AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID TECHNOLOGY

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AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING

FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID

TECHNOLOGY

By

ANKUR RASTOGI

S-9

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

NEW DELHI

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AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING

FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID

TECHNOLOGY

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree

of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

By

ANKUR RASTOGI

S-9

Under supervision of

Dr. M. L. SINGLA

PROFESSOR

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

NEW DELHI

MARCH 2011

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AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID TECHNOLOGY

Indian Railways (IR) has the largest rail network in Asia and is the world's third largest under one management. IR transport 20 million passengers, 11,000 trains and more than 2.2 million tons of freight daily. It is the world's fourth largest freight carrier, with more than 1.6 million employees. IR traverses the length and breadth of the country, covering 10,350 stations over a total route length of more than 1,08,706 kilometers. On account of its rolling stock, IR owns over 2,50,000 wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. IR has 35% share in the freight traffic. Freight business is the biggest source of income, 70% of the revenues and most of its profits come from the freight sector.

In the present day scenario, the need to accurately track freight wagons has become more pronounced for the Indian Railways. With better roads infrastructure, trucks cargo services are competing fiercely with IR for freight traffic. Wagon leasing organizations want online information about their assets. Customers demand guaranteed transit times. To increase Railway's share in the freight movement, IR requires adopting new technologies with a view to satisfy the specific needs and helping the customers reduce their logistics costs.

Any further increase in physical capacity of the wagons is now difficult to achieve, so newer and more efficient methods are required to enhance the utilization of the existing wagon capacity. This again translates into a need for more accurate monitoring of wagon movement so as to reduce turnaround time.

This project tries to examine the role of RFID technology from the perspective of IR for improving the effectiveness of existing system to ensure efficiency, safety and provide better customer satisfaction. Attempt is also made to identify the appropriate RFID tags, suitable for varied geographic locations and diverse weather conditions across India.

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This is to certify that this Project Report titled “An Analysis of Effective

Wagon Tracking for Indian Railways using RFID Technology”

submitted in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business

Administration, is based on the original research work, conducted under the

guidance of Dr. M. L. Singla, Professor, Faculty of Management Studies,

University of Delhi, and no part of this work has been copied from any

source. Any material referred or borrowed has been duly acknowledged.

(Dr. M. L. Singla)

(Ankur Rastogi)

Professor

Faculty of Management Studies

University of Delhi

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This project has been performed by me under the able, inspiring and appreciable guidance of my revered supervisor and teacher Dr. M. L. Singla, Professor, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, New Delhi. I am deeply obliged to him for his valuable advice and suggestions, without which, it would not have been possible for me to bring this report in the present shape.

I wish to mention my sincere gratitude towards Mr. S. S. Mathur, General Manager, Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), for being gracious enough to share with me the official records and technical documents pertaining to this project work.

I would like to acknowledge the unflinching support of Ms. Guljeet Grover, Senior Additional General Manager, CRIS, for her blessings and encouragement.

I also thank all my seniors and colleagues at CRIS. I would also like to make a special mention of Mr. Manish Kumar, Chief System Manager, CRIS, for providing invaluable inputs for completion of this project work; and Mr. Satya P. Panigrahi, Chief System Manager, CRIS, for his consideration and cooperation in helping me to continue my studies, along with the official duties and responsibilities assigned to me.

Last but not the least, I thank to the entire distinguished faculty members of Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, who cultivated in me the right spirit of learning and research. I thank them all for making my experience in FMS even more enjoyable and worthwhile.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AAR American Association of Railroads

AIDC Automatic Identification Data Collection

AIM Automatic Identification and Mobility

ANSI American National Standards Institute

ATA Air Transport Association

AVI Automatic Vehicle Identification

CPFR Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment

CRIS Centre for Railway Information Systems

EAN European Article Numbering International

EAN European Article Numbering Association International

EPC Electronic Product Code

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FOIS Freight Operations Information System

GCI Global Commerce Initiative

GDS Global Data Synchronization

HF High Frequency Band

IR Indian Railways

ISO International Standards Organization

IST Information Society Technologies

IT Information Technologies

NFC Near Field Communication

OCR Optical Character Recognition

POP Point of Presence

RDSO Research Designs and Standards Organisation

RF Radio Frequency

RFID Radio Frequency Identification Device

ROI Return on Investments

UCC Uniform Code Council

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1 INTRODUCTION

The transportation medium used to be the backbone of any country’s economy. Indian Railways undoubtedly is the backbone of public transport in India. With unprecedented growth in Information Technology, the world has now moved to an era where information transport has become the most dominant indicator of a country’s economy.

Since 2008, Indian Railways has embarked to deploy the technology for online automatic vehicle identification which allows the moving vehicle to be correctly identified and reported to traffic monitoring IT applications.

This report presents the current status of the RFID pilot project and suggests solutions for integration in a seamless and effective system, which can be extended further to cater for future growth.

Key objectives of this study include:

o Examining the role of RFID technology, for improving the effectiveness of existing system, to ensure efficiency, safety and customer satisfaction

o Identification of appropriate RFID technology, suitable for varied geographic locations and diverse weather conditions across India

o Providing mechanism for automatic tracking of consignments without human interaction

The methodology adopted for the study is as follows:

o Study of the present state of RFID usage in the Indian Railways and define an objective to be achieved by deployment of such technology

o Study of the benchmark systems that has to be integrated for the vehicle identification o Identify the possible solutions to achieve tight and preferably seamless integration

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2 ABOUT INDIAN RAILWAYS

Indian Railways (IR) has the largest rail network in Asia and is the world's third largest under one management, transporting 20 million passengers, 11,000 trains and more than 2.2 million tons of freight daily. It is the world's fourth largest freight carrier, with more than 1.6 million employees. IR traverses the length and breadth of the country, covering 10,350 stations over a total route length of more than 1, 08,706 kilometers. Regarding about the rolling stock, IR owns over 2, 50,000 wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. IR has 35% share in case of freight traffic. On account of earnings, 70% of the revenues and most of its profits come from the freight sector.

