A Data Model for EPC Information Services

The RFID system with the capability for unique itemlevel tracking promises a tremendous change in the automation process of identifying, managing and tracking commodities along supply chains. One of the heaviest burdens in the RFID system is laid on its repository that has to handle an enormous amount of timestamped RFID data that are generated continuously from many complex relationships. This motivates us to propose an event-based data model for EPC Information Service (EPCIS) repository that reduces the data volume and handles well all kinds of entity relationships. We also exploit both object-relational and relational strength to make data rich in semantics and build a generalization hierarchy of events to answer successfully queries about historical events recommended by EPCGlobal’s EPCIS specification.