RFID For Dummies®

Chapter 14

Ping-pong, the Tags Are Gone: How to Monitor Your RFID Network

In This Chapter

Defining critical performance measurements

Monitoring and understanding performance measurements

Keeping your RFID system healthy

I remember as a kid growing up, my mom would make cookies and she’d let me have a few when I got home from school and maybe a couple after I ate all my dinner, but that was it. Later, while Mom was watching TV, I would sneak into the kitchen and climb up onto the counter to reach those cookies on top of the fridge and add to my caloric energy store for a good night’s sleep. What do cookies have to do with RFID? Well, not that much, except for the need to monitor them. Mom just wasn’t very good at it, and, consequently, Pops didn’t get any cookies by the time he got home. I don’t want you to be like that with your RFID system because if you’re not very good at monitoring it, Pops won’t pay the price. Your bottom line will.

This chapter gets you up to speed on how to keep an eye on all your RFID readers. I explain the two basic types of monitoring. The first is simply checking that your reader is active. The other type of monitoring focuses on the behavior of your ...