Internet 2.0.