With ever increasing number of people and goods that use Indian Railways, the cost of maintenance and expansion of existing infrastructure is burgeoning. Being a medium of mass transport the railways cannot afford to increase its fare to keep up with its growing expenses.

2.1 Responsibilities and Challenges

In the present day scenario, the need to accurately track freight wagons has become more pronounced for the Indian Railways. With better roads infrastructure, trucks cargo services are competing fiercely with IR for freight traffic. Wagon leasing organizations want online information about their assets. Customers demand guaranteed transit times. To increase Railway's share in the freight movement, IR requires adopting new technologies with a view to satisfy the specific needs and helping the customers reduce their logistics costs.

Any further increase in physical capacity of the wagons is now difficult to achieve, so newer and more efficient methods are required to enhance the utilization of the existing wagon capacity. This again translates into a need for more accurate monitoring of wagon movement so as to reduce turnaround time.

There is an urgent need therefore, to look for ways to cut down its expenses, increase its efficiency, and look for additional measures to provide better customer satisfaction sources of

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revenue, which will ensure that Indian Railways continues to provide a better service to Indian masses.

2.2 IT initiatives of Indian Railways

Today, Indian Railways is one of the most efficient government-controlled organizations in India. It houses one of the most brilliant engineers and administrators in the country. This is the reason it has continued to remain at the center-stage at the India’s economic development.

Until recently (before Information Technology revolution), any country’s economy heavily depended on how effective the transportation medium of that country was. And, Indian Railways have continued to serve the Indian masses well, despite increasing burden.

However, looking from the perspective of current state of the technology available in the world, current modes of operations in Indian Railways can be vastly improved with further computerization.

2.3 About Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS)

In 1986, the Ministry of Railways established the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) at New Delhi. CRIS has been set up as an umbrella unit for all IT-related activities in Indian Railways. It is a project-oriented organization, with the mandate to develop and implement IT systems, ensure standardization of computer hardware and software, and also ensure close coordination of IT and business goals.

Important Indian Railways IT projects being handled by CRIS

1) Freight Operation Information System (FOIS)

FOIS has been designed to give strategic advantages to both Indian Railways and its customers. The system is implemented to perform the following functions:

 Monitoring of all freight trains indicating their position in computerized territory and their expected time of arrival at destination

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 Commodity wise flow of freight trains for customers like Power Houses, Refineries, Fertilizers and Cement Plants, Steel Depots and Public Freight Terminals

 Enable the recipients of consignments to have an accurate forecast of cargo arrivals giving them adequate time to complete preparatory arrangement to handle the cargo

 Details of rakes/Wagons in various yards, their phase-wise detention in different terminals thus eliminating the need for costly manual documentation and tedious retrieval systems and inaccuracies

 Managerial reports regarding availability of rolling stock, i.e. wagons and locomotives at any instant of time to plan for their most efficient utilization

2) Passenger Reservation System (PRS)

A countrywide online passenger reservation and ticketing system, is a complex online distributed client server application developed in C and Fortran programming languages on Digital OpenVMS operating system using RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) as middleware.

CONCERT (COuntry-wide Network of Computerised Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing) interconnects the five regional computing systems at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad into a National PRS grid. It allows a passenger from any location to book train tickets from any station to any station. It handles reservations, modifications, and cancellations / refunds.

3) Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS)

UTS constitutes a major component of the IR’s overall ticketing volume and is an important source of revenue. UTS delivers fast and efficient unreserved ticketing from dedicated counters replacing manual Printed Card Tickets/EFTs/BPTs with centralised online sales accounting. The solution architecture lends itself to easy integration with handheld terminals, smart cards, automatic vending machines, etc.

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The web-based software enables the general public to not only file claim cases through the web but also track the progress of their claims. All the rules and regulations for claims and accident case filing along with contact details of all claims offices are available on the website.

5) Rail Budget Compilation System (RBCS)

Developed for budgetary inputs from the different zones and production units of the Indian Railways, RBCS facilitates capturing of data, building of database, analysis of demands and pruning of the estimates for inclusion in the Railway Budget.

6) Vigilance Software System (VSS)

VSS is designed especially for the requirements of Vigilance on Indian Railways and has been implemented in all the Zonal Railway Headquarters. VSS maintains information on vigilance cases / complaints including various reports and correspondence.

7) Material Management Information System (MMIS)

This package is designed specifically for the requirements of stores accounting for P-Way materials and scrap disposal.

8) Comprehensive Accounting & Transaction System (CATS)

CATS has been designed with a common database to address functionalities for personnel and Finance Departments. CATS contain two major modules: Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS).

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WISE is a MIS project for the various railway workshops around the country. Currently it is in operation in 15 workshops, viz. Kharagpur, Jagadhari, Ajmer, Kota, Charbagh, Liluah, Kacharapara, Matunga, Lower Parel, Parel, Bhusawal, Jhansi, Secundrabad, Lallaguda, Jamalpur. WISE is currently maintained by the group Project-II and provides managerial reports to the various managements. The project utilizes the ORACLE DBMS.

10) Railway Crew Management (CMS)

CMS is software which provides information regarding railway crew at all times. It provides information regarding the presence of crew at home station or at out station, maintains their status-wise records and assigns crew to trains.

It also maintains information regarding the periodic and other rests, Road Learning & Traction knowledge. It is capable of booking crew on Coaching, Shunting, Freight services in the form of Links and Rosters.

The software system has tools to support the safety monitoring of the crew by it nominated Inspectors, monitoring of the crew knowledge through Quiz and has capacities to make the crew read the latest safety circulars put into the system for reading by the crew.

11) Control Office Application (COA)

COA is software which provides a solution for the rail traffic Controllers of each division to manage the trains running over the track. This project is running in more than 30 of the 70 Control offices in the Indian Railways. The COA application is interfaced with other applications such as the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) to provide train running information to the passengers and other railway managers.

