ISO 21007-1:2005

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 21007-1
First edition
2005-07-15
Gas cylinders — Identification and
marking using radio frequency
identification technology —
Part 1:
Reference architecture and terminology
Bouteilles à gaz — Identification et marquage à l'aide de la technologie
d'identification par radiofréquences —
Partie 1: Architecture de référence et terminologie

Reference number
©
ISO 2005
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ii © ISO 2005 – All rights reserved

Contents
Foreword. iv
Introduction . v
1 Scope .1
2 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms .2
3 Reference model architecture .8
3.1 General.8
3.2 Example architecture .8
3.3 Numbering scheme architecture.11
3.4 Gas cylinder numbering scheme .11
Bibliography .12

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies
(ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been
established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and
non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards
adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO 21007-1 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 58, Gas cylinders, Subcommittee SC 4,
Operational requirements for gas cylinders.
ISO 21007 consists of the following parts, under the general title Gas cylinders — Identification and marking
using radio frequency identification technology:
 Part 1: Reference architecture and terminology
 Part 2: Numbering schemes for radio frequency identification.
iv © ISO 2005 – All rights reserved

Introduction
Throughout industry and in commerce, trade and the domestic sector, the employment of gas cylinders to
enable the local consumption and use of gases and liquids without the need for in situ high-cost permanent
pressure vessel installations is an important part of modern practice.
Such cylinders may provide complex gas mixes for medical, industrial or research use.
The cylinders are made and used in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. All are controlled by international,
regional or national regulations in respect of safety, and all require clear marking, and periodic safety checks
and maintenance under the provisions of regulations for pressure testing. The requirements for testing will
vary according to the design of the cylinder and its contents.
Although manufactured to a specific design for a specific content, the life of such cylinders may be long, often
exceeding 50 years. During that lifetime, the cylinders may be used to contain different materials at different
fill pressures. As a consequence, the amount of material contained in the cylinders may also vary. It is
possible that during this lifetime the regulatory framework permitting and controlling their use may also
change.
As the cylinders may contain a wide variety of gases, identification is of paramount importance. It is often
mandatory to be able to uniquely identify each cylinder. As many contents are of limited life, and for product
quality and liability tracking and tracing, in some circumstances it may be necessary or desirable to identify not
only the type of gas or liquid, but also such details as filling station, batch and date of fill.
Various methods and technologies such as physical identification of cylinder characteristics through stamp
marking (for information, see ISO 13769); paint (for information, see ISO 32), paper (for information, see
ISO 7225), card, metal, and plastic labelling; colour code identification; bar coding and, in some
circumstances, other means are already used to make or assist such identifications.
The technology of radio frequency identification (RFID) involves a reader/interrogator station that transmits a
predetermined signal of inductive, radio or microwave energy to one or many transponders located within a
read zone. The signal is returned in a modified form to the reader/interrogator and the data are decoded. The
data component in a gas cylinder's environment provides the basis for unambiguous identification of the
transponder and may also provide a medium for a bi-directional interactive exchange of data between the host
and transponder. The signal may be modulated or unmodulated according to the architecture of the system.
In many cases, it will be necessary or desirable to use one air carrier frequency and protocol, but this will not
always be possible or even desirable in all situations, and it may be useful to separate fundamentally different
cylinders by the response frequency.
However, there is benefit in using a standard common core data structure that is capable of upwards
integration and is expandable from the simplest low-cost cylinder identification system to the more complex
functions. Such a structure will have to be flexible and enabling rather than prescriptive, thus enabling different
systems degrees of interoperability within and between their host systems.
The use of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) from ISO/IEC 8824 and ISO/IEC 8825 as a data identifier
structure is widely used and gaining popularity. Its usage will provide maximum interoperability and
conformance to existing standards and will meet the specifically defined requirements for a generic standard
model for portable gas container identification in that it
 enables and uses existing standard codings,
 is adaptable and expandable,
 does not include unnecessary information for a specific application, and
 has a minimum of overhead in storage and transmission.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 21007-1:2005(E)

