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) 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 very much mirrors the use of MochaSoft on the desktops, in that it involves viewing a regular ASW screen 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 a more customized interaction experience

Future considerations

Software

Windows CE is being discontinued in 2020, but as a slow-moving industry and considering the relatively stagnant/static development of the Windows CE platform, this does not seem to be a major concern. Terminal emulation remains the industry

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.