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An RID Attendance and Monitoring System forUniversity Applications

. Kassem (EEE Member, M. Hamad (EEE Member, Z Chalhoub, and EI Dahdaah,Department Electrical and computer and communication Engineering

Notre Dame University LouaizeZouk Msbeh

akassm I mhamad@nu eu.lb

b- The main objective of this paper is to enhance the

university's monitoring system taking into account factors such

as reliability, time saving, and easy control. The proposed system

consists of a mobile RFID solution in a logical context. The

system prototype and its small scale application was a complete

success. However, the more practical phase will not be

immediately ready because a large setup is required and a part ofthe existing system has to be completely disabled. Some sowaremodications in the RFID system can be easily done in order for

the system to be ready for a new application. In this paper,

advantages and disadvantages of the proposed RFID system will

be presented.

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Radi Frequency Identication (RFID) is not a new tecology; it is a proven tecnology that has been used around

1940s as a way of remtely identiing aircra for milit puoses, and has since been used widely in civil aviation [1]. By the 1980s, the same cncept has been recognized as havga ptential in commercial d industrial applications. Until nw, it is still very expensive and limited to be practical for many commercial applications. Using the micro tecnlogy, the tags can be embedded in a very small package and have canstore a serial number for every product [2]. Many applicationsare going to replace the barcdes an/or the magnetic cards by the RFID because using this technology multiple bjects or prducts can be identied simultaneusly and remotely [3]. Inaddition, RFID technlogy des not requre scaing productsor line f sight, because the RFID tags can be read as long as

 they are within range of a reader.

Furthermore, RFD tecology can help t identi and to monior items (products, people, aimals, etc . . .  wirelessly within a specied distance (a few centimeters to hundreds of meters). In this paper, we describe the proposed RFID systemfor identiing and monitrg attendance at Ntre DameUniversity.

Sectin II gives an overview of the RFID systemcomponents. Sectin III describes the hardware and sowareimplementation of the system. Section IV highlights the systemspecicatins and present preliminary results. Finally aconclusion is given in sectin V.

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II. RFID SYSTEM COMPONENTS

RFID systems are basically made up of two components: the rst one consists f tags and readers, and the second is acomputer soware or application (a very important andessential component fr the whle system) that can handle all

 the collected data, as shown in gure 1.

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Fig. 1 RFlD System Components

The RFD device that actively transmits data to a reader was knwn as a tag; n RFID device that actively transmits was knwn as a transponder (mitter+res) [4]. Nowadays, tags and the transponder become common within

 the industry. The tags are lcated n the bject t be identiedcome in different shapes and sizes depending n the eld of use, but they all share a common structure in the way that allcnsist of an antena and a microchip as shown in gure 2.

Each tag can store a maximum f 2KB of information in the micrchips. Micrchips in RFD tags can be divided int two categories, read only (r write once, read many) nd read-write RFID tags [5]. These two categories can be dividedinto two sub-groups, passive nd active tags. The rst ne does nt need a power supply (battery), but the secnd needs a battery to pwer the micrchip and to transmit signals t a reader [6].

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The main nction of the reader is to provide the means ofcommunicating with the tags and enabling data transfer [5]. A reader contains a transmitter and receiver, a control unit and acoupling element to the tag. Many readers e also equipped with an interface, which allow them to forward the receiveddata to another system; an information system is a goodexample.

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Fig 2 Two Basic RFJD Tag.

III. HARDWARE / SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION

Many of the benets that RFID offers are dectlyconected to savings that can be made with the new tecnology. Although the savngs potential is difcult to predict, RFID is oen marketed as the technology that will provide an organization with greater transparency and fewer unecessary manual activities; thus lowering the costs in thelong run.

Universities have increasingly become well awre of themportance of making processes less time consuming and moreeiet. RFID l help to speed p the prcese ad thus reduce the lead time in several different areas such as parking,attendance, class access, and others.

