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= ONS Object Naming Service =
== Background == 

Each [RFID] Tag has a corresponding [Electronic Product Code] EPC that uniquely identifies it. It also identifies the type of product that it is. 
== What is ONS ==

 The Object Naming service is a directory service for the EPC, so that manufacturer can provide electronic links to information on the internet without someone having to identify the product manually. The directory is based on [[DNS]] which currently provides hostname to IP address and IP address to hostname mapping on the internet.

== How it will work ==

Products come into the a warehouse and is read by the [RFID] reader. The [RFID] reader extracts the product portion of the EPC  and formulates an ONS lookup. It gets a response of a [URI] to contact a server on the internet to retrieve product information. The server may return multiple URI's, with varying data formats, to accommodate the various kinds of devices that may need this information. [[Prodcut Markup Language]] PML is an XML based dataformat that was specifically designed for these kinds of transactions. The reader then can extract what kind of product is has just scanned and can make decisions on routing, shipping, warehousing, etc based on that information.

== Technical Details ==

ONS uses the [[DNS]] protocol. Any DNS server that supports [[NAPTR]] records can be used to distribute ONS information. to reformat the [[EPC]] into a [[URI]].

== Current State of ONS ==
EPCGlobal is the administrator of the ONS Specification.
Versign has been selected to hold the root namespace for ONS, which is e164.arpa domain, and is currently allowing manufacturer to purchase their individual [[EPC]] space.

== References ==
* The full [http://www.epcglobalinc.org/EPCglobal_ONS_1.0.pdf ONS Specification]