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It provides a secure, fair and transparent method of procurement of material by the Railways through a web-based interface. This system is presently in operation in a few units of IR, and is to be expanded in the near future to all units of IR.

2.4 Need of RFID in Indian Railways

The need to use automated means to track railway wagons was first experienced in the Indian Railways as early as the 1970s. At that time, it was thought that manual tracking method would not be suitable in future, due to the increase in freight traffic. This increase in freight traffic was also the indicator of the beginning of increase of economic activities in India.

Around this time, computerized systems for managing freight railways were at an incipient stage in railway systems around the world. In 1997, a completely re-written, indigenously developed version of the Freight Operations System was conceived. It was rolled out between 1999 and 2004. It enabled the tracking of wagon consists, as well as individual freight wagons.

However, there was one serious lacuna in the system: individual wagon identification numbers were not automatically captured, but were recorded manually. Not only was manual recording tedious and stressful for the staff, but it introduced errors in the Freight Operations System’s database, and introduced delays in the tracking process.

This cost could potentially be reduced with the adoption of technology. Further, there are also cost and time savings in elimination of errors through automated tracking. Moreover, in the present day scenario, the need to track individual freight wagons accurately has become more pronounced for the Indian Railways.

Highways have improved, so trucks compete fiercely with rail for freight. Organized logistics chains have emerged that need real-time shipment-related information; just-in-time inventories have become common in industry; wagon leasing organizations want online information about their assets; and most customers demand guaranteed transit times.

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Figure 1: Freight transport in India in the year 2007 Source: Mckinsey

Also, the increase in the number of freight wagons is not keeping pace with the growing freight traffic. In recent years, a combination of newly replaced track and modern wagon designs has enabled axle loads (and hence the loading capacity of each wagon) to be increased significantly on major routes of the Indian Railways.

This has helped the Indian Railways to increase its freight loading by about 9% each year. Any further increase in physical capacity of the wagons is now difficult to achieve, so newer and more efficient methods are required to enhance the utilization of the existing wagon capacity.

This again translates into a need for more accurate monitoring of wagon movement so as to reduce turnaround time.

To achieve this, a technology for automatic tracking of individual wagons has become imperative. While this need appears to be indisputable, the methods to be adopted to accomplish such tracking are disputed by some important stakeholders within Indian Railways, delaying the adoption of suitable technology.

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Automatic vehicle identification is a vital and basic requirement of any IT application for asset management and maintenance management. Although a number of technology solutions are available for meeting this requirement, a survey of the deployment on various railways of the world indicates that RFID based AVI is widespread due to better read rates, lesser errors and ability to function in day and night under all weather conditions.

Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), in 2006-07, had explored use of RFID based vehicle tags. The results of this exploration were published as an article, copy of which is placed at Annexure III: AVI with RFID A first hand experience.

2.5 RFID implementation SWOT ANALYSIS

WEAKNESS

o RFID is suitable for identifying the rolling stocks only

o Trust Issue: vulnerable image of RFID

o Equipment still expensive for mass scale roll out

o Lack of well established standards

OPPORTUNITY

o Increased efficiency of production, trade & services

o Customer satisfaction o Automated monitoring o Has potential to integrate

seamlessly with WILD project

THREATS

o High initial & transition costs o Rapid technological evolution may

displace the technology before it is widely adopted

o If not implemented properly, there is a risk of missing real benefits

STRENGTH

o RFID provide better read rates o Has lesser chances of error

o Has ability to function day & night o Suitable for all weather condition o RFID tags has longer life

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3 ABOUT RFID

RFID stands for Radio Frequency IDentification. Among emerging technologies, RFID is gaining popularity due to its implementation advantages. It is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify individual items.

There are different methods to identify objects using RFID technology. The most common is to store a serial number that identifies an item / product and other information on a microchip that is attached to an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an RFID transponder or RFID tag).

3.1 Automatic Identification

Automatic identification is a broad term used for a group of technologies that help machines identify objects and capture data.

Companies want to identify items/products automatically, extract information from them and process it directly to a computer without having employees manually type out the data.

The aim of using these auto-ID technologies is to increase efficiency, reduce typographical errors and so free up staff to perform more value added functions.

A number of technologies that fall under the auto-ID umbrella are bar codes, smart cards, optical character recognition (OCR), radio frequency identification (RFID), among others.

3.2 The Basics of RFID

Automatic identification (auto ID) technologies help machines or computers identify objects by using automatic data capture. RFID is one type of auto ID technology that uses radio waves to identify, monitor, and manage individual objects as they move between physical locations. Although there are a variety of methods for identifying objects with RFID, the most common method is by storing a serial number that identifies a product and its related information. RFID

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devices and software must be supported by an advanced software architecture that enables the collection and distribution of location-based information in real time.

Figure 2: A schematic diagram of an RFID system

The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to a RFID reader. The RFID reader converts the radio waves returned from the RFID tag to a form that can then be passed on to computers, which make use of it.

Standard frequency for RFID devices in India is 865-867 MHz with 4 W erp power. This standard was approved in May 2005.

3.3 A brief history of RFID

RFID was developed out of the radar experiments and development during the Second World War. The actual date of invention is 1948, but this was followed by decades of development and experimentation before commercial applications were implemented.

In July 1963, a passive RFID transponder developed and patented by Richardson, the device could couple and rectify from an interrogator’s EM field and transmit signals at a harmonic of the received frequency.

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In January 1967, Vinding developed a simple and inexpensive interrogator transponder system based on inductive coupling, the transponder used repetitive tuning or loading of its antenna circuit at a rate characteristic of the particular under interrogation. In august 1975, Koelle, Depp and Freyman introduced the novel concept of transponder antenna load modulation as a simple and effective way for backscatter modulation.

In the late of 1960’s, the first commercial application of RFID – Electronic Article Surveillance was developed by companies such as Kongo, sensormatic and check point.

