I am an ANSI delegate to ISO TC23/SC19/WG3 representing the United States. I am here to advise you of recent revisions to the current ISO/DIS 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 which will lead to an ISO electronic identification standard for all species of animals. Perhaps, it is appropriate to identify the meaning of ISO TC23/SC19/WG3. ISO is the International Organization for Standardization. TC23 is a Technical Committee responsible for "tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry." SC19 is a Subcommittee responsible for "agricultural electronics." WG3 is a Working Group which was established by SC19 in February, 1991, to define an electronic I.D. standard for agricultural applications. WG3’s scope of work was to determine technical and code specifications that would meet SC19’s directive of "The standard shall define an electronic identification system for animals in agriculture. It shall describe a numbering system and the necessary technical specifications for the identification."

At your LCI National Livestock Identification Symposium December 8-9, 1994, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Sidney L. Spahr of the University of Illinois gave a presentation which identified many of the technical and performance requirements for the standardization of electronic ID. In addition to the material Dr. Spahr presented for agricultural animals, ISO TC23/SC19/WG3 was since challenged to revise and expand the scope of ISO 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 to apply to all species of animals, instead of only agricultural animals. The following will explain some of the work done so far to meet this challenge.

To date, 12 ISO TC23/SC19/WG3 meetings have been held since June, 1991, resulting in the creation of two Draft International Standards (DIS):

u ISO/DIS 11784 Code structure - Defines 64 Data Bits:

1 bit = Animal or non-animal

10 bits = Country code / Manufacturer’s code

38 bits = Unique I.D. Code

1 bit = Flag indication additional data block(s)

14 bits = Reserved for future use

u ISO/DIS 11785 Technical concept - "Specifies how a transponder is activated and how the information stored is transferred to a receiver." DIS 11785 defines two technical approaches:

 

A Half Duplex (HDX) approach proposed by Texas Instruments maybe defined as: the method of information exchange in which the information is communicated after the transceiver has stopped transmitting the activation field.

A Full Duplex (FDX) approach proposed by Nedap, Trovan, AEG and Datamars may be defined as: the method of information exchange in which the information is communicated while the transceiver transmits the activation field.

During its February, 1994, annual meeting, ISO TC23/SC19 passed resolution #23. This resolution made it possible to establish a task force group with an assigned task "... to find out whether the Hitherto work of WG3 is suitable for identification of all species of animals or not." In other words, consider extending the draft ISO Electronic ID standards to cover all animals, since all WG3 work to date had addressed the requirements of only agricultural animals.

An ISO TC23/SC19 Task Force Group, comprised of 46 participants representing 18 nation and 9 international liaison organizations, met in Geneva, Switzerland on September 22 and 23, 1994, to address resolution #23. Key results of the meeting were as follows.

u Everyone agreed that standardization of agricultural and other animals should be achieved as soon as possible.

 

u The majority opinion was that the standards ISO 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 were not suitable at present because they are not sufficient for all species of animals.

 

u Consensus was reached that the most important requirement, not yet fulfilled, was the need to take account of installed bases of implanted transponders of different categories of animals.

 

u The Task Force Group proposed that an attempt should be made to include solutions as quickly as possible for all species of animals.

 

At the ISO TC23/SC19/WG3 meeting held in Braunschweig, Germany, on December 8-9, 1994, the Geneva TFG meeting results were reviewed for action possibilities. After lengthy discussion, action was taken to revise ISO 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 to resolve the issues raised at the Geneva TFG meeting. The key aspects of the revisions are:

u Both ISO 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 were edited to remove wording which restricts these two documents to only agricultural animals.

 

u A Normative Annex (Annex A) was added to ISO/DIS 11785 which specifies a backward compatible transceiver (i.e., a reader or scanner) capable of reading not only HDX and FDX transponders as specified in ISO/DIS 11785, but also any combination of Trovan, Destron (Fecava version) and Datamars installed base transponders.

 

u ISO/DIS 11785 conformance clause addition: "In order to allow a smooth transition from the different transponders presently in use to those according to this international standard, transponders meeting the requirements of Annex A may be applied for a transition period of two years from the date of first publication of this International Standard" The Annex A transponders are Trovan, Destron (Fecava version) and Datamars.

Now, I want to give you other key clause content in the revised version of ISO/DIS 11785.

