Extending EPCglobal ALE middleware to integrate transducer capability of IEEE 1451 standards

Many architectures and enabling technologies of Internet of Things (IoT) are discussed in recent years. As the IoT is constantly progressing, RFID tags and transducer technologies are developed continuously. EPCglobal releases a collection of standard specifications utilizing RFID technology to support applications such as supply chain management. IEEE 1451 is a set of transducer standards defining data exchange format and communication protocols. In this paper, we place the emphasis on adding transducer capability of IEEE 1451 to EPCglobal Application Level Events (ALE) middleware in EPCglobal architecture framework. The extension mechanism and transducer cycle specification are introduced to extend ALE capability to collect sensor data and process actuator actions. The extended EPCglobal ALE middleware can handle the raw data not only the RFID tags gathered from readers but also transducers. After integrating this mechanism to original identify and exchange layers of EPCglobal architecture framework, an IoT architecture based on international standards will provide more versatile applications and applied to our daily lives.