In the 1980s and 1990s, RFID becomes commercial the united states included transportation and personnel access, while European countries were interested in short range systems for tracking animals, industrial and business applications.

In October 1987, in Alesund the first RFID based toll-collection system became operational. The increase in commercial use of RFID prompted a need for standards, which led to many standardization activities in the 1990’s, the international standards organization (ISO) developed the (ISO-11785) and the (ISO-14443) standards for animal tracking.

In 1999, the European Article Numbering International (EAN) and the Uniform Code Council (UCC) of the United States adopted a UHF frequency band for RFID and established the auto-ID center at the Massachusetts Institute of technology.

3.4 Tags and Readers

An RFID system consists of tags and readers. RFID tags are small devices containing a chip and an antenna that store the information for object identification. Tags can be applied to containers, pallets, cases, or individual items. With no line-of-sight requirement, the tag transmits information to the reader, and the reader converts the incoming radio waves into a form that can be read by a computer system. An RFID tag can be active (with a battery) or passive (powered by the signal strength emitted by the reader).

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Figure 3: A RFID tag 3.4.1 Active Tags

Can be read from a long-range distance of more than 100 feet.

Are ideal for tracking high-value items over long ranges, such as tracking shipping containers in transit.

Have high power and battery requirements, so they are heavier and can be costly. 3.4.2 Passive Tags

Can only be read from a short-range distance of approximately 5–10 feet. Can be applied in high quantities to individual items and reused.

Are smaller, lighter, and less expensive (and therefore more prevalent) than active tags.

3.5 RFID and other Identification Technologies

3.5.1 RFID, Smart Cards and Other Form Factors

RFID technology is currently being used in conjunction with smart card technology in the financial industry, primarily in Europe. Financial institutions are issuing smart cards to record personal finance information such as account balances. RFID technology is also being used in other form factors such as key fobs, bulk metal tags, garment disks, and even metal nails that can be driven into pallets.

3.5.2 RFID and Barcodes

Although it is often thought that RFID and barcodes are competitive technologies, they are in fact complementary. The primary element of differentiation between the two is that RFID does not

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require line-of-sight technology. Barcodes must be scanned at specific orientations to establish line-of-sight, such as an item in a grocery store, and RFID tags need only be within range of a reader to be read or ‘scanned.’

Figure 4: Hype cycle of emerging technologies, 2009 Source: Gartner, 2009

Although RFID and barcode technologies offer similar solutions, there are significant advantages to using RFID:

 Tags can be read rapidly in bulk to provide a nearly simultaneous reading of contents, such as items in a stockroom or in a container.

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 Tags are more durable than barcodes and can withstand chemical and heat environments that would destroy traditional barcode labels. Barcode technology does not work if the label is damaged.

 Tags have read and write capabilities and can be updated. Barcodes contain static information that cannot be updated unless the user reprints the code.

 Tags can potentially contain a greater amount of data compared to barcodes, which commonly contain only static information such as the manufacturer and product identification.

 Tags do not require any human intervention for data transmission whereas barcodes do.

Figure 5: Innovation Diffusion Model

It is easy to see how RFID has become indispensable for a wide range of automated data collection and identification applications. With the distinct advantages of RFID technology, however, comes an inevitably higher cost. RFID and barcode technologies will continue to

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coexist in response to diverse market needs. RFID, however, will continue to expand in markets for which barcode or similar optical technologies are not as efficient.

3.6 RFID Global Standards

As RFID technology continues to expand, the need for establishing global standards is increasingly apparent. Many retailers have completed RFID trials within their supplier communities, adding pressure on manufacturers and suppliers to tag products before they are introduced into the supply chain.

However, manufacturers cannot cost-effectively manage RFID tagging mandates from disparate retailers until global standards are established. This process requires the creation and acceptance of data standards that apply to all countries, and it requires scanners to operate at compatible frequencies.

3.6.1 EPCglobal

EPCglobal is a member-driven organization of leading firms and industries focused on developing global standards for the electronic product code (EPC) Network to support RFID. The EPC is attached to the RFID tag, and identifies specific events related to the product as it travels between locations. By providing global standards on how to attach information to products, EPC enables organizations to share information more effectively.

The vision of EPCglobal is to facilitate a worldwide, multi-sector industry adoption of these standards that will achieve increased efficiencies throughout the supply chain—enabling companies to have real-time visibility of their products from anywhere in the world. The detailed report is placed at Appendix II: EPC Radio-Frequency Identity Protocols Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID.

3.6.2 Global Data Synchronization

Global Data Synchronization (GDS) is an emerging market in Supply Chain Management. It is the foundation for next-generation applications such as RFID-based tracking, collaborative planning forecasting and replenishment (CPFR), and more.

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GDS is designed to keep supply chain operations synchronized by ensuring that basic product data, such as the description and category stored by one company, matches the data stored by its trading partners.

Organizations submit product data in a specific format to data pools around the globe, and the data is then validated against a global data registry.

Standards for GDS are guided by the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), a collective group of retailers and manufacturers. The standards are being developed by the European Article Numbering Association International and The Uniform Code Council (EAN UCC).

These standards assign attributes to product data that enables manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and other participants in the supply chain to share product-related data across the globe.

For example, manufacturers could have their product catalog accessible worldwide, and retailers could search for any type of product and take advantage of unlimited global access.

3.6.3 International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a network of national standards institutes of 148 countries working in partnership with international organizations, governments, industries, and business and consumer representatives.

The ISO asserts jurisdiction over the Air Interface (the frequency spectra used for RFID transmission) through standards-in-development ISO 18000-1 through ISO 18000-7.

These are represented in the United States by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

3.6.4 AIM Global

AIM Global is the global trade association for the Automatic Identification and Mobility industry that manages the collection and integration of data for information management systems.

Serving more than 900 members in 43 countries, AIM Global is dedicated to accelerating the use of automatic identification data collection (AIDC) technologies around the world.

