The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducts its own tests to ensure that RFID beacons for fire safety and other emergency situations will work more reliably than other wireless technologies.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is conducting its own tests to ensure that RFID beacons, which are used for fire safety and other emergency situations, will work more reliably than other wireless technologies.

NIST's latest test focuses on "ruggedness testing" of Personal Security Systems (PSS) and RFID systems to determine which is more reliable. PSS monitor movement and activate fire alarms if firefighters do not arrive for an extended period of time. Because firefighters may use portable RFID sensors to determine location or be in warehouses or other areas using RFID inventory systems, the potential for interference increases.

The NIST methods were also developed by testing other wireless technologies such as radio, mobile phones with headsets, local area networks, and urban search and rescue robots to evaluate their performance in real-world conditions.

The NIST studies establish how exactly fire alarms and RFID systems can interfere with each other in the same frequency ranges:

• The results show that If signals are weak due to environmental or other conditions, SIS systems may respond significantly slower or not respond at all, especially in the presence of RFID interference.

• Strong interference results in longer delays, sometimes reaching 60 seconds, which researchers have identified as signal errors. NIST researchers have also determined that RFID systems may be less reliable in the presence of SIS systems.

NIST is collaborating with the National Fire Association, which will decide whether to implement NIST testing to determine SIS performance standards. Standards could be approved by 2013.

Source: rfidnews.org