Installation guide

Wi-Fi Location-Based Services—Design and Deployment Considerations

OL-11612-01

RFID Tag Considerations

equipped with powered-on 802.11 Wi-Fi client radios can be tracked natively without the need to have

an asset tag attached, other assets lacking an internal 802.11 Wi-Fi client radio can be tracked via a

physically attached 802.11 active RFID tag.

Configuring Asset Tags, page 98 examines two of the most popular 802.11 Wi-Fi active RFID tags in

detail.

Figure 65 802.11 Wi-Fi Active RFID Tags

Using Wi-Fi RFID Tags with the Cisco Location Appliance

Compatible RFID Tags

A commonly asked question is whether the Cisco Location Appliance can be leveraged to track RFID

tags that may be deployed as part of a larger business initiative. In many cases, these may be passive

RFID tags coming from a product manufacturer or distributor or active tags that are part of the solution

of another RTLS vendor. They may also be RFID tags that are being affixed to a finished product as part

of a mandate for doing business with a large commercial or government entity.

The answer to this question is that it depends on the type of RFID tag being used. Currently, only 802.11

Wi-Fi active RFID tags can communicate directly with Wi-Fi access points (including Cisco Wi-Fi

access points). Therefore, the only type of RFID tags that can be directly tracked with the Cisco LBS

solution are properly configured 802.11 active RFID tags. Of the available 802.11 active RFID tags on the

market, those from AeroScout and PanGo Networks have been tested by Cisco for use with the Cisco LBS

solution.

Any 802.11 Wi-Fi active RFID tag that is capable of successfully authenticating and associating with the

underlying WLAN infrastructure (and issues probe requests regularly on all channels) should be

recognizable by the Cisco LBS solution as a WLAN client (and shown in WCS as a rectangular blue icon

as discussed in WLAN Clients, page 25). Keep in mind that even though the Cisco WCS recognizes such

clients, the specialized features of some 802.11 active RFID tags may require an external location client

to be fully used. To be detected as a Layer 2 multicast asset tag (and shown as a yellow icon in WCS),

asset tag vendors must meet the technical requirements outlined by Cisco in its RFID tag specification.

In some cases, passive or non-802.11 active RFID reader interrogators may be deployed in an

environment that is also serviced by a Cisco LWAPP-enabled wireless network. These

reader/interrogators may be using traditional wired Ethernet as their uplink to the network, or they may

have an integrated Wi-Fi client radio (such as the case of portable RFID interrogators such as those

shown in Figure 66). Although it is not possible at this time to track the individual passive RFID tags

associated with such portable RFID tag readers using the Cisco location appliance, tracking the portable