OGTech, QCS and FEIG Provide Public Prosecution in Qatar with UHF RFID Solution
The Public Prosecution in Qatar has been honored with an award for the largest implementation of RFID document tracking: In a coorperation with the German manufacturer Feig Electronic, the regional branch of OGTech, a local distributor in Doha, Qatar, provides the Public Prosecution with an elaborate UHF RFID system that encompasses 1,006 reading points to allow for improved efficiency and accuracy in document tracking. The integration was executed in coorperation with QCS, a local specialist.
After six months of planning, development, and installation, the system is nearly entirely implemented and in use. Already it provides faster and more accurate file tracking than the previous solution. Through innovative hardware and built-in features like authorization checks, detailed location information and label printing modules cost and time efficency is ensured and errors and delays are minimised.
-Khaled Mohamed Ezz El Din, Regional Manager, OGTech for RFID solutions, in an interview with RFID & Wireless IoT Global
A large-scale project that uses RFID hardware of Feic Electronic
After their move into a new building, the Public Prosecution in Qatar was in need of an improved system of UHF RFID readers in order to track all circulating files. OGTech, as the local distributor, sought a cooperation with the German manufacturer Feig Electronic to create a solution that ensures efficient document tracking. It was necessary to come up with a solution that not only accurately tracks files but works without noticable delay.
Since all documents created prior to the implementation of the new solution are still equipped with the old tags, it is imperative that the new hardware works with these existing labels as well as allows for the generation of new labels.
In need of an extensive RFID system after expansion
About 600-1,000 new files are generated in the new Public Prosecution building each day, which all need to be tagged with RFID labels and added to the data base. Most of these files, at the end of the day, are transferred to the Court. Here, it is crucial to implement a system that does not only track the files, but also reads whether a file has been authorized to be moved outside the building.
With the help of QCS as the local integrator, OGTech supplied the Public Prosecution with 1,006 read points, consisting of UHF long-range readers ID ISC.LRU1002, 8-fold UHF multiplexer ID ISC.ANT.UMUX, UHF long-range antennas, circular, ID ISC.ANT.U270 / 270 and UHF desktop readers with integrated multiplexer ID ISC.MRU102, for 46 floors that can track documents with extreme accuracy, down to the particular desk a file is sitting on.
The middleware provided by OGTech connects 11 antennas at a time. “In theory, 500 antennas could be connected simultaneously,” Regional Manager Khaled Mohamed Ezz El Din explains, “but in this case, that is not practical.” In total, about 50,000-70,000 documents are physically available in the Public Prosecution building at any time that have to be tracked by readers.
“For document tracking, this system is the biggest implementation worldwide. No other place uses a tracking system that includes this many reading points. As far as the Middle East goes, concerning the implementation of RFID technology, it is one of the biggest projects in general.“ – Khaled Mohamed Ezz El Din, Regional Manager, OGTech for RFID solutions
Honoured for an unprecedented solution
After being in the works for half a year, the solution that was implemented in September 2017 led the Public Prosecution to be honored with an award shortly after in November by OGTech, Feig Electronic, and QCS for the worldwide largest RFID document tracking implementation. Khaled Mohamed Ezz El Din, who acts as project manager specially for this project due to the project‘s strategic importance, stresses the unusual volume of the project.
“It is not only the biggest implementation of document tracking wordwide but one of the biggest RFID implementation projects in the Middle East in general.”
Progressive technology reduces cost and minimises delays
All readers in the building are produced to be circularly polarised instead of left- or right-handed only to ensure cost efficiency and easy maintenance through a single antenna instead of two. In addition to that, each reader is outfitted with an internal buffer that allows for file information to be put on hold in case of a network connection error and then, after the connection has returned, to be pushed forward automatically. This way no information is lost.
The file labels that are generated by the new hardware not only contain the reader tags but also a barcode to ensure efficiency and security. The perfomance of the readers, as opposed to the ones previously used, is noticably improved by the incorporated filtration technique contained in the readers. It tracks the document to a certain location and notes the location in the data base until the document is moved and the new location is noted, avoiding redundant scans.
Three levels of readers provide for precise information
In order to ensure the highest accuracy when tracking documents within the building, the implementation of the tracking system including UHF long-range readers and 8-channel UHF multiplexers is based on three levels: individual rooms, complete floors including lifts and stairs, and the exits. These three areas of implementation provide a dense network of reading points that can track documents in their exact location and then feed that information to the data base.
Khaled Mohamed Ezz El Din stresses the importance of the incorporation of the old tags into the new system. Instead of equipping all files with new tags, already existing documents including an older tag are still in use and can be read by the newly installed hardware.
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