Mobile Applications for RFID Based B2B Systems

Business-to-business or “B2B” is a term commonly used to describe the transaction of goods or services between businesses, as opposed to that between business and other groups, such as transactions between business and individual consumers (B2C) or business to public administration (B2G) transactions [Turcu et al., 2007]. Given today’s general interest in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, B2B systems are expected to allow for considerable extensions and improvements. It is expected that RFID technology will enable the building of complete and complex B2B solutions in areas such as industry and commerce where mobility is a key factor. In fact, the overall success of any RFID_B2B (Radio Frequency Identification Business to Business) system is highly dependent upon this factor. The RFID_B2B system’s mobility resides in the use of multiple PDA devices and RFID readers connected to them. This chapter presents the principles governing the design and development of a mobile application, as well as various aspects regarding its integration into a more complex RFID_B2B system. The main goal of such application is to extend the applicability of generalized RFID_B2B systems. Mobile applications are generally expected to handle large amount of data, to operate in stand-alone mode and to allow their easy integration into complex RFID_B2B systems. All these aspects will be detailed presented in this chapter. The chapter also proposes new solutions and ideas regarding the design and development of a secure and very fast method for the communication and synchronization between different B2B servers and mobile applications running on various mobile devices.