ABSTRACT
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology originated around the second World War [Roberti 2004], driven by a need to distinguish between hostile and friendly airplanes. While a radar could detect incoming airplanes it could not distinguish between enemy airplanes and returning friendly airplanes. To solve this problem the British military developed an Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) system by attaching a transponder to the British aircrafts. The radio waves emitted by a radar detector woke up the transponder, which transmitted a radio signal back to the base in response to help the base identify it as a friendly airplane. The current RFID technology is modeled after the IFF system.