As the leader in developing international RFID standards, AIM Global strives to educate the community. The company is participating as the RFID Association Sponsor for a series of

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symposiums worldwide to build consensus about standards for using RFID technology on commercial airplanes.

Aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus plan to collaborate; both companies are moving toward RFID adoption based on the Air Transport Association (ATA) automated identification and data capture guidelines.

3.7 Uses of RFID

Although RFID is a proven technology that has existed since before World War II, it took several years for a large scale implementation to occur in the United States. The implementation eventually included freeway toll booths, parking areas, vehicle tracking, factory automation, and animal tagging.

The most common application of RFID technology today is for tracking goods in the supply chain, tracking assets, and tracking parts from a manufacturing production line.

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Another common application is for security—RFID is used to control building access and network security, and also for payment systems that let customers pay for items without using cash.

As technological advancements in RFID lead to an even higher level of data transmission—in addition to an inevitably lower cost—RFID technology will become ubiquitous within the supply chain industry and other industries, increasing overall efficiencies and dramatically improving the return on investment (ROI).

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4 RFID UPDATE ON INDIAN RAILWAYS

The concept of automatic identification of wagons using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) was first conceived in the mid-1990s. The basic concept was to encode an RFID tag with the wagon number and affix it to the side of each wagon.

Trackside readers were to be installed to read the tag from a distance and transmit the encoded tag information over a network to a central computer. In this way, each moving wagon could be identified and its movement tracked.

The technology was tried out as early as 1996, when Bharat Electronics Ltd. tested RFID tags for automatic identification of wagons in the Bangalore area. At that time RFID technology was still evolving and expensive, and it was difficult to provide network connectivity between the trackside readers and the computer system. Therefore this attempt was not extended further.

Figure 7: Technology Acceptance Model

In recent years, RFID technology has become widely prevalent and network connectivity has become inexpensive and widely prevalent. Therefore, the use of RFID technology for wagon identification and tracking has become feasible.

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4.1 Genesis of the Pilot Project

For maintaining records of assets in Railway Board, accurate census of wagons is essential. With a view to preventing inaccuracies in the master records of wagons, a paper was circulated by C & IS Directorate in 2003 with the outline of a proposed system for wagon identification and tracking using RFID technology.

When FOIS Phase 1 was implemented in 2002, it was observed that incorrect recording of wagon numbers through manual means was a major problem in maintaining correct data in the system. CRIS therefore proposed a work for identification of wagons using RFID tags in 2005.

Based on the above two requirements, Board directed CRIS to implement a pilot project in 2006.

4.2 RFID Pilot project

A pilot project has been implemented by CRIS in ECoR in the VSKP-Talcher-Paradeep section on 500 CC BOBR/BOBRN wagons. The equipment was installed and the wagons tagged between June 2008 and September 2008. Technology from Transcore has been used for the tags, antennas, and readers.

Figure 8: Schematic diagram of the implementation of Pilot Project

Read-only tags are used. The Wagon Number, Wagon Type, and Owning Railway are encoded on the tag. These can be decoded by the reader itself. The wagon identifier given above, along with the reader ID and reader timestamp, is sent to the central server through a wide area network being used by the FOIS system.

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Railway Board had approved the enclosure of the Pilot Project for using RFID technology or automatic identification of Railways Wagons at an approximate cost of Rs. 2 crores in the existing work of FOIS.

It was decided to implement the pilot in East Coast Railway, in the Vishakhapatnam- Talcher- Paradeep section, on 500 BOBRN / BOBR wagons running in closed circuit. For the pilot, 500 wagons were tagged, and trackside readers were placed at 5 locations, along with hand held readers at major yards and loading / unloading points as part of the pilot. Pilot Project Status Sheet of RFID is placed as Annexure –I.

The work was awarded to M/s Wipro Ltd (Infotech Division). They have, in turn, obtained the readers and tags from M/s Transcore, USA. Transcore have authorized M/s Rajkamal Barscan Ltd to provide installation and maintenance services for their equipment for the pilot project. Other equipment such as converter (Adam) boxes, Wi-fi equipment, Catamaran middleware and middleware server, is directly maintained by Wipro.

Figure 9: Pilot project using RFID at ECoR showing tag reader and tag on a wagon

On successful completion of the pilot project, it was planned to expand the system to tag all the wagons on Indian Railways, and place readers in all the major stations yards, and maintenance facilities.

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4.3 Challenges faced and progress made

The pilot implementation has indicated that the tag and reader are quite rugged and have not been damaged even after two years of running in harsh environments. While reading of the wagon identity through the tag and reader sub-system appears to be reliable, problems of connectivity and power supply have caused interruptions in service.

4.4 Current Status

The Pilot Project for Automatic Identification of Wagons using RFID has been running since September 2008. Five hundred BOBRN / BOBR wagons have been provided with RFID tags and are running in the Vishakhapatnam – Talcher – Paradeep coal circuit of ECoR.

Readers have been provided at Vishakhapatnam (Ore Exchange Yard), Talcher (NTPC hut) and Paradeep (weighbridge).

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4.5 Potential Challenges in RFID Implementation

The potential challenges to consider when implementing an RFID solution are: 1. Large volumes of data

Readers scan each RFID tag several times per second, which generates a high volume of raw data. Although the data is redundant and discarded at the reader level, processing large volumes of data can be difficult.

2. Product information maintenance

When a high volume of RFID tags are processed by the reader, the attributes of each tagged product must be continually retrieved from a central product catalog database—a process that results in challenges for large-scale implementations.

3. Configuration and management of readers and devices

When a large number of readers and related hardware devices are deployed across multiple facilities, configuration and management can be challenging. The implementation of automated devices for these processes is essential.

4. Data integration across multiple facilities

In an enterprise with multiple facilities that are geographically distributed, it is increasingly difficult to manage data in real time while at the same time aggregating it into the central IT facility—a process that can place a significant burden on the network infrastructure.

5. Data ownership and partner data integration

When there are different companies involved in business processes, such as commonly found in the Retail supply chain, it can create issues pertaining to the ownership and integration of the data, thereby compromising the integrity of the solution architecture.

