The newly announced Cisco AON-for-RFID platform, described in the last newsletter, is in some ways similar to - and, effectively, validates - the network-based RFID architecture announced by start-up Reva Systems in June.  Reva plugs clusters of readers into what it calls a tag acquisition processor, or TAP, which sits on the corporate Ethernet and forms what the company calls a tag acquisition network, oTAN.

The Reva TAP, which you can think of as basically a controller for RFID readers, houses RFID middleware functionality involving data collection, processing, and presentation to upstream business applications, explains Reva CEO Ashley Stephenson.

Both Cisco's and Reva's architectures, at the end of the day, intend to help enterprises scale RFID and integrate it into the corporate network and application environment. The main difference between the Cisco and Reva approaches is that Reva doesn't intend to bundle applications directly into its TAP, says Stephenson. Cisco, on the other hand, is bundling some applications directly into its AON-for-RFID blades that trigger actions elsewhere on the network, such as an alert that an item is leaving a store unpaid for.

Also, unlike the Cisco AON RFID hardware, the TAP form factor is an appliance rather than a network device blade, since Reva is not a network infrastructure equipment maker.

Reva announced its own application interoperability program last week, whereby application makers can test to make sure that their applications work with the Reva TAP. The company announced that SAP, for example, had successfully completed integration testing of its SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure (SAP AII), the business process logic within the SAP NetWeaver platform, and mySAP ERP application, with the Reva TAN system.

A number of industry experts speculate that with the advent of RFID appliances and other form factors that integrate RFID hardware and middleware, such as those from Cisco and Reva, the need for companies to purchase, install, and manage RFID middleware as a separate discipline will eventually evaporate.

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.