Customer Reviews

RFID: Radio Frequency Identification (McGraw-Hill Networking Professional)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you want a fluffy, executive-level overview of RFID, save yourself $60 and read an inflight magazine article about it. This book's relevant content is about the same.

Fully 1/3 of the book is taken up by a glossary and a list of acronyms, both of which are very clearly regurgitated from previously-published material. The author didn't even bother to cull out the terms that are utterly not relevant to the topic, not mentioned in the text, and not interesting to the target audience. To further pad the book, it's printed with large type on thick paper, with photos of things like container ships to illustrate such highly technical points as "container ships are big." The price is bulked up by adding a hardcover binding, which is inappropriate for a book of this type.

It's obvious to me that this book was a moneymaker for the publisher because they could get it on the shelf fast, so anyone looking for ANY book on RFID wouldn't see much besides this one. You know why it was so quick to write? Because there isn't much actual content in it. Thank goodness there are a few other books on the shelf now, so others won't get stuck with this one like I did.

After buying the book based on the reviews here, I found the book quite disappointing. It is long on providing historical perspective, appendices on terminology, acronyms and glossaries, but short on substance.

Technology coverage is limited to low-level communication protocols and the standard OSI 7-layer model. Those looking for integration of RFID into middleware, business applications and end-to-end architecture will find very little.

The size of the book is on the smaller side but uses a lot of print space for photos, which are not useful. Font size and paper thickness are also on the larger side.

The book seems incoherent, repetitive, almost like glued together with materials from different sources? If the author understand the subject, he is not communicating.

I hate to say this, because it sounds so hokey in a book review, but this is one book I couldn't put down. Well obviously I could put it down, and I did. But I didn't until after I had read the first 54 pages, Part I of the book.

Part I of this book talks about some applications of RFID that is stretching the limits of the technology as it exists today. He gives a series of examples of how RFID might be used in the future, along with a history of machine identification in the past. Perhaps my interest comes from the years I worked in that area. But that was some time ago, and RFID was just beginning. Now I see the applications he describes and immediately I think of several others. This kind of overview of where we are trying to go is rare in a technical book, and greatly appreciated.

Part II of the book is a description of the current state of the art in RFID. Here is a detailed description of who makes what that you can use to implement what was thought about in Part I.

He finally concludes with a short what-if story about a suspect container on a ship headed to an American port. This is straight out of not the headlines, but the comments made by John Kerry during the debates. This is a technology that is coming, that is needed.

This book provides an interesting and sometimes entertaining discussion of the history of automated identification, and a simple and accessible introduction to enterprise resource planning and the management of supply chains. This book also provides a nice if quick survey of recent and prospective applications. The UPC/EAN bar code system's history and operation are well-described.

However, if you're looking for a well-organized, comprehensible introduction to the technology of RFID, you will be disappointed. Mr. Shepard doesn't appear to understand some key distinctions -- for example, the difference in operating principles between 'inductive' systems operating at frequencies of KHz to MHz, and 'radiative' systems in the UHF and microwave bands -- and his discussion of technology focuses almost exclusively on low-frequency technology without explicitly noting this fact. I don't know how anyone who wasn't already familiar with the technology would understand most of the discussion of modulation and coding techniques. He implies that public key cryptography is used to secure RFID communications, which is absurd for passive tag applications given the computational demands of that approach. Mr. Shepard also fails to clearly distinguish between applications that are readily achievable with today's technology and those that would require revolutionary improvements or are just flat physically impossible. So if you're interested in history, pick up this book; if you need to design or implement an RFID system, get Finkenzeller's handbook, which is less accessible but much more thorough and technologically astute.

A year ago I was only occasionally reading about RFID, and primarily in networking and technology publications. Since then there has been a rapid increase in the frequency of articles on this topic in publications from IEEE Spectrum to the Wall Street Journal. I felt that I needed to quickly get up to speed not only on what RFID is and how it works but, more importantly, what its impacts are, and will be, strategically. Shepard's book satisfies all these needs admirably.

This volume provides loads of good information that provided not only the content I was looking for but also a context within which to fully understand the implications. A further bonus was frequently being entertained with real world anecdotes which amplified and clarified the detailed information.

This book will satisfy the engineer who needs a thorough overview of RFID-related technologies as well as the manager needing to understand how RFID is and will be influencing business processes and decisions. No matter what your role, if you find the term "RFID" coming up during your day and would like to be on top of the subject-read this book now.

I have just seen a news report about how a school in Japan is using this new RFID technology to track its students by putting a small tag inside each student's bookpack. Retailing giant Walmart is about to make a similar move by employing the RFID tags to track its inventory. What is this new technology all about? Is it a business opportunity, or an investment opportunity? This book answers these questions and more.

This is an excellent book that covers its subject well and also is easy to read. Often technical books are solely about the technology and you wonder why or where or how to use the technology. This book is a wonderful blend where hard business sense meets hard technology and you can come away understanding not just what the technology of RFID is about, but also, and more importantly, how it would fit into your business and why you want it there.

This book is basically made up of four parts which break down into the following questions: why, how, what and what next? If you've never heard of RFID, this book will tell you why you might need to know about it, what it is and what it is not, and how it works. The author clearly knows his subject as he carefully explains the pitfalls and roadblocks that one might come up against while implementing such a technology and he points out that careful consideration should be taken whenever introducing new technologies into a business.

Do not be scared off by the fact that this is a technical book and talks of bits and bytes. The author has clearly written this for a broad audience that spans from top level decision makers and conceptual planners to the bits and bytes technical person or the casual network reader who want to learn about a new technology. And if you are a techophile only interested in bit and bytes, you may be disappointed that the author doesn't spend enough time actually taking apart the readers and transponders, but there are other engineering books for that. If you are an investor who tracks tech stocks and wonders what RFID is all about, then you're going to love this book.

This book was very helpful to me! Here, RFID technology is explained as real-world applications are presented. As Data Solutions Manager for a cellular carrier, RFID is not central to my life, but it IS important to many of my Corporate and Government customers. For me, this book strikes the right balance between technology and business. I enjoyed it.

Clear, lucid, and to the point.
An excellent introduction to RFID for both managers and engineers.

This is a great overview of RFID technology and its applications. Hey, if this were meant to be an engineering book, it would be titled "RFID Engineering". Cut the author a little slack. He delivers what's intended by the title !! As always, Shepard gives you the insight to the technology; tells you how it works; and tells you how it can and will be used. It's easy to read, and valuable info if you're trying to understand RFID.