6. Data security and privacy

Depending on the nature of the business application and the solution scenario, security and privacy challenges could have a significant impact on the architecture.

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5 OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS

The observations and learning from the pilot project are:

1) The basic technology adopted (that is, tags and readers to modified AAR specifications)

has been found to be workable in IR conditions

2) Supporting equipment placed at the reader site for the pilot project, that is, data converter

box, UPS, switch, etc. should be made more robust and monitor able from a central site

3) Latency in the data network should be maintained within limits; it is preferable that local

network at site should not be provided through Wi-Fi links

4) Procedures for mounting of the tags on the wagons should be drawn up in detail and a

cross-functional team should be set up to execute the project

After fresh exercises on the system, the following data was received from the reader at the location.

(i) AVI through RFID for the month of October 2010

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(iii) AVI through RFID for the month of December 2010

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6 CONCLUSION

After consulting the technical documents and scrutinizing the available data, it was found that the basic equipment – tags, readers, antennas, encoders – were robust and provided reliable service. The key findings emerged from the study of providing the automatic identification system for wagons using RFID are:

1. It will enable automatic collection of rake composition data into FOIS at the time of rake formation.

2. It will enable in-motion weighbridges as well as automatic devices for trackside diagnostics to accurately identify the wagons.

3. It will give an accurate count of wagons present in a particular yard, division, and zone. 4. Annual wagon census will be eliminated.

On the basis of study, Railway Board has sanctioned a work for “Automatic Identification of Wagons using RFID” at an estimated cost of Rs. 57 crore in 2010-11, for provision of RFID tags in the coal and ore carrying rakes of three zonal Railways in the Eastern part of the country.

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7 RECOMMENDATIONS

There are still some technical concerns that needed to be addressed before full blown implementation. These are given in the table below:

S.No.

Concerns

Requirement

Observation

Recommendations

1. Verification of accuracy of tag 99.9% read accuracy should be maintained. No misreads or defective tags found

It is proposed to read the tags using the hand-held readers. The data read by the handheld reader should be verified against the data read by the trackside readers 2. Occasional reading of a tag by both antennas of the reader Each antenna should read only the tags passing on the track nearest to it

Antennas are now tuned, resulting in reduction of this phenomenon

No further action is required as issue is now resolved

3.

Delay in receipt of data at the central server

Data from the reader should reach the central server

instantaneously after being read at the reader

Delays in data reaching the central server have been attributed to high network latency and network downtime

Delayed data movement occurs frequently from Talcher and Paradeep. The causes for these frequent drops need to be studied further 4. Clock synchronization between central server and readers Clock synchronization should be maintained

between server and the reader clocks

Clocks are synchronized manually at present.

Synchronization of two systems clock should be managed by application software

The pilot system should also be utilized to carry out certain additional technology trials in order to determine the most robust design of the RFID system before the roll-out starts. These are proposed to be as given below:

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S.No. Concern Observation Recommendation 1. Installation of IP addressable equipment at reader sites

Equipment such as UPSs, switches, etc. installed in the reader sites are not remotely addressable

UPSs and switches should be replaced with IP addressable equipment so that all of them can be monitored remotely

2.

Installation of train presence indicators

Direction of movement of the train is not recoded

Proposals from those vendors should be invited, who have facility to provide axle counters / laser beam devices to detect train presence and direction

3. Integration of RFID system with weighbridge and other trackside diagnostic systems

Positive identification of the wagons being weighed by the in-motion weighbridges or going past other trackside diagnostic equipment is required.

Proposals for providing a complete system of trackside diagnostics and wagon identification with correlation between the wagon identification data and the diagnostic data captured should be obtained

7.1 Further Recommendations

In parallel with the activities to be done in the pilot implementation, certain preparatory activities for the roll-out project can be taken up immediately, so that detailed estimate can be prepared and further action started.

1. Appropriate location of tag on the wagons and a better method of affixing the tag on the side of the wagon needed to be ascertained

2. Data to be encoded in the tag should be decided upon and broad encoding scheme should be worked out

3. Reader locations should be determined. Also care has to be taken to ensure that reader locations cannot be bypassed because of change in traffic pattern

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4. Power from solar panels should be explored to eliminate breakdowns owing to poor power supply / power cuts

5. IP addressable UPS should be provided in each field location for centralized monitoring 6. Due to fast changes in technology, constant reviewing process is required. Further validations

are required for comparison between the AAR technology (as used in the pilot) and other technology such as EPC Gen2. This task should be carried out by a technical team comprising experts from RDSO, CRIS and Railways Board representatives.

7.2 Limitations

This report is based on the work done in the areas of deployment and monitoring of wayside inspection devices on the Indian Railways by the members of the committee.

Presently there is no integration of WID and AVI systems on Indian Railways. As such the concept of the integrated working has been developed solely by reading literature available on the internet and from other sources.

The concept of integration presented in this report is theoretical. It is not based on any tests in laboratories or trials on the field and as such requires extensive testing for verification and validation of each component prior to implementation.

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8 ACTION PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION

A proposal for phase wise implementation should be tried and validated before a full scale rollout. Since the project needs diverse skills and experience, a task force should be nominated for implementing the pilot project.

A scheme of this magnitude should be tested and validated for the efficiency and economic benefits before a railway wide rollout. A possible site is the TATA-NOMD section on Chakradharpur (CKP) Division of South Eastern Railway.

This site has the following salient features:

 The site has one of highest traffic densities on the Indian Railways which can make validation of data models faster

 Closed loop vehicles are available on the section feeding iron ore to Tata Steel plant  The section is geographically small and the total route km is about 127 km

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An action plan for the pilot project is summarized in the following table:

Activity

Id

Description

Estimated

Duration

Predecessor

1. Setting up of task force for implementation

of the integrated system 1 month None

2. Expression of Interest for system to be

developed, based on AAR standards 3 months 1

3. Setup of infrastructure and trial at CKP

division 6 months 2

4.

