Product life cycle monitoring with EPC identified autonomous smart sensors

When MIT Auto-ID Center developed RFID technology gets widely accepted, every product in the globe will be uniquely identified by an EPC code. In a product entire life cycle, it will travel across several organizations; all organizations apply the same product identifier, e.g., EPC, will simplify product tracking. Today´s RFID application heavily concentrated in supply chain management, covers only a product´s BOL stage, play no or very limited role in some product´s main life stages. Another issue is that EPC as a product´s identifier is carried by a RFID tag, and RFID tag is attached to the product, product itself doesn´t know its own identifier, hence doesn´t know who he is. We propose that smart product should know its own EPC code. Smart product can provide information about itself, while smart sensor can provide information about others, when both of them are applied the same information standard will simplify product monitoring system application system development. Autonomous smart sensor is a turn-key device, easy to setup and develop applications. We propose a lightweight application layer protocol for it, and present a virtual instrument system based on a simulated autonomous smart sensor