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RFID Based Security and Access Control System

Article  in  International Journal of Engineering and Technology · January 2014

DOI: 10.7763/IJET.2014.V6.718

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 IACSIT International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 4, August 2014

RFID Based Security and Access Control System

Umar Farooq, Mahmood ul Hasan, Muhammad Amar, Athar Hanif, and Muhammad Usman Asad

 decision sub-system and the management sub-system. All

Abstract—This paper describes the design of RFID based these processes communicate with each other through
security and access control system for use in hostels inside the database information. G. Ostojic [3] has developed an
Punjab University premises. The system combines RFID automatic vehicle parking control system based on RFID
technology and biometrics to accomplish the required task.
When the RFID reader installed at the entrance of hostel detects
technology in the city of Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia. The
a number, the system captures the user image and scans the hardware of the system consists of RFID tag and reader
database for a match. If both the card and captured image operating at a frequency of 13.56MHz for authentication,
belong to a registered user, access is granted; otherwise the inductive loop for metal detection, a capacity sensor for
system turns on the alarm and makes an emergency call to the counting vehicles, Siemens MC 39i GPRS modem for
security van through GSM modem. In this way, the suspicious communication between entrance and exit gates and FEC
persons can be caught.
FC440 programmable logic controller (PLC) which is the
Index Terms—Security and access control, RFID, face heart of the system. When the car stops on the inductive loop
recognition. at the entrance, RFID tag is read by the reader. The data on the
tag includes the unique identification number (UID), validity
period and check bit for checking the parking status. This data
I. INTRODUCTION is manipulated by PLC and access is granted for parking the
Automatic identification and access control system has vehicle if tagged information contains correct UID, validity
become necessary to overcome the security threats faced by period and parking status. After the vehicle has entered the
many organizations in Pakistan these days. By installing the parking lot, its parking status will be changed by the RFID
system at the entrance will only allow the authorized persons reader/writer to prevent the entry of another vehicle on the
to enter the organization. The system can also be installed at same card. The same procedure is repeated when the vehicle
various points inside the organization to track the person‟s is leaving the parking lot. Nova Ahmed [4] has described
movement and to restrict their access to sensitive areas in the RFID based indoor guidance and monitoring system known
organization. In such a way, suspicious persons can be caught as GuardianAngel in pervasive environment. The beauty of
which will surely improve the security level in the the system is that it can generate dynamic queries in real time
organization. through user interface. The environment in the system is
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless equipped with RFID tags and is divided into various zones.
technology that can be used to develop the access control The middleware of the system is divided into two layers
system. The literature has revealed the use of this technology namely guidance layer and monitoring layer. The guidance
to automate various processes ranging from industrial sector layer is provided with handheld RFID reader to provide
to home control [1]. Bo Yan [2] has reported the use of RFID locality information to the monitoring layer periodically.
technology to automate sight spot ticket management system. Thus monitoring layer has the information of the entire
The system hardware consists of RFID electronic tickets, environment. Experimental results have shown that system is
RFID readers, computer terminals, optical networks, nearly 100% accurate in providing the zonal information
computer servers and site controllers. Electronic ticket thereby allowing the construction of very robust guidance and
contains the S-DES encrypted form of data including scenic monitoring applications. Kuo-shien Huang [5] has described
region number, scenic spot number, ticket type, ticket date, a business model based approach for utilizing RFID
site number, serial number and check bit. The RFID reader at technology in automating the process according to enterprise
the site reads the data inside the e-ticket and transmits it to the strategic vision and goals. The author has built a business
computer terminal and servers though the network. The data model for bike renting system and used RFID technology to
is decrypted at the terminal and its authenticity is verified. implement the system. The conventional way of getting the
The site controller then allows the right tourist to enter the bike on rent which includes the recording of customer data by
spot. This system identification and authentication process is pen and then inputting the data to the computer is replaced by
carried out at three sub-levels namely the sale sub- system, the providing a RFID card to the customer and fixing an RFID tag
on the bike. The bike is tagged to keep track of its location
Manuscript received May 27, 2013; revised August 22, 2013. from the renting store to the return store. The information is
Umar Farooq and Muhammad Amar are with Department of Electrical shared amongst the stores through web interface. In this way,
Engineering, University of The Punjab Lahore (e-mail: successful RFID strategy is built and deployed.
[email protected]; [email protected]).
Mahmood ul Hasan is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Mirpur
This paper discusses the design of a security and access
University of Science & Technology (e-mail: [email protected]). control system using RFID technology. The system is
Athar Hanif and Muhammad Usman Asad are with Department of comprised of three modules namely entrance monitoring, exit
Electrical Engineering, The University of Lahore (e-mail:
monitoring and mess monitoring. These modules
[email protected],
). [email protected]).