Development of first working document for standard data format for communication between the Identification device and the system

3 months 2,3

5. Setting up of additional servers 3 months

6. Setting of data centre and 24x7 online

contact centre 3 months

7.

Creation of Identification mechanism of subcomponents, such as, Loco, wagon, brake van, container

8. Implementation at CKP division in first phase

9. Monitoring of data and validations

Given the scale of technology inputs and the likely changes in the maintenance procedures, it is suggested to test out the technology on a small and closed but highly functional setup. The TATA-NOMD section and the associated rolling stock on merry go round system on the Chakradharpur division of SER are suggested for a pilot rollout. An action plan for the pilot roll out is proposed listing the following elements.

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9 FUTURE EXPANSIONS

Through RFID technology we can automatically identify, locate, track, monitor and protect a variety of things. Resources that can be RFID tagged include:

1. Personnel 2. Assets 3. Vehicles

4. Inventory and also the conditions and the environment around them

RFID can operate around the enterprise in a local area, indoors or out. Through RFID assets can be automatically protected giving the owner the freedom to come and go from a secured location with the assets as they please.

Wagons/Coaches/Trailers/Containers and personnel can be automatically identified and coordinated resulting in dramatic efficiencies in personnel and asset utilization, all of which can enable increased revenue. This “Hands free” mode provides automatic visibility, improved productivity and dramatically reduces human intervention.

Active tags can provide the additional security. Tag can be configured to alarm and send an alert signal, if they are removed. Therefore, active tags provide a very good security solution for assets, containers, loaded wagon, parcel vans etc.

Tags equipped with the motion sensor onboard can alarm in the event of unauthorized application, inventory movement etc.

Beaconing tags can provide an automated inventory count. A signal i.e. sent to a receiver at predetermined time intervals to provide continuous monitoring of the inventory and its location. Active tags can be integrated with different sensor types to monitor the change of conditions of such things as temperature, humidity and pressure, as well as hazardous chemicals or radiation.

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REFERENCES

Books:

1. Sandip Lahiri, RFID Sourcebook, Prentice Hall, 2005, Pages: 304

2. Himanshu Bhatt, Bill Glover, RFID Essentials, O'Reilly, 2006, Pages: 276

Articles:

1. Integration of Way Side Inspection Devices & Automatic Vehicle Identification Systems on Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, 2011, Pages: 108

2. Building India: Transforming the nation’s logistics infrastructure, Infrastructure Practice, Mckinsey & Company, 2010, Pages: 72

3. Indian Railways Vision 2020, Government of India, Ministry of Railways, December, 2009, Pages: 62

4. Shirish C. Srivastava, Sharat S. Mathur, Thompson S. H. Teoz, Tracking Freight Railcars in Indian Railways: Technology Options and Stakeholder Interests, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), 2008, Pages: 12

5. RFID Technologies: Emerging Issues, Challenges and Policy Options, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, European Union, 2007, Pages: 278 Websites: 1. http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/indianrailways/indexhome.jsp 2. http://cris.org.in/wps/portal/CRISPortal 3. http://www.it.indianrail.gov.in/RFID.HTM 4. http://www.enigmaticconsulting.com/ 5. http://www.rfidjournal.com 6. http://www.ncsl.org/ 7. http://www.rfid-library.com 8. http://autoid.mit.edu/ 9. http://www.epcglobalus.org

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APPENDIX – I

Indian Railways is a multi-gauge, multi-traction system covering the following:

Other Interesting facts about Indian Railways:

(Source: http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/indianrailways/evolution/evolution.jsp) Track

Kilometers

Broad Gauge Meter Gauge Narrow Gauge Total

86,526 18,529 3,651 108,706 Route Kilometers Electrified 16,001 Total 63,028

Passenger trains in a day 7,000 (approx.)

Freight trains in a day 4,000 (approx.)

Locomotives 7566 Coaching vehicles 37,840 Freight wagons 222,147 Stations 6853 Yards 300 Good sheds 2300 Repair shops 700

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APPENDIX – II

AAR MANUAL OF STANDARDS AND RECOMMENDED PRACTICES

AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT IDENTIFICATION Standard: S-918

AAR (American Association of Railroads) specifies standards for automatic electronic identification of equipments that are used in rail transportation. These equipments include:

1) Railcars 2) Locomotives 3) Intermodal vehicles 4) End of train devices

The system and data outputs described in this standard are compatible with ANSI Standard MH5.1.9-1990 and ISO Standard 10374, for the automatic identification of containers.

Identification system requirements

 Tags mounted on transportation equipment shall be read by an interrogator (reader) that operate on ultra high frequency radio waves

 The reader shall decode the altered radio waves reflected by the tags on the equipment  The altered radio waves (modulation) shall indicate the alphanumeric identification code

of the equipment as well other predefined information

 The interrogator may optionally add its own identification number, date and time

 System shall accurately read trains moving up to 80 mph with any equipment in areas of one or more parallel tracks, with or without trains standing or operating on any or all of these tracks, in the same or opposite direction

 The tag unit shall be tamper-proof and their life shall not be less than 15 years without any maintenance

 The tags shall survive and maintain the integrity of stored data in a maximum peak field strength of 1500 V/m for 60 pulses in the 1.2 to 1.4 GHz range, and 100 V/m for 60 seconds for any continuous wave radio frequency source

 The tags shall be capable of full operation in the electromagnetic environment normally found at railroad facilities

 Tags shall be capable of being programmed in the railroad environment Interrogator (Reader) Requirements

 Interrogator units shall be capable of interrogating multiple tags within their reading field, discriminating between the tags without misreading

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 Error detection shall be used to ensure reading accuracy Modulated Backscatter Communication

 The tag shall not be a transmitter and shall not contain components to generate radio frequency (RF) signals

 The tags must act merely as field disturbance devices, slightly modifying and reflecting the signal transmitted by the reader system

 This slight modification of the signal includes the unique identification code of the tag. This method of communication is called “modulated backscatter.”

