Impinj Gen2X: Solving Complex Enterprise Challenges with Advanced RAIN RFID 

At A Glance

Impinj Gen2X represents a significant advancement in RAIN RFID capabilities, designed to meet the increasingly complex demands of enterprise environments. Gen2X delivers enhanced performance, reliability, and security, empowering organizations to drive operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enable new use cases without requiring a complete overhaul of existing infrastructure.

Industry Challenges Addressed

• Reducing Labor and Time in Inventory Management
  Traditional inventory processes are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Gen2X enables faster and more accurate bulk item identification, significantly reducing cycle count durations and enabling real-time inventory visibility. This leads to lower labor costs and more agile operations, particularly in retail and warehousing.
• Improving Read Reliability in Dense or Challenging Environments
  Gen2X increases read range and sensitivity, enabling consistent performance with small or embedded tags, which are commonly found in apparel, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and perishable goods. This makes item-level tracking viable even in high-interference environments such as refrigerated storage or densely packed shelving.
• Eliminating Stray Reads and Ensuring Data Integrity
  In environments with multiple RFID readers or high item density, incorrect or duplicate reads can compromise data accuracy. Gen2X introduces features such as tag silencing, improved session handling, and selective addressing to ensure that only the correct tags are read, reducing inventory errors and improving operational decision-making.
• Enhancing Dock-Door and Shipment Accuracy
  Shipping and receiving accuracy are critical to supply chain performance. Gen2X enhances directional read capability and facilitates the precise identification of items entering and exiting facilities. This reduces shipment discrepancies, lowers return rates, and enhances traceability throughout the logistics lifecycle.
• Protecting Brand Integrity and Consumer Privacy
  Security features in Gen2X include Protected Mode (which gives enterprises control of when and where tagged items are read and prevents tag data from being shared with unauthorized readers) and cryptographic authentication. These capabilities help prevent counterfeiting, unauthorized tracking, and fraudulent returns, addressing key concerns in sectors such as retail, healthcare, and electronics.
• Maximizing ROI on Existing Infrastructure
  Gen2X is broadly available through Gen2X-enabled partner inlays and tags based on Impinj M800 series endpoint ICs, as well as Gen2X-enabled readers and reader modules. Because Gen2X and Gen2 interoperate seamlessly, these devices and modules support the Gen2X performance enhancements when reading tags based on the M800 series endpoint ICs, while still delivering market-leading performance when reading tags based on other Impinj and non-Impinj endpoint ICs.

Gen2X Capabilities

Gen2X is not a new protocol, but an enhancement to the radio and logical layers of the RAIN RFID Gen2 (ISO 18000‑63) standard. Capabilities include:

• Tag readability and range 
  Improves reader sensitivity and power delivery to tags, delivering exceptional readability, especially for small tags on densely packed items. 
• Inventory speed 
  Accelerates reader inventory speed by reducing tag backscatter data and tag communication errors.
• Tag decluttering 
  Enables readers to declutter complex tag environments by discriminating which reader a tag’s response is intended for and silencing already inventoried tags. 
• Tag filtering 
  Allows readers to complete tag selection at the initiation of the inventory round, ensuring only tags of interest participate. 

These capabilities enhance solution performance while reducing solution costs, enabling organizations to deploy more intelligent, scalable, and secure RFID solutions across diverse operational environments.

Impinj and DecisionPoint Technologies

Impinj and DecisionPoint Technologies, a leading provider of mobility-first solutions and an Impinj Gold partner, can collaborate to support enterprise adoption. Enterprises benefit from expertly integrated Gen2X deployments tailored to meet the needs of retail, logistics, healthcare, and field service applications. DPT’s implementation expertise ensures faster time to value and optimized system performance.