DOI: 10.7763/IJET.2014.V6.718 309

 IACSIT International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 4, August 2014

communicate to the computer system through main controller. transponder coil. The transponder coil then varies this current
After the information from these modules is processed by the by changing the load on its antenna. This variation is actually
computer, the control commands are issued to the modules for the modulated signal (scheme is known as load modulation)
granting or denying access to the user. which is received by the interrogator coil through mutual
induction between the coils. The interrogator coil decodes
TABLE I: COMPARISON OF ACTIVE & PASSIVE RFID TAGS
this signal and passes to the computer for further processing.
Attribute Active Tags Passive Tags

Source of Power Built-in Battery Electromagnetic Induction

Reading Distance High (20 to 100 m) Low (Up to 3m)

Required Signal
Low High
Strength
Tag Cost High ($15 to $100) Low ($0.15 to $5)
Fig. 1. Basic RFID system.
Large read/write data Small read/write
Data Storage
(128kb) (128b)
Size Large Small
III. RELATED WORK
Weight Large Small
Small (3 to 8 years Large (Up to 10 years Many researchers have utilized RFID technology in
Tag Life depending upon tag depending upon the developing access control system. Filipe [7] has developed an
broadcast rate) environment the tag is in) RFID based monitoring and access control system consisting
Tag Readers Typically lower in cost Typically higher in cost of RFID terminal, camera, server and an alert device. Upon
Auto dealership Supply Chain detecting a transponder, the terminal captures a photo and
Auto Manufacturing High vol. Manufacturing
Hospitals Libraries/book stores
transmits the data including the UID and photo to the server
Industries/ Construction Pharmaceuticals through TCP/IP connection. The server searchers the
Applications Mining Passport database for this particular query and sends the results back to
Laboratories Electronic tolls
Remote monitoring Item level tracking the terminal to allow or deny the access. The system also
monitors illicit acts e.g., a person tries to enter when the door
is open without completion of authentication process and
turns on the alert device using web services. The performance
II. OVERVIEW OF RFID TECHNOLOGY of the system is tested by installing RFID kits with antennas
RFID system consists of three components namely covering a range of 10cm and satisfactory results are obtained.
transponder (tag), interrogator (reader) and computer Xiang-Lei Meng [9] has described an RFID based embedded
containing the database, as shown in Fig. 1. The interrogator security authentication system with novel face recognition
reads the tag data and transmits it to the computer for structure. The system comprises of two phases namely
authentication. The information is processed and upon registration and recognition. In registration phase, ten
verification, access is granted. The system offers diverse pictures of user face with different emotions are collected and
frequency band ranging from low frequencies to microwave eigen information is obtained with an extraction algorithm.
frequencies [5]: This information along with a UID is written on RFID tag. In
recognition phase, a camera tracks the face and an extraction
 Low Frequency: 125-134 KHz algorithm returns eigen information of the face in the picture.
 High Frequency: 13.56 MHz This information is then matched with the information already
 Ultra High Frequency: 902-928 MHz stored on the tag for authentication. The entire processing is
 Microwave Frequency: 2.4 GHz done on embedded ARM11 processor, S3C6410 instead of
Depending upon the source of electrical energy, RFID tags computer terminal/server which has resulted in faster
are classified as either active or passive. The active tags use a response time, about 57ms with authentication accuracy up to
battery for powering the circuit on the tag and transmit the tag 86.5%. The performance of the system is compared with the
information upon the reader request. However, these tags are existing database systems and is found to have far better
very expensive and seldom used. On the other hands, passive response time with the same authentication accuracy.
tags get energy from the reader to power their circuit. These Dong-Liang Wu [10] has described an access control system
tags are very cost-effective and hence most of the applications based on RFID in conjunction with face recognition based on
use them. A comparison of these tags highlighting important neural network. The system recognizes the face of person
features is shown in Table I [6]-[8]. holding RFID card and denies the access if person is found to
In the present work, passive RFID tags have been used. A be unauthorized. Radial basis function neural network
passive RFID tag transmits information to the reader when it (RBFNN) has been used for learning the face of authorized
comes in the vicinity of electromagnetic field generated by the persons. Principal component analysis (PCA) has been used
reader. The phenomenon is based on Faraday‟s law of for extracting the features from the image and linear
electromagnetic induction. The current flowing through the discriminant analysis (LDA) for refining these features. The
coil of interrogator produces a magnetic field which links to network is trained with localized generalization error model
the transponder coil thereby producing a current in the (L-GEM) for enhancing its generalization capabilities.

