Part 2, Tracking the Course to Innovation with Zahir Abji

Part 1:

- Introduced Zahir Abji, CEO and Co-Founder of Guard RFID Solutions Inc

- Introduced Guard RFID Solutions Inc. and the markets to which they offer solutions

- Told of his family’s risky and dangerous journey from India to Tanzania

- Transitioned into Zahir’s work that helped revolutionize global emergency response and logistics, Zahir spoke of his work there with modesty.  MDI’s contribution was anything but modest.  

Part 2 of 2

Mobile Data International,  MDI, was one of those brilliant companies that sprung up, did significant work, was bought out, and melted into another brand.   MDI gave police and firefighters the ability to communicate through a mobile computing terminal in their vehicles.  This was a great achievement… unless your rap sheet was coming over MDI’s mobile terminal.  

Zahir Abji, CEO and Co-Founder of Guard RFID Solutions Inc

Zahir helped MDI develop mobile computing used by well-known global logistic companies.  He managed design for terminals used in taxicabs and recommended and developed one of the first handheld terminals capable of transmitting data, opening the gate for smartphones.

  

Running operations in Japan, Europe, Middle East, and Singapore with leading-edge technology, reliability, six sigma; becoming head of Research and Development and manufacturing for Motorola Wireless Modems; Chief Operating Officer; President for other companies providing hardware software, and interfaces with ERP systems; all of this coupled with market growth; these deep and broad experiences go into the company.  The roster of Guard RFID executives and board members runs with likewise experience. 

Guard RFID’s customer oriented global view has generated some significant work to support standards. Zahir explains, “The customer who has global operations will be uncomfortable in the absence of a framework of standards.  This is why we are involved in both IEEE and ISO. We helped the IEEE Standards Committee create the 802.15.4F standard.”

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4F standard states: "To provide a standard for low cost, ultra low energy consumption, flexible and highly reliable communication means and air interface protocol for Active RFID and sensor applications. The air interface should be able to support a wide range of needs for which Active RFID systems can be useful and enable improved performance and flexibility for future mass deployments of Active RFID systems around the world." http://www.ieee802.org/

Guard RFID insured that their physical layer is included in that standard.  Zahir commented, “Because of the attributes, our physical layer is a part of that standard.  One could say that we donated that physical layer royalty-free, without any license to the IEEE.  We also realize that IEEE is only one of the vehicles that’s looked at from a standards’ perspective.

“ISO appeared to be much more known and is respected on the non-healthcare side, especially in industrial areas, and it decided to adopt the same technology as the IEEE Standard to be included in the ISO 18000 – 7:2014 standard.  Dalibor Pokrajac, our Executive Vice President of Engineering, was a driving factor in both cases.  Again, royalty free standards are vital for adoptions and assists customers with global operations in selecting technology sources.  

“Guard RFID’s corporate knowledge, capability, and technology platform has allowed us to make major contributions because of the manner in which our technology is developed.  Healthcare tends to associate 433MHz with infant abduction.  That is within our capability but we are in manufacturing and Defense as well.  We have deployed tens of thousands of tags, helping customers with return on investment and efficiencies with personnel, materials, tools, equipment, and finished goods. 

“One place we believe we have an advantage is the power required to broadcast over a specified range.  Our tags can be smaller than WiFi because WiFi takes a comparatively larger battery due to much higher transmission power required to achieve the same range.”

When asked about the competition of other technologies in comparison to 433MHz Zahir responded, “Beside lower power requirements, there is a huge difference between UHF lower frequencies and frequencies above 1GHz.  UHF frequencies are very long wavelengths. Physically that means lower frequencies have longer range and perform better around large metal surfaces.  UHF has greater penetration. Frequencies above 1 GHz do not perform this way.  It’s just nature.  Requirements for longer range, great performance around metal surfaces, better penetration, and inclusion in both IEEE and ISO standards, those are Guard RFID strengths.”

I asked Zahir to provide some closing thoughts.  He concluded, “There are reasons that our technology has been adopted by these leading standards organizations.  It shows that Guard RFID’s technology is superior to many other solutions out there.”