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Fig. 3. Start Listening

Figure 3 shows the main application window of thissystem. From this window all conol menus will be reachable,once the Reader is conected to the system. The StartListening phase represents the different phases of theinitialization of the execution process:

85

First the credentials needed are sent

The coection is checked:

a) If no conection: an exception is outputted

 b) If the connection succeeds, the result is shown on the status bar

In order to coect to the reader, the identication process

should be done. Figure 4 shows this process. In addition, before disconnecting the Reader, a Stop Listening signalshould be sent. Figre 5 shows the discoection process.

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In order to create harmony between the differentcomponents of the network our program is based on two main tools. The rst establishes communication between the serverand the hardware (reader + antenae), and the secondestablishes communication between the server and thedatabase.

The two forms used for establishing a communication between the application and hardware are: -Start Listenng,and 2-Stop Listening. These two fos allow the server to

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control the reader using Microso.net, soware development, Alienrd.dll class library, and AAlienss.dll. A referenceinstalled name alienrd.dll must be added to the projectsystem.

The alien RFID soware development kit provides us with many controlling features. In this system the following features were used:

1. "Reader info" initializes a new instance of the reader infoclass.

2. Interface types sets/gets a numeration identiing current reader interface as (TCP/IP).

3. " are" tsgts strigs with edes P adresses.

 4. "Name" sets/gets strings with reader's name.

5. "Antena" species which antena is being used.

6. "Discovery Time", a read/write property representing time of tag discovery as a string.

7 "Host Name" hosts name of reader who reads this tag.

8. "Command Port" gets/sets cuent network port number.In this project port number 23 was used.

9. "Tag List" sets/gets aay of type of the tag infoation representing Alien Tag List.

The forms used for establishing communication between anapplication and the hardware re as follows:

1. Students (new, list) and reportg.

2. Instructors (new, list) and reporting.

3. Administrators (new, list) and reporing.

 4. Vehicles (new, list) and reporng.

To accomplish this, a database should be dened. It is anintegrated collection of logically-related records or lesconsolidated into a common pool that provides data for one or more multiple uses. One way of classing databases involves the type of content. This database consists of four main tables:students, administrators, instructors, vehicles; where each tableconsists of many elds, for example:

Student table consists of the following: name, family name,ID number, date of bth, faculty, major, student privileges, parking access, class access, library access, lab access, ndsystem access.

Fig 6 Student Management List

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Each time the system receives a request om the hardware,it connects to the database using an SQL connection, checks the data to veri whether or not a n access anted. At the same time, o application stores all log info in order to provide lateron monitoring while the user has the opportunity to track all the requests. All this is happening based on detailed queriescreated within the application during the development phase.One of the queries used to list all students select * om

students as shown in gure 6; this query will list the entirestudent registered in the database.

 All other tables are similar to the student table but withifrt paetrs as hown i gur 7 ad 8.

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IV. YSTEM PECIFICATIONS D RELIMINARY RESULTS

The system uses the ALIEN 880 reader as and RFID tag reader; and the ACR-8611-C antena. All readers areconected to the antenas via reverse polrity TNC conector.

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Every reader will have two anteas but can hold up to four asa maximum and to optimize and speed up the processes. The two anteas used are one for receiving the data and one for reading the data. The Alien Reader Protocol gives RFID usersa well-equipped toolkit for implementing effective RFIDsolutions. This system is conected to a computer that canaccess the soware and write all the required information needed for the database in the university (students,

faculty/staff, administrators, etc ...). The conection betweencomputer and reader can be done in two different ways: It caneither be done in a wired maer using the CA T5 networkcable that supports a bit rate of 100Mbps, or the connection can be done in a wireless manner. The reader is then congred asDHP d utmaily ive an P dress.

A. Speccations

i)  Stud ent I d entcation and Monitoring Mod ule:• The system is upgradable to handle up to 15 000 students

 registered per semester, and keep record, at the same time,of old students while disabling their privileges to accessany part of the university except for the alumni parking.

