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Requirements for pre-programmed tags

Tag data MUST consists of AT LEAST 1 numerical parts, competitor number.

  • Competitor number MUST NOT be 0 because it is reserved to indicate to software an invalid tag being detected.

Requirements for re-programmable tags

Tag data MUST consists of AT LEAST 2 numerical parts, competition identifier and competitor number.

  • Competition identifier MAY be 0 which should tell the software not to separate tags per. competition.
  • Competitor number MUST NOT be 0 because it is reserved to indicate to software an invalid tag being detected.

Requirements for tag data serialization

All data must be in base16 format (0-F) also called hexadecimal format.

  • Just as an example, in base10 format (or decimal format) it would be 0-15.
  • For instance, competitor number 1 would be 0x01 and 73 would be 0x49.


Limits of numerical space:

  • Competition identifier: 0 0x00 - 999 999 999 0x3B9AC9FF
  • Competitor number: 1 0x01 - 99 999 0x1869F

EPC TDS

GS1's EPC Tag Data Standard (TDS)

https://www.gs1.org/standards/epcrfid-epcis-id-keys/epc-rfid-tds/

EPC UHF Gen2

Gen2 tags has at least following memory areas; EPC, TID, and USER.

For timekeeping purposes, minimum requirements are:

  • For pre-programmed tags, TID is used as competitor number, EPC is not used
  • For re-programmable tags, EPC is used as competition identifier and competitor number, TID is not used
    • Minimum required EPC memory area size is 12 bytes (or 96 bits)

For re-programmable tags

EPC memory map:

  • index 0-3, competition identifier, int-32 big-endian
  • index 4-7, reserved for future use
  • index 8-11, competitor number, int-32 big-endian


Gen2 tags with over 12 bytes EPC memory area MUST NOT utilize it since index 12.

It is also encouraged to set tag's access password to a known one and set write-lock to tag's EPC memory area.

Example: Programming a tag for competition identifier 45 and competitor number 182 should lead to EPC memory data of 0x0000002D00000000000000B6.