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Experimental results have shown that proposed system can non-volatility of ROM. The DS1230 Nonvolatile SRAM is
improve the security of RFID access control. 262,144-bit, fully static, nonvolatile SRAM organized as
32,768 words by 8 bits. Each NV SRAM has a self-contained
lithium energy source and control circuitry which constantly
IV. SYSTEM COMPONENTS monitors VCC for an out-of-tolerance condition. When such a
condition occurs, the lithium energy source is automatically
A. RFID Tag switched on and write protection is unconditionally enabled
IPC80 passive RFID tag operating at a frequency of to prevent data corruption.
125KHz is issued to the user. The tag transmits information to
G. Door Locks
the reader in ASK format [11].
Solenoid operated door locks are used in entrance, exit and
B. RFID Reader mess gates of hostels. A relay is used to energize the solenoid
IP10 proximity card reader with operating frequency of to open the gate.
125KHz and reading distance up to 4 inches is used. The
H. Alarms
reader can be easily installed on metal doors, provides the tag
information serially in RS232 format and is suitable for Two alarms are installed; one at the entrance and other at
indoor as well as outdoor operations [11]. Three such readers the exit gate. These alarms are turned on if an illegal person
are installed for hostel security: hostel entrance gate, hostel tries to enter the hostel premises.
exit gate and mess entrance gate.
C. Camera V. SYSTEM OPERATION
Logitech C500 webcam is used to capture images. The The security and access control system is comprised of two
camera has 1.3 mega pixel sensors and can capture video up phases: registration phase and recognition phase. In the
to 1280x1024 pixels. Two such cameras are installed for registration phase, ten images of the hostel user are captured
hostel security: one at the entrance and other at the exit. No while issuing an RFID tag. These images are used to train a
camera is used for entering in the mess hall to reduce the feed forward neural network with back propagation training
overall complexity. algorithm and the converged weights are stored
D. GSM Modem corresponding to a particular user. The recognition phase
Nokia 12i GSM modem is used to make emergency call to comes when the user wants to enter the hostel. At this point,
the security van. Nokia 12i offers advance GSM connectivity after getting RFID user number, image of the user is captured
and supports EDGE/GPRS and HSCSD with automated GSM and passed to the neural network for recognition. If a match is
connection establishment it is equipped to provide reliable found, access is granted to the user. The user authenticity is
remote connections and offers application level watchdogs, checked at three places: hostel entrance, hostel exit and mess
inbuilt self check mechanisms and a reliable Virtual Machine entrance. The entrance and exit modules use RFID and face
(VM) for JAVATM. Nokia 12i also supports reliable inbuilt recognition for identification while mess module use RFID
internet protocols: TCP/IP for reliable data transfer, UDP/IP with a password to grant permission. These modules
for audio and video streaming and HTTP for accessing web communicate with computer system through a main controller.
pages. The module can also be connected to an external GPS The main controller transmits the modules information to the
device that supports National Marine Electronics Association computer system. The computer system after processing these
(NMEA) standard. The inbuilt NMEA parser can parse the interrupts issues commands to the modules through main
location data from the output that it receives from the GPS controller. The data exchange between the main controller
device. External microcontroller can use AT commands to and computer system is through serial port while parallel port
communicate with Nokia 12i and simple remote I/O data and control lines are used for handshaking purposes. The
applications can easily be controlled via text messages. block diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 2.

