The widespread application of RFID tags in supply chains is said to cause enormous data volume problems and thus unprecedented challenges for systems and infrastructures. In order to unleash the potential of item-level RFID applications, such as data sharing and discovery across company boundaries, an unbiased understanding of emerging data volumes is necessary. However, quantitative data that provides factual argument is still scarce. Therefore, we present a simulation study based on a real-world scenario that reveals quantitative characteristics of the data volumes problem in an RFID-enabled supply chain and discuss its implications. Our results suggest that data volumes will be much lower than currently anticipated, but still bear significant challenges for researchers and developers of RFID infrastructures.
['Alexander Ilic', 'Andrea Grössbauer', 'Florian Michahelles', 'Elgar Fleisch']
Estimating Data Volumes of RFID-enabled Supply Chains