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RFID FREQUENCY SPECTRUM –“REQUIREMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS”

2 June 2006, Brussels

Renaissance Hotel
Rue du Parnasse 19
1050 Brussels

Updated Programme 30 May 2006

RFID technology depends on the availability of spectrum in Europe and worldwide. The workshop should address both the short/medium term issues as well as long-term perspective. On the short term, emphasis is put on the timely implementation of existing standards and spectrum regulations, especially in the UHF band. For the longer term, a sustainable implementation strategy for Europe should be defined, including an assessment of quantitative and qualitative spectrum needs. Obstacles, whether technical, economic or political, should be identified and solutions gathering wide support from the Member States should be discussed.

Friday 2 June 2006

08:30 Registration

09:30  Opening remarks:  Gerald Santucci,
                                            Head of unit “ICT for Enterprise Networking” -
                                            Network and Communication Technologies Directorate -
                                            Directorate General for Information Society and Media –
                                            European Commission (EU)

The opening session will provide an introduction to the theme; its relevance to the European Commission, and the steps that are to be taken after the consultation round has finished.

09:45  Session 1: Current Issues

Usage of RFID is not new, but … we have seen nothing, yet. Against the expected uptake of tags (active and passive) the issues existing today related to spectrum are limited. In order to learn from where we are today this sessions will present the state of play and provide an overview of measures taken today to avoid spectrum usage become a problem.

Moderator: Eelco de Jong,
                  RFID Solutions Manager, LogicaCMG (NL)

Speakers:
Henri Barthel,
Technical Director, EPCglobal (BE-LUX)

Bill Colleran,
CEO, Impinj (US)
[Enabling RFID take-up in Europe]

John Falck,
Chairman of ERM-TG34, Chairman of ERM-TG34, The European Telecommunications Institute (ETSI)(UK) 
[Spectrum availability in Europe – State of play and technical overview of current regulations and standardisation activities]

Stephen McGibbon,
Senior Director in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Technology Office and Eastern Europe’s Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft (UK)

10:45 Coffee break

11:00  Session 2: The user’s long-term perspective

Although usage today is relatively modest, it is important to consider what impact a much wider use of different sorts of tags may have. For this the panel will develop a view on possible future usage of tags (dimensions: type of applications, type of tag, number of uptake) and consider the user perspective and requirements.

Moderator: Brian Subirana,
                  Associate Professor of Information  Systems, IESE Business School, University of Navarra (ES)

Speakers:
Janie Baños,
Project Director, CETECOM Spain
[RFIDs in the context of other wireless technologies (interplay between wireless applications, security and privacy aspects, etc)] (ES)

John Garrett,
RFID architect, Tesco (UK)
[The User perspective and anticipated long term requirements 1]

Jens Kungl,
Metro Group Innovation Technologie (DE)
[The User perspective and anticipated long term requirements 2]
 
Reinhard Meindl,
Manager Technology Standards & Industry Relations, Philips Semiconductors (AU)
[Possible methodologies to derive spectrum needs (Applicaton oriented; iterative or linear process; licensed or unlicensed approach)]

Eldor Walk,
Technical Director, FEIG ELECTRONIC (DE)
[An RFID reader manufacturer expert view]

12:30 Lunch

13:30  Session 3: The regulatory and standardisation challenges ahead

Whereas it is clear that standardisation of RFID protocols will be useful for many applications, challenges are to develop these in a global environment. Next to that it is important to consider whether regulatory measures are useful or even necessary, taking into account existing legislation with regards to radio frequency usages.

Moderator: Pierre-André Probst,
                  Chair of SG 16, Office of Communications, OFCOM Switzerland (CH)

Speakers:

Jonathan Cave,
Senior Economist, RAND Europe (UK)

Mike Low,
National Spectrum Policy, Office of Communications, OFCOM (UK) [European regulatory aspects]

Mike Sharpe,
Secretariat Radio Competence Centre, European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI (FR)
[The standardisation work ahead]

Sigurd Bolt Soerensen
Bolt Consult (DK)

14:30  Session 4: Research on RFID reading ranges and EMF

From previous workshops, 2 important questions still stood out: Firstly, can we be certain that there are no health risks linked to the use of RFID? Secondly, what are the distances at which reading of RFID tags can be operated and are their issues linked to the range of reading distances (applications, privacy, data protection, health, inter-operability, spectrum…). This session will aim to assess these questions and provide research data and facts.

Moderator: Jonathan Cave.
                  Senior Economist, RAND Europe (UK)

Speakers:
Franz Adlkofer,
Professor of Internal Medicine, VERUM Foundation (DE)

Hugues Metras,
Head of Smart Devices Program, Laboratoire d'Electronique de Technologie de l'Information, Département Conception et Intégration des Systèmes, CEA-Leti/DCIS  (FR)

Paolo Ravazzani,
Researcher, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, ISIB (IT)

15:15 Coffee break

15:30  Round-table discussion: How to create an optimum spectrum environment for RFIDs in Europe?

How to evaluate - and agree on - proven spectrum needs? How can EU research contribute to the process? Who should do what?  How can EU contribute to the methodology/needs evaluation?

Moderator: Henri Barthel,
                   Technical Director, EPCglobal (BE-LUX)

Presentation by the Rapporteurs and Moderators appointed to each of the individual sessions of the related findings and policy options, followed by an open discussion.

17:00 Closing Comments: Ruprecht Niepold,
                                            Head of Unit “Radio Spectrum Policy” - Electronic Communications Policy Directorate -
                                            Information Society and Media Directorate General - European Commission (EU)