Aero-Domains support RFID at the Air Transport Industrie II

The benefits of the technology are clear. However, historically the deployment of community-based technologies is slow. The global supply chain is moving ahead with implementation of RFID, but this is often driven by one major player in the supply chain (such as Wal-Mart). The air transport community is different. It is much more homogenous and standards are set by consensus rather than by the mandate of an influential player. Consequently, investment in infrastructure is often shared among community members sharing a common process or processes.

Obtaining consensus and joint

investment is currently putting the brakes on the deployment of RFID within the Air Transport community.


SITA is working with Air Transport community, as well as in partnership with relevant experts (such as the Cambridge UK-based Aerospace ID Technologies Programme launched by Auto ID Labs) to define the community service model allowing flexibility and choice whilst ensuring that the community benefits from shared facilities. At the heart of this model are two sets of community services – those at shared locations such as airports and those that allow multiple business partners to securely interact with each other globally. SITA is defining the technical details and will be setting up a pilot project.

And what about .aero?

When the aero-domain was launched, some considered as crazy the idea that an aircraft seat or an individual item of baggage might each have its own IP address. But the idea was not as far fetched as it may seem. In fact, when Auto ID Labs designed the first version of the RFID data processing standard, they assigned a domain name to every RF identifier to allow processing of data over the world's biggest network - the Internet.

Today, the standards are going through many changes, and it may be that not every object will actually require a domain name. It has already become clear, however, that some naming structure will be required to trace these objects – and more likely than not, each will have its own IP address.

This is where the aero-domain as a policy platform comes into play. While the aero-domain is not itself involved in implementation of RFID technology, the .aero policy framework could be used as a robust platform, enabling the community to maintain policies relating to allocation of digital identifiers. Additionally .aero might also manage the registry service associated with these identifiers, thereby making the RFID signal data much more useable.

Hans-Peter Oswald
http://www.domainregistry.de/aero-domain.html