There are two options available within Siriusware’s RFID solution: database validation and hardware validation.

Database validation relies on live communication between the RFID reading unit and the Siriusware database. When an RFID tag is activated, the reading unit must check the database to see if the media is valid or not, and to write the use log. Unless there are networking problems, there is typically very little delay between the time the tag is read and the time a response is received. The advantages to using this method are that:

 

The disadvantages are that if network communication is unavailable, full, live validation checks are also unavailable (the system defaults to assuming “good” responses from the database while off-line) and the system is necessarily slower than the alternative.

The second option is to use hardware validation. This method stores validation information in the tag itself, making full, live communication with the database unnecessary. This allows for greater speed in the validation process and a level of robustness that cannot be matched by a database validation approach. If the network or any of its components goes down, validation still occurs. It is also much easier with hardware validation to validate tickets from other sites. Because the validation information is embedded in the card, the other system need only understand how to validate the card based on the rules associated with the program.