The retail shelves and the corridors of hospitals are turning out to be smart in a time and age of real-time anticipation and around-the-clock operations. Improbably, one of the oldest technologies ever to be united is at the core of that intelligence, namely radio-frequency identification (RFID) and the high-capacity fiber internet.
RFID tags provide objects with a digital pulse; fiber provides them with a good highway on which such pulses can travel to the systems that interpret them.
This editorial discusses the reasons that fiber is relevant to modern RFID implementations and takes a look at concrete examples of real-world deployments of fiber by some of the industry leaders in the retail and healthcare sectors, and why fiber is fundamentally the foundation of smart inventory.
Why Connectivity Matters: RFID Is A Data Problem, Not A Tag Problem
RFID in itself is not very complex: a tag is placed on a thing, and a reader will capture an electronic ID. Its real worth lies in collecting, streaming, analysing, and acting on its millions of those reads, many of which are made remotely (stores, warehouses, hospital wards). It is there that the network performance counts.
- High throughput: The hospitals’ campuses and large retail stores are capable of producing thousands of tag reads per minute. To transmit that telemetry to either on-prem or cloud analytics, bandwidth and a reliable uplink are needed.
- Low latency: A large number of RFID retail applications require near-real-time response to decisions, e.g., notifying a missing defibrillator, updating a sales floor inventory feed, triggering an associate task in response to a shelf notification. Latency matters.
- Reliability and uptime: Healthcare, especially, will require deterministic connectivity – failure of telemetry can translate to delayed care or lost important assets.
- Security and segmentation: Hospital data and retail POS events should be put on secure and separate network paths; fiber networks are well set up with high encryption provision, VLAN segmentation, and isolation to cloud platforms.
According to industry research, RFID implementations provide robust operational returns, such as accuracy of inventory and decreased labor, and these returns are only discovered when the network transfers data with consistency to the systems that decode it. An RFID benchmarking by McKinsey at retail identified quantifiable stores in accuracy and revenue in years of quick, scalable implementations.
Fiber Vs. Copper/Wireless For RFID Backhaul (Quick Comparison)
| Attribute | Copper (Ethernet)/Wireless | |
| Bandwidth | Very high (Gbps–Tbps) | Limited, shared |
| Latency | Very low | Higher and variable |
| Scalability | Easy to scale (wavelength, ODN) | Constrained by port density |
| Security | Easier to segment/privately connect | More exposed on shared mediums |
| Reliability | Longer MTBF, less interference | Susceptible to EMI, congestion |
Table 1.1 Comparison Between Wires and Wireless
How Real Companies Pair RFID With Robust Networks
Now several known brands are fixing their networking system with the right use of RFID. Now, for a functioning RFID system, fiber internet holds the connection and keeps the system running for brands. Here are some of the usage of the companies that are using the network system to sync with their RFID and maintain efficiency.
- Macy’s and RFID-driven omnichannel visibility
The mass implementation of RFID at Macy’s has been well-publicized: item tags have increased the accuracy of inventory levels by a significant margin, and can now be used to fulfill the needs of the omnichannel.
The stability of the system meant that the links between the stores and Macy’s central inventory systems, which the system needed, depended on the existence of fiber-grade connectivity or good quality WAN connectivity, as this ensured that the updates and orders did not go in limbo and end up lost.
Sensormatic and industry articles explain the advancements at Macy as due to flawless incorporation of RFID reads and store systems, and cloud analytics.
- Kroger + Avery Dennison: grocery RFID and modern networks
The case of Kroger collaborating with Avery Dennison to build RFID in the grocery sector reflects how companies are shifting towards item-level tagging of fresh products and high-turnover products.
The sketchy reads required in grocery receiving docks and store floors need to be rapidly consumed to ensure that the digital counts on shelves are maintained–which once again makes the argument of large local networks and fiber aggregation even more timely.
