ONS

Verisign has won the contract to design and operate the root directory for the Object Naming Service (ONS) -- a distributed global network that will use EPC (i.e., RFID) technology. Quoting:

EPCs are unique numbers, akin to automobile license plates, that identify items in shipping cases and pallets. Using RFID technology, the EPC information can be broadcast to handheld and mounted RFID readers, which track the items as they move through an organization's supply chain, from manufacturing floor to store shelf, Hutchinson said.

The ONS will function like the U.S. Department of Motor Vehicles for companies that use EPCs to track merchandise, relating the unique EPC number to information that describes the product, she said.

ONS is key to the commercialization of the EPC network, which was developed by a public-private initiative coordinated by the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Without it, trading partners using EPC can only transmit product information directly using "point to point" communications, Hutchinson said.