Gas cylinders — Identification and marking using radio
frequency identification technology —
Part 1:
Reference architecture and terminology
1 Scope
This part of ISO 21007 establishes a common framework for data structure for unambiguous identification of
single or manifolded gas cylinders and for other common data elements in this sector. It also serves as a
terminology document in the area of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.
The scheme and reference model architecture proposed is designed to be an enabling structure to allow some
harmonization between different commercial systems and not prescriptive in determining any one system. It is
not frequency or air interface protocol specific, provides maximum interoperability, has a high population
capability and provides the possibility of upwards migration to more capable systems.
This part of ISO 21007 provides a reference structure within which the key core elements of the data structure
form an unambiguous identification that may be used to identify the message as a message from a gas
cylinder within an electronic data interchange (EDI) environment and provides an application reference
identifying that different data structure is contained in the message. A wide variety of such systems can be
supported within the structure determined in this part of ISO 21007 such as identification of specialty gases
and different gas applications. Each such system may range from individual simple identification to
identification of such factors as content, fill date, history of use, etc.
This part of ISO 21007 does not include the air interface or any aspect of the equipment, solely the data
element structure. Subsequent parts of ISO 21007 will define the data structures for gas cylinders and for
specific sectors of application.
The numbering scheme views the Identification (ID) as a data element, and the common basic data structure
is defined as a data identifier code. The adoption of the Abstract Syntax Notification (ASN.1) structure in a
form to meet the requirements of this and subsequent subordinate parts of ISO 21007 enables the ISO 21007
series of standards to meet its objectives of
 being adaptable and expandable,
 providing a migration path to enhancement and future developments,
 avoiding carrying unnecessary information for irrelevant applications in any data construct,
 using existing standard codings wherever possible, and
 carrying a minimum of overhead in storage and transmission.
2 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms
For the purposes of this document, the following terms, definitions and abbreviated terms apply.
2.1
address
character or sequence of characters designating the originating source or destination of data being
transmitted
2.2
air interface
conductor-free medium, usually air, between a transponder and the reader/interrogator through which the
linking of the transponder to the reader/interrogator is achieved by means of a signal of radio, microwave or
inductive frequencies
2.3
antenna
structure for transmitting/receiving electromagnetic or radio signals
2.4
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Exchange
standard form of bit encoding providing the identification of 128 standard keyboard characters
NOTE The standard ASCII character set is of 7 bits separated by 1 or 2 stop bits.
cf. extended ASCII
2.5
ASN.1
Abstract Syntax Notation One
International Standard for representing data types and structures
NOTE CCITT published the first version of the standard as x.409 in 1984. A newer version of ASN.1 resulting from a
cooperative venture of CCITT and ISO was specified in x.208 (1988) of CCITT and ISO/IEC :1990. The latest version is
specified in ISO/IEC 8824-1:2002 to ISO/IEC 8824-4:2002.
2.6
automatic equipment identification
system of identification for equipment that uses the surface transportation infrastructures by means of
transponders and interrogators combined with the unambiguous data structure defined in this part of
ISO 21007
2.7
automatic identification system
system for achieving accurate and unambiguous identification of a data bearing label, tag, transponder or a
natural/prescribed feature, the data or feature being interrogated by means of a system-appropriate source
2.8
bit
binary digit, which can take the value 0 or 1
2.9
bits per second
bps
measure of the information transfer rate of a data channel
2 © ISO 2005 – All rights reserved

2.10
byte
sequential series of bits comprising one character and handled as one unit
NOTE A byte is comprised of 8-data bits plus a parity bit and represents either one alphabetic or special character,
two decimal digits or eight binary bits. It is usually encoded in the ASCII format.
2.11
carrier signal
electromagnetic signal, usually a high-frequency sinusoid that can be modulated to carry lower frequency
encoded information across an air interface
2.12
coding scheme identifier
CSI
prescribed list of reference identifiers that relate to prescribed coding schemes determined in this and
subordinate standards and/or issued by the authorized numbering scheme administrator
2.13
CCITT
International Consultative Committee on Telephony and Telegraphy
part of the International Telecommunications Union, an agency of the United Nations
NOTE The principal members of CCITT are the world's public communications authorities (PTTs). CCITT issues
recommendations that are not binding on its members, but in practice most PTTs, manufacturers and users accept and
endorse CCITT standards.
2.14
compatibility
capability of two or more items or components of equipment or materiel to exist or function in the same system
without modification, adaption or mutual interference
2.15
cyclic redundancy check
CRC
check sequence that is computed using each data bit in a block a number of times and is usually added to the
end of the block, providing a method of detecting data transmission errors
2.16
data element structure
framework comprising a number of data elements in a prescribed form
2.17
data substitution
incorrect substitution of one legitimate character in place of another
2.18
duplex
method of communication capable of transmitting data in both directions
cf. full duplex, half duplex and simplex
2.19
electronic data interchange
EDI
passing of a data message or series of messages between computers and/or between different software
systems
NOTE Within this context, an EDI message is normally compatible with the form specified in ISO 9897.
2.20
electronic data transfer
EDT
passing of data sets comprising an entire message from one computer to another or from one software
system to another
2.21
environmental parameters
used to describe different environmental component properties/specifications
2.22
effective radiated power
ERP
product of the transmitter power in watts and the relative gain of a directional antenna as compared with a
standard half-wave dipole
NOTE A transmitter producing 10 watts of power connected to an antenna with a gain factor of 9 has an effective
radiated power of 90 watts. In a given direction, the relative gain of a transmitting antenna with respect to the maximum
directivity of a half-wave dipole is multiplied by the net power accepted by the antenna from the connected transmitter.
2.23
extended ASCII
EBCDIC
standard form of bit encodation providing the identification of 256 characters; the first 128 of which are the
standard ASCII character set with an eighth bit providing a further 128 characters that are user definable
NOTE The character set is of 8 bits separated by 1 stop bit.
2.24
fixed RFID equipment
equipment required to interrogate, receive and interpret the data in the on-board equipment (on-board
transponders) in order to present the identification
2.25
full duplex
method of communication capable of transmitting data in both directions at the same time
2.26
function block
grouping of functional characteristics of a (sub)system
2.27
half duplex
method of communication capable of transmitting data in both directions but only in one direction at any time
2.28
hertz
measure of frequency equal to one cycle per second
2.29
interchangeability
condition that exists when two or more items possess such functional and physical characteristics as to be
equivalent in performance and durability and are capable of being exchanged without alteration of the items
themselves or of adjoining items, and without selection for fit and performance
2.30
interoperabilit
...