China Releases 800/900MHz RFID National Standard for Electronic Labels

With technology playing a larger role, electronic labels have become a key growth direction for China's label printing industry. To support a domestically driven radio frequency identification sector and accelerate Internet of Things deployment, China has issued the RFID electronic label national standard, Information Technology - Radio Frequency Identification - 800/900MHz Air Interface Protocol.

The standard was released recently. Industry sources view the air interface protocol as RFID's core technology, and say the new national standard can resolve the long-standing difficulty of unifying interfaces across technology products. It is also expected to play a vital role in advancing China's independent RFID industry and speeding up IoT construction.

RFID electronic labels serve as core infrastructure for the IoT industry and rank among the target markets that companies are eager to enter. Yet a national RFID standard backed by China's own intellectual property had remained absent for years. According to industry insiders, the arrival of this national standard gives China's RFID sector a central voice in competition.

The new RFID national standard took two years to develop and was jointly created by the Electronic Industry Standardization Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology with domestic industry, academic, research and user organizations. Wang Lijian, deputy chief engineer at the institute, explained that the air interface protocol is RFID's core technology, and that the 800/900MHz band aligned with the new standard is where major players are most densely positioned. In that band, more than 600 core patents had been published globally at the time, while all other bands together had fewer than a few dozen.

Wang Lijian said the released national standard contains 30 core patents based on independent innovation, making it difficult for foreign companies to enter the Chinese market without navigating this patent group. Although the gap between 30 and 600 remains clear, the new standard has already secured considerable bargaining power for China's independent RFID technology and industry as they compete.

In fact, the RFID national standard issue has long drawn industry attention, especially in logistics and food traceability, where RFID is widely used and standards are urgently needed to regulate the market. With no national standard in place, the sector saw disorder, inconsistent product standards across regions, and serious constraints on the development of China's RFID industry.

There are currently five major RFID standards. The establishment of China's national RFID standard can lower spending and market promotion costs for domestic companies while helping safeguard domestic information security, making it highly conducive to the growth of the domestic RFID industry. Analysts note that RFID advanced rapidly amid the rise of the IoT, with the RFID market exceeding 120 billion yuan in 2012, and it is expected to keep growing in the years ahead.

Among listed companies in China, Invengo, Newland and Zhongrui Sicho are engaged in RFID research and development, while Eastcompeace and Zhongshan Dahua also concentrate a substantial part of their business on RFID. These enterprises have mastered core RFID technologies, applied for the vast majority of domestic RFID patents, and hold a pivotal position in China's RFID field. We look forward to seeing them win more voice for China's RFID internationally.

This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361833.html