The Research Of Design And Application Of Information Service In The EPC Network

The idea of EPC(Electronic Product Code) network was brought by Auto-ID Center in MIT(the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1999,so far it is supported by many famous college and international firms, the research results are on trial in many firm such as Procter & Gamble,Tesco. EPC network is a communication network that it superimposes on internet, its core is EPC and electronic tag based on radio frequence identification technology. EPC is sole, discriminating code that it is distributed by Auto-ID Center, it is saved in electronic tag. The ultimate objective of EPC network is to build global, open identification standard for every object, its development not only can real time track every object, but can offer support for users by optimizing the whole supply chain, thereby it can drive the RFID technology development quickly and can greatly improve the living quality of global customer. In order to reduce the cost of electronic tag, it requires that the memory capability of electronic tag is to reduce to the minimum. The design of EPC information service offers an effective solution: Only the EPC is stored in electronic tag, the rest of information is stored in EPC information service and it can be accessed by an according EPC. The term paper puts forward some suggestion about EPC information service in supply chain, it is on the base of advanced researcher Mark Harrison's work from Auto-ID Center in Cambridge College and "the Integrated Supply Chain Management System based on Electronic Tags"that we has developed, this suggestion includes the ultimate principle, implementation and application of EPC information service. The paper firstly introduces the architecture of EPC network, the important role the EPC information service plays and the information exchange standard─Physical markup language(PML for short) in it; Secondly it expands the classification, query, transmission protocol of data and the composition of EPC information service; Thirdly it parses the implementation and work flow of EPC information service according to its application on product track in the implemented system; At the end, it analyzes the advantage and shortage about the EPC information service that is proposed in the paper and puts forward some suggestion as the follow research.