• The system will keep student records, activities and their privileges.

2) Facul/StafIentcation and Monitoring Mod ule:

• The system will be able to handle 2500 members, dividedinto ll time faculties, part time faculties, and staf Also the system must always keep record of all instructors at NDU even if they are not active at that present time.

• The system will keep record of instructors, their activitiesand privileges.

3 Ad ministrators  d entcation and Monitoring Mod ule:

• The system will be able to keep record of administrators

activities such as the time they come in to the university,get in to their ofces, open the parking gate, and the time they leave the University, etc. with each authentication process being tagged with a date and time stamp.

• The system would enable the administrators to access all the oces and classes.

B. Prelimina Results

 All computers are coected to the main server where alldata is stored. Only Notre Dame University authorizedcomputers are allowed to connect to wirelessly the server. Thedatabase used is the SQL database. For students, all relatedinformation registered on ther IDs is handled by the studentaffairs oce. So it is most logical to place a computer that hasa direct conection to the main server where all data can bedecty writen, stred, moied, or elete. Similrly, ainstrctors, administrative personel, etc will have a maincomputer conected to the database. Finally, a computer monitoring all server actions must also be installed.

 A soware for data manipulation is written using VB.NETlanguage and it is directly connected to the SQL database. Inaddition, writing the information on the tags is a essential stepfor the success of the system. Using this soware, all the requred information elds are written and the data will be sent

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 to the database where all data is stored. Passive tags will be used for this entre project. As previously mentioned eachRFID reader would have two or for antennas. For this systemfour antennas will be used for optimization reasons. As also mentioned in previous sections, two antennas for receiving dataand two for sending, the tag will then be placed in ont of the reader and all the data is then sent to it.

 Next the Alien Reader 880 is installed and tested. Everyaccess door must have a reader, and every reader will have for ACR-8611-C antenas conected to it via reverse polarity TNCcoector. The main reason behind having four antenasconected to the reader is to optimize the reading of tags inseveral ways. This method is also very essential for the parkngaccess areas. Prking access areas will have the sameconguration as the one on access door, but the only differenceis that a signal will be sent to open the parking access door if the person is authorized to enter. The same logic is also appliedfor the library and all other access doors.

Only two parameters should be taken into consideration when installing the reader, which are:

• Type of tag (layout)• Material where tag is applied on

The maximum distance the reader can read a tag is ten meters and the optimal one is six meters. This all depends on how much power is given to the reader. The power that the reader operates at to read tags is controlled by the designer.One other important factor is the angle of which the reader isinstalled. The reader sends radio waves to read the tags and the waves power depend on the put power to the reader.

V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, an RFID system for monitoring and

identiing attendance at Notre Dame University is presented,and a small-scale prototype of the system was successllyimplemented. This system offers reliability, time savings, andeasy control/upgrade. It can be used for other applications suchas payment systems, access control and quality tracking.

KNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank AMED SYSTEMS for being the sponsor for this research.

EFERENES

[I ] Parliamentary Oce of Science and Technology, "Radio FrequenIdentcation (RFID), postnote July 2004 Number 225

[2] RFID Journal,http//www rdjoualcom/fag16.

visited on March 15,2010

[3] Gareth RT White et aI, "A Comparison of Barcoding and RFIDTechnologies in Practice, Joual of Information, InformationTechnology, and Organizations, Volume 2, 2007

[4] Amit Rawal, "RFID: The Nex Generaion Ao-ID TechnoloMicrowave Journal, Vol 52, o 3, pp 58-62, March 2009

[5] Intermec echnologies Corp, "RFID Oveview Introdction to RadioFreqency Identcation, RFID Joal, 2006

[6] VidTroniX LC, RFID Tags,http://www vidtronixco/RFIDTashtm visited on arch 15, 20 I O