Universal LLRP Protocol

The universal LLRP protocol is the standardized and commonly adopted communication system to communicate between RFID readers and software applications.

Companies, businesses, industry and the computer world in general are looking for the standards to facilitate RFID adoption.

In April 2007 EPCglobal announced the ratification of the Low-Level Reader Protocol standard, a specification to define the interface between RFID readers and their controllers. Since the air protocol between the RFID tag and the RFID reader with the UHF Gen 2 is already standardized and commonly adopted, the LLRP protocol is the logical next step to facilitate RFID adoption.

Dipole recognizes the importance of standardization and collaboration with other companies as a vehicle to boost RFID and extend its business adoption. Therefore, Dipole agreed from the beginning to work all its software developments with the LLRP standard.

LLRP protocol: definitely standardize the Client-Reader Interface

The applications for operating and controlling RFID readers can vary from a simple software program to a sophisticated middleware, and can be installed from a small hardware server to a programmable logic controller (PLC). It is evident that the first function of the interface between the controller and the RFID reader is to manage the data of the reading / writing of the tags, at the same time as having access to the configuration characteristics of the reader itself.

Thus, the LLRP protocol allows software manufacturers to write their code while maintaining the common functionality to all readers regardless of the manufacturer and without having to program proprietary software, with the consequent consequences of being subject to a brand for a long time.

To understand it, the basic operation of the LLRP protocol is as follows:

• Reader configuration according to the needs established by the user.
• Send operation commands to the RFID reader. These commands are called Reader Operation Specification (ROSpec) and they contain a list of sequential commands for the read operation called Antenna Inventory Specifications (AISpec).
• Send the Access Specifications reader (AccessSpec), which are commands to tell the reader what data access (read and write) operations you have to perform on the tag.
• Obtaining information reports from the RFID reader.