A Formal Descriptive Language and an Automated Detection Method for Complex Events in RFID

RFID technology provides fast data collection with precise identification of objects with unique IDs. Through processing and analyzing RFID data, some complex events can be discovered to support event monitoring and pre-warning. This technology has been applied in a wide area of applications, such as supply chain management, retail, anti-counterfeiting, security, military and health care. In this paper, we propose a formal descriptive language for RFID complex events, named QDDC_att, which extends QDDC (quantified discrete-time duration calculus) with attributes and their constraints. This language has strong ability to describe quantitative complex events in RFID containing aggregations and nesting operations. We define its syntax and RFID event semantics. Since extended from a logic, it also has logical semantics. An RFID data stream can be modeled by a state sequence, and a complex event occurs during a time interval if and only if a subinterval of the state sequence satisfies the corresponding QDDC_att formula. We also show an automated detection method of QDDC_att, which is developed from the automata-based decision procedure of QDDC.