Performance and reliability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) : theoretical evaluation and practical testing in relation to requirement from use in Abu Dhabi Sewerage Directorate

Abstract

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the performance and reliability of using RFID technology. There are some factors that can have an effect on RFID performance. Reading distance and material’s magnetic penetration are issues discussed in this master thesis. RFID is a technology with bright future. Many companies and organizations are trying now to implement RFID in their infrastructure, but the implementation progress is very slow because of the security, privacy and cost problems. Abu Dhabi Municipality & Town Planning in United Arab Emirates is a local government organization that serves more than one million people in one of the most modern city in the world. The Sewerage Directorate in Abu Dhabi wants to find a technology solution that solves their problems such as manhole identifying. RFID technology is very good candidate to solve these problems. In this research, the Sewerage Directorate’s facilities and environments will be first analysed. Then, this analysis will be used to define the characteristics of the RFID system that could be implemented. The selected RFID equipment was used as testing system under this research. PocketPC software was developed to display and manage data when components get communicate. The conducted test scenarios were based on the requirements of the actual environments. Finally, the results will be evaluated and compared to the theoretical ones, including recommendations and suggestions for further work. This work was done in parallel with another master thesis on possible use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Abu Dhabi Sewerage Directorate using Contextual Design methodology.