Rockville, Md., March 18, 2009 -- Hi-G-Tek (www.higtek.com), a developer of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based tracking and monitoring solutions for high-value cargo and sensitive materials, today announced that it joined the DASH7 Alliance as a founding member. The DASH7 Alliance is an independent industry action group whose purpose is to promote the use of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 18000-7 active-RFID technology standard and influence future iterations of the measure from an end user perspective. Initial participants come from the manufacturing, systems integration and end user communities, including the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin and Savi Technology.
The ISO 18000-7 protocol, which is used around the world by the DoD, National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and various military defense systems, operates at 433 megahertz. This frequency features low power consumption that allows the incorporation of various sensor attributes including temperature  , location and humidity. In addition, the 18000-7 standard establishes a method for an automatic identification of assets at distances exceeding 100 meters.
ISO 18000-7 set the stage for mass adoption of interoperable active-RFID technology. Standardization means that RFID Interrogators (Readers) and Transponders (Tags) from various manufactures can be interoperable. The protocol defines the way in which Interrogators transmit information to networks and the software where the value of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) systems are realized.
The ISO 18000-7.2008 version of the standard recently reached significance with the award of the U.S. Army Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems RFID III contract to supply active RFID to the U.S. Department of Defense and NATO Allies. The RFID III contract, valued at $428 million over three years, requires all active-RFID products to comply with the ISO 18000-7 interoperability standard. The DoD uses RFID-III as the primary contract vehicle to purchase active-RFID, a technology to secure and monitor the status of all military cargo in transit around the globe and especially those shipments sent to support the war fighter in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, RFID tags are attached to approximately 35,000 shipments of military supplies each day. The RFID III contract will supply a universal, integrated platform to all government and military users of active-RFID components for logistics and location tracking and conditional monitoring of cargo and assets. (continued...)
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