- Amazon and Just Walk Out: RFID, AI, and a high-quality network
Amazon has Just Walk Out and other frictionless retail solutions that are an ever-growing part of RFID, which manages softlines and clothes. Such systems combine RFID with camera feeds and AI – a combination which requires high bandwidth, low latency, and secure transmission to processing nodes.
The public statements of the company regarding how Amazon does it highlight the fact that converged data streams (RFID + video + AI) can only be effective on contemporary, robust networks.
- Mayo Clinic and RFID hospital deployments
RFID hospital has been used in healthcare organizations to track the movement of specimens, equipment, and patients for many years. The initial pilot conducted by Mayo Clinic that investigated tracking specimens demonstrated significant decreases in mislabeling and enhanced traceability.
After upgrades to ultrahigh-frequency systems in subsequent years continue to illustrate a trend: installations of fiber architecture in hospitals take advantage of a high-capacity and secure network to ensure the integrity of telemetry, an aspect of fiber architecture that can be observed across campus networks.
Concrete Operational Use Cases That Require Fiber-Grade Connectivity
There are several operational cases that will show the need for fiber-grade connectivity.
- Real-time asset location in hospitals (RFID hospital use cases)
The equipment is monitored (critical devices, ventilators, infusion pumps, etc.). The tag read, location server lookup, and UI update for an emergency with a need to locate a device in seconds needs to go through minimum delay, and in this case, fiber is a favorable choice because of its reliability and low latency.
- Omnichannel inventory updates in retail
A purchased item through the Internet must immediately be subtracted from the store. Stores that sell thousands of reads per hour should have steady uplinks, which will avoid oversells and cancelled orders. Store aggregation points are connected by fiber.
- Converged RFID + video analytics
Numerous loss-detection and frictionless checkout solutions are made by incorporating RFID reads with CCTV feed and AI inference. Fiber has bandwidth advantages and a predictable quality of service in streaming high-resolution video, as well as RFID telemetry.
- Edge computing and cloud synchronization
Both edge processing (to make immediate decisions) and cloud analytics (to learn some models) are in interaction. Quickly synchronize models and data- Fiber connections allow the immediate access and connection of models and data to cloud-based data centers or personal data centers, enhancing the accuracy of the forecast and utilization of assets.
Measured Benefits And Industry Data
- RFID implementation, as per research by McKinsey, helps to improve inventory precision by over 25, decrease employee person-hours by 10-15, and enhance sell-through findings are triggered by credible data collection of tag reads to analytics.
- According to industry projections, the retail RFID market will grow into billions of dollars as more of their stores adopt item-level tracking that will put pressure on network backbones via increased telemetry.
These numbers emphasize one mere fact that RFID can really become a reality when it is supported by network architecture.
Practical Checklist: Designing Fiber-Ready RFID Architectures
- Local Aggregation Points: Fiber to store/ward aggregation switches at which the readers and cameras are connected.
- Edge Compute Nodes: Local processing of real-time rules (alerts, anonymization) deployed, fiber connections to the cloud to analyze.
- Network Segmentation: Isolation of RFID telemetry with respect to guest Wi-Fi and other traffic: VLANs and dedicated links.
- Redundancy and SLA: In the case of hospitals, in particular, redundant fiber paths and SLAs are required due to uptime.
- Security by Design: Protection of the telemetry through encryption, access control, and logging of audits of controlled environments.
Fiber Is The Difference Between Pilots And Production
RFID transforms objects into information. However, information without a reliable network is gossip- not intelligence. Fiber-based internet offers a low-latency, secure, and high-capacity network to allow the RFID systems to operate in pilot programmes to enterprise development.
Both the combining tags and fiber networks are a base year by year of RFID retail implementations to increase shelf availability and save clinical time in RFID hospital networks, down to the clinical time to make the operation smarter, safer, and more efficient.
To companies that intend to roll out RFID, the moral is evident: get serious about network design early on, and make sure that RFID telemetry is built into the infrastructure, and no longer a background scrumble.