Enabling Technologies_TECH – CircularEconExpo

Techedge S.p.a.

Enabling Technologies

About Connected Products Enabling Technologies User journey Contact Back to Exhibition

RFID & NFC Tags

Products are labelled with RFID and NFC tags to allow the interaction with the web application.
These tags are passive tag, so they do not have their own power supply, but are activated only when they receive an impulse from a reading or writing device. Tags can be used to store some information such as a unique identifier, other types of information or a link to a website, in the form of URL.
RFID and NFC are standard communication protocols that are quite similar in principle but have some important differences that result in completely different application scenarios.

Within this solution, both technologies were employed to provide the most effective and efficient access to data to all stakeholders.
At industrial scale, RFID UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is more convenient, since it allows a longer reading range and it makes it possible to scan multiple tags in a single shot. This can be useful to rapidly access information about a whole batch of products, for instance in a warehouse or in a recycling facility. RFID UHF tag, as the name suggests, operates at high frequencies (860-960 MHz), so to scan them a specifically built reading device is required.

On the opposite, NFC technology operates at lower frequencies (13,56 MHz) which are easily accessible even to common smartphones, that’s why most of them are provided with an embedded NFC reader. This is a very interesting opportunity, because it supports user-centered interactions with the product, since everybody has a smartphone and no further equipment is needed. Operating at lower frequencies than RFID UHF, NFC only work at a close distance, because the radiofrequency employed is less energetic. For this reason, the user has to closely scan the product with his own smartphone (a few cm of distance). Within the context of Repair3D, NFC technology is useful to provide the user engagement and support his interaction with the product. In this manner, the customer can access to product information and get tips on how to best use and recycle it.

Blockchain

A blockchain is a distributed database or ledger that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. The main difference with respect to a traditional database is that there isn’t a single “owner” of the database, who has the rights to add, edit or delete data form it. With a blockchain, this authority is shared among the nodes of the network, so that every portion of data stored in it is immutable and completely traceable, due to that, no one can secretly change the data of a blockchain.

In this manner, blockchain can:

maintain a secure and decentralized record of transactions
guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data
generate trust without the need for a trusted third party
Guarantee that Product information is safe, secured, trusted and immutable

These features build the guarantee for trusted and certified data, and that’s why it’s a technology that is getting more and more attention for applications that manage sensitive data, such as the finance sector.

QLDB

A Quantum Ledger Database (or QLDB) is a particular type of database that provides a complete and accurate way to keep records with an immutable and verifiable history of all application data changes. It can be seen as an intermediate between a traditional database and a blockchain:

It keeps records with an immutable and verifiable history of all data changes (like in a blockchain)
It is owned by a central, trusted authority (like a traditional database)
QLDB takes the best of the two technologies optimizing data storage and integrity

Which should you use, blockchain or QLDB?

Blockchain is the top choice for guaranteeing data integrity, because there is no “central authority”, the blockchain itself acts as a guarantee. However, building and operating a blockchain can be quite complex and expensive, so for many applications QLDB can be a better choice, given it optimizes the trustability of data while keeping things simpler and cheaper. In the case of QLDB, what you should really trust is not the technology itself but the owner of the database. This can be a proper solution for both corporate applications as well as public services, where for instance the database can be owned by an authority such

CLOUD

The cloud is an innovative technology that shifts the location of application form on-premise servers to remote facilities managed by cloud providers. Moving to serverless, cloud-based solution is much more than this, as using the cloud allows to realize solutions that are more complex at a fraction of the cost, while taking advantage of a number of services that would be otherwise difficult to access, such as AI and ML.

Cloud technology is characterized by a series of features, like:

Energy efficiency: cloud solutions are less energy-demanding with respect to on-premise. This also implies cost savings
High performance: the high availability provided by the cloud infrastructure, together with the possibility of quickly adapting to the application demand, results in higher performances with respect to on-premise solutions
High scalability: with cloud, you don’t have to order, buy and maintain hardware, it’s just possible to immediately scale(horizontally and vertically) applications in a few clicks
Security: the cloud infrastructure’s security is granted and managed by the cloud provider which keeps it up to the latest security standards, so it’s suitable also for sensitive data applications.
Effective data management: a cloud architecture, together with the multiple services provided, makes it possible to easily collect, store and manage data in a secure way. Data can then be used as an input to further custom applications
Managed services: the cloud offers a variety of managed services developed by the cloud provider, which can be used as a platform to build custom applications or as plug-and-play services. This reduces the development complexity and allows to use powerful services such as AI in a more efficient and convenient way, without building them from scratch
Custom solutions and applications: cloud services can be configured and used as desired to build and deploy custom applications based on them
Connected product: it’s possible to complete the data loop from product to cloud and back to the product (for instance, making available to the user some information about the product he’s using right now).

Cloud as an orchestrator

We presented a series of technologies for product tracing and product data management. Within this context, cloud acts as an orchestrator that puts together the other technologies and enables their potential by managing the processes and hosting the applications based on them.