MTNL institute leverages RFID solution

Centre for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management (CETTM) has been established by MTNL with state of the art facilities to impart training in Telecom Technology and Management Studies. The centre was setup with a vision to enable professionals to acquire knowledge and skills to perform effectively in the rapidly advancing telecom and information technology sector.

Need for a solution

CETTM has a library with over 5000 books and periodicals where they decided to implement and demonstrate automation using RFID. The objective was to showcase the technology and also harness benefits the technology offered. Gemini Traze RFID Pvt. Ltd, a leading RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) product manufacturer and system integrator in India was chosen to do the implementation.

The solution

The books and periodicals in the library were tagged with RFID labels. A self-checkout counter was designed to enable hassle free checkout. The counter had a touch screen to make the system user friendly.

A proper checkout would deactivate the access bit so as to let the books pass through the gate antenna. The gate antenna was so designed to track the status of the access bits and a buzzer goes when books are taken out without proper checkout.

A book drop box enables the user to drop the books on due authentication with their patron cards. A handheld reader was used for auditing books and also to help search books and indicate if books were placed in the wrong shelves.

Benefits

The complete automation system has resulted in easy checkout and return process any time of the day negating the need for staff presence. Auditing was performed more frequently and easily. Misplaced books were found and sorted out without the hassles of the laborious manual checking.Unauthorized movement of books restricted with the gate antenna systems leading to lesser book losses.

Snapshot

Centre for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management (CETTM) has been established by MTNL with state of the art facilities to impart training in Telecom Technology and Management Studies. The centre was setup with a vision to enable professionals to acquire knowledge and skills to perform effectively in the rapidlyadvancing telecom and information technology sector.

Challenges

*CETTM has a library with over 5000 books and periodicals. The institute wanted to implement and demonstrate automation in it using RFID
*CETTM wanted to showcase the RFID technology and also use RFID to manage the huge library resources with it more efficiently

Benefits

*RFID implementation has resulted in easy checkout and return process any time of the day negating the need for staff presence
*Performing of audits has become easier and therefore more frequent
*Misplaced books were found and sorted out without the hassles of the laborious manual checking
*Unauthorized movement of books restricted with the gate antenna systems leading to lesser book losses.