System Operations

Block Diagram of RF module, reader, antenna and tag

RF Module

 The RF module is responsible for transmitting and receiving radio energy

 The RF module shall transmit a single frequency of RF energy and receive that same frequency after it is reflected from the tag

 The tag information shall be encoded into 20- and 40-kHz signals Reader

 The RF module receives the modulated signal from the tag and passes the 20- and 40-kHz modulating frequencies to the reader

 The reader shall decode the frequencies into binary information equivalent to the 128 bits of data stored in the tag

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Antenna

 The reader system shall be capable of using a single antenna to transmit and receive RF energy

Tag

 The clock circuit sequences all circuit functions such that information stored in the memory circuit is conveyed to the reader system within precise timing

 The information stored in the memory circuit is permanent and is a unique code that is specified by the owner prior to installation of the tag onto its respective object

Tag Classes

 Nonbattery tags must be sufficiently close to the reader system's antenna in order to collect enough energy to activate the tag's electronics

 Battery-powered tags do not require as close proximity to the reader system's antenna  Advantages of the battery tag shall include greater range and reduced RF power required

from the reader system

 Advantage of the nonbattery tag is a longer life

 Regardless of whether the tag has a battery or not, a tag does not transmit RF energy; it only reflects energy transmitted by the reader system

Tag Frequency of Operation and Sensitivity

 The nonbattery tag shall not operate in root mean square (RMS) electric field strengths below 2.0 V/m, and shall operate properly in RMS electric field strengths above 3.5 V/m  The field strength required for nonbattery tag operation shall not increase by more than 3

dB when it is rotated by ±25° in any plane

 Battery-powered dynamic tags shall have a minimum sensitivity such that an interrogating signal of 750 mV/m will allow proper tag operation

 Other battery and end-of-train device tags shall have a minimum sensitivity such that an interrogating signal of 150 mV/m will allow proper tag operation

 Battery-powered dynamic tags shall be operational within 7 ms of excitation by an interrogating signal from sensing equipment

 All other tags shall be operational within 4 ms of excitation by an interrogating signal from the sensing equipment

Location and Mounting of Tags on Equipment

 No area on the tag’s rear surface may be more than 1/4 in. from the metal mounting surface

 A 1/8 in. or thicker smooth metal back plate at least as large as the tag should be used  In all cases, back plates are preferred and they should extend 1 in. beyond the full

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 Each railcar and locomotive shall carry two tags. On railcars, one tag shall be located in a window on the BL (B End–Left) portion and the other shall be located in a window on the AR (A End–Right)

 On locomotives, one shall be located in a window on the Front-Right (F End–Right) portion and the other in a window on the Rear-Left (R End–Left) portion

 Tags must be placed in a vertical plane at least 4 ft from the centerline of the track

 The tags must be in a rectangular area bounded by horizontal lines 2 to 5 ft above top of rail, measured for an empty car

 Tags shall be mounted on a plane perpendicular to the ground and shall be oriented with horizontal polarization

 The long axis of the tag must be within 10° of parallel to the rail. The face of the

 tag must not be rotated outward toward the ground more than 10° from the car mounting surface

 Inward rotation of the tag is prohibited.

As a minimum, all tags must be manufactured in a facility certified as meeting or exceeding AAR Quality Assurance Specification M-1003.

REPORT FORMAT Standard: S-918B Adopted: 2009 Salient features:

 Provides the reasonably compact and accurate method to report inspection data to the data collection system in a consistent file format

 Is extension of S-198A data format

 Does not specify any standard communication handshaking or protocol between the inspecting system and any data collection system

Configuration options Output formats

1. Fixed lengths, no delimiters (Standard)

2. Fixed field lengths, delimiter (User Selectable)

3. Variable field lengths, delimiters (User Selectable)

Control file

Used for specifying the standard units of measure, looping structure, separators and delimiters. This is an optional feature.

AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID TECHNOLOGY

AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING

FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID

TECHNOLOGY

By

ANKUR RASTOGI

S-9

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

NEW DELHI

AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE WAGON TRACKING

FOR INDIAN RAILWAYS USING RFID

TECHNOLOGY

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree

of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

By

ANKUR RASTOGI

S-9

Under supervision of

Dr. M. L. SINGLA

PROFESSOR

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

NEW DELHI

MARCH 2011

This is to certify that this Project Report titled “An Analysis of Effective

Wagon Tracking for Indian Railways using RFID Technology”

submitted in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business

Administration, is based on the original research work, conducted under the

guidance of Dr. M. L. Singla, Professor, Faculty of Management Studies,

University of Delhi, and no part of this work has been copied from any

source. Any material referred or borrowed has been duly acknowledged.

(Dr. M. L. Singla)

(Ankur Rastogi)

Professor

Faculty of Management Studies

University of Delhi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION

2 ABOUT INDIAN RAILWAYS

2.1 Responsibilities and Challenges

2.2 IT initiatives of Indian Railways

2.3 About Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS)

Important Indian Railways IT projects being handled by CRIS

2.4 Need of RFID in Indian Railways

2.5 RFID implementation SWOT ANALYSIS

WEAKNESS

OPPORTUNITY

THREATS

STRENGTH

3 ABOUT RFID

3.1 Automatic Identification

3.2 The Basics of RFID

3.3 A brief history of RFID

3.4 Tags and Readers

3.5 RFID and other Identification Technologies

3.6 RFID Global Standards

3.7 Uses of RFID

4 RFID UPDATE ON INDIAN RAILWAYS

4.1 Genesis of the Pilot Project

4.2 RFID Pilot project

4.3 Challenges faced and progress made

4.4 Current Status

4.5 Potential Challenges in RFID Implementation

5 OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS

6 CONCLUSION

7 RECOMMENDATIONS

S.No.

Concerns

Requirement

Observation

Recommendations

7.1 Further Recommendations

7.2 Limitations