"The technical concept of animal identification described is based upon the principle of radio frequency identification (RFID). ISO/DIS 11785 is applicable in connection with ISO/DIS 11784 which describes the structure and the information context of the codes stored in the transponder."

"This international standard specifies how a transponder is activated and how the information stored is transferred to a transceiver."

"Transponders are in conformance with this international standard, provided they meet clause 6 of this international standard. Transceivers are in conformance with this international standard provided they meet the requirements of clause six and Annex A if the latter is applicable." This conformance statement is in addition to previously mentioned revision allowing for a two-year transponder transition period from the date of first publication of the international standard.

But now, let's review clause six requirements as referred to in the conformance statement:

"The system will be defined in such a way that the FDX and HDX transponders can be read by one transceiver. Annex A provides the method that can be used to enhance the functionality of this transceiver to read certain installed base transponders which are not compatible with the FDX and HDX transponders as described here.

A stationary transceiver shall activate transponders using an activation field with an activation frequency of 134.2 KHZ with a tolerance of ±10 -4. The activation period shall be 50 ms. If an FDX signal is received during activation but was not validated, the activation period shall be extended

until the identification telegram is validated, but not longer than 100 ms. Consecutively there shall be a pause in the activation signal. If an HDX signal is received the pause shall last for 20 ms. If within 3 ms after a 3 dB decay of the activation field no HDX signal is detected, activation shall be resumed. For synchronization reasons, every 19 activation cycles one shall have a fixed pattern of 50 ms activation and 20 ms pause.

A mobile transceiver shall be able to detect the presence of additional active transceivers through the reception of activation signals. If no activation signal is detected within 30 ms, the mobile transceiver is out of reach of other active transceivers and shall use the activation protocol defined above for a stationary transceiver. If the mobile transceivers does detect an activation signal, it shall wait for the rising edge of the next activation signal and shall activate during a fixed period of 50 ms.

The identification code shall be in conformance with ISO/DIS 11784. The identification code, the CRC-CCITT error detection bits and the trailer shall be transmitted starting with LSB and ending with MSB.

In view of future enhancements, e.g., multi-page transponders incorporating sensors and/or writable memory, the identification telegram shall be trailed by 24 trailer bits in which, for instance, information from the sensors or the contents of trailing pages may be stored. If the flag for additional data blocks, which was specified in ISO/DIS 11784, is binary 0 the value of most of the trailer bits is undefined; if the flag for additional data block is binary 1 the value of the trailer bits will be defined by a future standard."

In addition to clause six requirements, the Normative Annex A provides for the integration of installed transponder bases and the concept for including the transponder base technologies in an FDX/HDX transceiver. There are other important technical specifications included in ISO/DIS 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 that complete the standards but we do not have the time to discuss all of them.

Now the good news. The revised versions of ISO 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785 were approved by ISO TC23/SC19 at its meeting in Frankfurt, Germany on February 28, 1995. Due to the revisions, both documents will be circulated as Draft International Standards (DIS) for a six month voting period by ISO TC23/SC19 member nations. If 75 percent of the votes cast are in favor, the corresponding documents are anticipated to be published as an international standard in late 1995 or early 1996.

Again, I will quickly summarize some key revisions made in the proposed standards.

ISO radio frequency identification (RFID) standards for electronic identification, when published in late 1995 or early 1996, will cover all species and categories of animals, not just agriculture animals, as the standards originally specified.

u The ISO standards have provisions allowing for backward compatible readers to identify pets, zoo animals, ratites and other animals that are identified with other RFID transponders than the proposed new standard. Backward compatible readers can read one or more of the following manufacturer’s transponders (Trovan, Destron (Fecava version) and Datamars), in addition to the new HDX and FDX transponders specified in the standards. In addition, these readers will be permitted for a non time restricted transition period.

u In order to allow a smooth transition from the different transponders presently in use to the new HDX and FXD transponders, Trovan, Destron (Fecava version) and Datamars transponders may be used for a transition period of two years from the date of first publication of the international standard ISO 11785.

In conclusion, I give you a few words of caution. Some manufacturer’s have attempted to interpret the new standards in a way that they could be ISO compliant by meeting the specifications of either ISO/DIS 11784 or ISO/DIS 11785. This assumption is inaccurate. A transponder or transceiver is ISO compliant only if it satisfies the requirements of both ISO/DIS 11784 and ISO/DIS 11785.