A Distributed Architecture for a Ubiquitous Item Identification Network Damith Chinthana Ranasinghe 1 , Kin Seong Leong 1 , Mun Leng Ng 1 , Daniel Engels 2 , Peter Harold Cole 1 1 Auto-ID Labs, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia {damith,kleong,mng,cole}@eleceng.adelaide.edu.au 2 Auto-ID Labs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, NE-46, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA dragon@csail.mit.edu Abstract. The concept of a “Networked Physical World” originated from the Auto-ID Center, now called the Auto-ID Labs. Such a system can be realized with a combination of automatic identification technology and a ubiquitous computer network that will glue the physical world together. The ability to form a ubiquitous item identification network has a wide range of applications including manufacturing automation and supply chain management. We de- scribe the building block system components of a distributed ubiquitous item identification network aimed at creating a “Networked Physical World” sys- tem and explore the data flows within the system. 1 Introduction Originally the architecture to build a ubiquitous item identification network com- menced at the former Auto-ID Center, now the Auto-ID Labs [1] with the process of standardization issues currently managed by EPCglobal Inc [2]. The Auto-ID Cen- ter’s vision was to create a “Smart World” by building an intelligent infrastructure linking objects, information, and people through computer networks oblivious to the users. The creation of the intelligent infrastructure demanded the ability to identify objects automatically and uniquely with the backbone of the infrastructure provided by a ubiquitous computing system leveraging the internet for global connectivity. The components forming the intelligent infrastructure are commonly referred to as an EPC Network where the term EPC (Electronic Product Code) is a result of the unique object identification scheme employed by the system. This new infrastructure enables object-centric computing that will allow universal coordination of physical resources through remote monitoring and control by both humans and machines. While the applications of this technology are widespread the EPC Network is ex- pected to revolutionize supply chain management. The EPC Network is assembled upon many building blocks representing a number of fundamental technologies and standards. We present the system components and