Information Systems:RF Infrastructure Future Planning

Overview

This article is a "State of the Union" of sorts for the RF guns used in the distribution centre. At 8 years of age (as of 13:55, 25 August 2016 (PDT)), and officially out of support with the vendor (Zebra/Motorola/Teklogix), this page will thus discuss the future direction of the RF guns.

Background

The model of the mobile computers (RF guns) used in the distribution centre is the Psion 7527C, or Workabout Pro G2. They were purchased in two batches (18 and 20; 38 guns total) on dates spanning 2008 and 2009. The devices run Windows CE 5.0 - a miniaturized version of Windows intended to run basic applications.

The devices are used to perform almost all warehousing tasks (order picking, goods reception, shipping, cycle counting), but all usage is contained within one application - TekTerm. TekTerm is the mobile equivalent of MochaSoft TN5250 - it is terminal emulation software used to interact with ASW on the IBM i. In fact, the way terminal emulation is used on our RF guns practically mirrors the use of MochaSoft on the desktops, in that it involves viewing a green-screen ASW menu/page and interacting with it via a keyboard. This is in contrast to some RF workflows/solutions that, while still based on a terminal-emulation back-end, involves screen reformatting and thus have a radically different look to the screens, while also having a more customized interaction experience (i.e. touch-based, with heavy use of macro functions).

The RF guns connect to the network wirelessly, using the common 802.11 WLAN standard i.e. it is the same way a cellphone connects to WiFi. The devices are thus essentially ruggedized laptops in a form-factor specialized for transactional processing (RF picking, receiving etc.). There is very little mystique about their operation, and this is made even truer with our native (un-fancy-fied) use of terminal emulation on the devices.

Future considerations

Software

RF gun operating systems

Windows CE is being discontinued in 2020, but as a slow-moving industry (long ROI and thus long upgrade cycles for businesses investing in RF) and considering the relatively static nature of the Windows CE platform (i.e. it is not an OS that drastically evolves over its lifespan), this does not seem to be a major concern. Regardless, the industry is seeing a shift to the Android platform. The best example of this slow but pronounced shift is the fact that the MC9200, one of Zebra's current flagship devices, offers both Windows CE and Android variants of the model.

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, a variant of the Windows 10 operating system, is an interesting "new player" that has just recently been introduced to the ruggedized device space. This is touted to be a replacement for Windows Embedded (perhaps also Windows CE), so this could be a major player in the near future. Similar to Windows CE, it is a barebones operating system that is meant to run on low-powered devices tailored for performing routine tasks (or running a few key applications only).

Third-party Terminal Emulation vendors

TekTerm and TekTerm Server are Psion products - manufacturers of our RF guns. It could be argued that this software functions well because they were made specifically for Psion Workabout Pro devices, but that argument is less applicable with the existence of several software companies that excel at terminal emulation software. Namely, two big-name companies are Wavelink and StayLinked, and their terminal emulation products are Wavelink TE and StayLinked TE, respectively. Wavelink TE has become so popular that even Zebra pre-packages it on their latest non-Psion devices as the default (pre-licensed) terminal emulator. This suggests the trend of hardware vendors sticking to hardware and instead partnering with software vendors to offer complete solutions to customers.

Hardware

Evolution of RF gun internal hardware, until recently, has been very slow-evolving. That is mainly because terminal emulation requires very little resources; users are simply keying in transactions and thus the average processing and network bandwidth rates are very low. In fact, the recent observation of seeing dual-core CPUs, and smartphone-like specs in RF guns is not so much driven by a change in processing needs required by modern RF logistics, but because if a device is going to use the Android platform, it simply makes sense to design it like an Android smartphone. In fact, the Zebra TC-8000, a "revolutionary" Android-based device and Zebra's utmost flaghsip offering, looks very similar to a smartphone, and as such dictates touchscreen-based usage.

Infrastructure

Wireless technology is required for the mobile computers to communicate with the Power8 business server. (3) 9160 wireless access points and (2) 9510 controller appliances were purchased in 2011.