Background

The intelligent infrastructure, which we envision, automatically and seamlessly links physical objects to each other, people and information through the global Internet. This intelligent infrastructure has four major components: electronic tags, Electronic Product Code (EPC), Physical Markup Language (PML) and Object Naming Service (ONS).

Electronic tags refer to a family of technologies that transfer data wirelessly between tagged objects and electronic readers. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, often used in "smart cards," have small radio antennas, which transmit data over a short range. The Motorola BiStatix™ tags, an Electromagnetic Identification (EMID) technology, uses capacitive coupling to transmit information. Electronic tags, when coupled to a reader network, allow continuous tracking and identification of physical resources. In order to access and identify tagged objects, a unique naming system was developed.

The Electronic Product Code (EPC) was conceived as a means to identify physical objects]. The EPC code was created to enumerate all objects and to accommodate current and future naming methods. The EPC code was intended to be universally and globally accepted as a means to link physical objects to the computer network, and to serve as an efficient information reference.

The Object Naming Service (ONS) is the "glue," which links the Electronic Product Code (EPC) with its associated data file [ref]. More specifically, the ONS is an automated networking service, which, when given an EPC number, returns a host addresses on which the corresponding data file is located. The ONS, currently under development, is based on the standard Domain Naming Service (DNS). When complete, the ONS will be efficient and scaleable, designed to handle the trillions of transactions that are expected.

Finally, the Physical Markup Language (PML) is intended to be the standard in which networked information about physical objects is written. In one sense, all the complexity of describing and classifying objects has moved away from the object label and into the PML file. The formation of this language - together with the associated software tools and applications - is one of the most difficult aspects of this "Internet of Things."