E. Microcontroller A. Entrance Monitoring Controller

AT89C52 microcontroller is selected because it is a Entrance monitoring controller comprises of an RFID
powerful microcomputer which has low power consumption reader, a GSM modem, a NV RAM, door lock, alarm, scroll
and provides a highly flexible and cost-effective solution to keys and 16x4 LCD; all interfaced to AT89C52
many embedded control applications. It has 8K bytes of in microcontroller as shown in Fig. 3. After detecting and
system reprogrammable flash memory, 256 bytes of internal receiving RFID tag data through a serial interrupt routine,
RAM, 32 programmable I/O lines, three 16 bit microcontroller searches the NV-RAM for this number. If no
timers/counters, eight interrupt sources and a programmable match is found, the microcontroller makes an emergency call
serial channel [11]. to the security van through GSM modem. At the same time, it
sends a request to the computer system through main
F. Nonvolatile RAM controller to capture the user image and turns on the alarm
256K Nonvolatile RAM (NV-Ram) DS1230Y-85 is used signal. On the other hand, if a match is found, the
for storing passwords against registered RFID numbers. microcontroller checks the entrance status of the user by
NV-RAM is selected because it combines the best of RAM scanning NV-RAM. If the user has not entered in the hostel
and ROM: the read and write ability of RAM and yet, the controller sends a request to the computer system to

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 IACSIT International Journal of and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 4, August 2014

capture and process the user image. The computer system and sends a request to the computer system to capture the user
performs two functions. First, it verifies the user against the image. At the same time, it makes an emergency call through
received RFID number using face recognition algorithm and GSM modem interfaced to entrance controller and turns on
then checks whether the user is a defaulter or not. After alarm signal. On the other hand, if a „yes‟ signal is received,
processing, the computer system generates one of the three the exit controller sends a request to computer system to
messages: „access granted‟ corresponding to registered and capture and process user image. The computer system uses
clear user, „access denied‟ corresponding to a non-registered face recognition algorithm to verify the user. If a match is
user and „user is a defaulter‟ corresponding to a registered and found, computer system asks the exit controller to grant
defaulter user. In case of non-registered user, heavy fine is permission to the user to leave the hostel. After the user has
included in user hostel dues on an account of using the RFID left the hostel, exit controller sends a request to the entrance
tag of other user. The entrance controller receives the controller through main controller to update the user entrance
message from computer system and displays it on 16×4 LCD. status. In case of non-registered user, heavy fine is included in
The details on LCD can be read with the help of scroll keys. If hostel dues of the user for using the card of other person. The
the message „access granted‟ is received by the controller, it exit monitoring controller thus enables the system to allow the
opens the entrance gate by switching the relay. At the same
valid person to leave the hostel. The flow chart describing the
time, entrance status of the user is updated in the non volatile
operation of exit monitoring controller is shown in Fig. 6.
RAM. The entrance monitoring module thus ensures the entry
of registered and clear users in the hostel and also helps in
catching suspicious persons that are not authorized to enter.
The flow chart describing the operation of entrance
monitoring module is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 2. Block diagram showing modules interconnection with the computer

System.

Fig. 4. Flow Chart for entrance monitoring module.

Fig. 3. Block diagram of entrance monitoring controller.

B. Exit Monitoring Controller

The exit monitoring module comprises of RFID reader, an
alarm and door lock; all interfaced to AT89C52
microcontroller as shown in Fig. 5. After receiving RFID tag
information through reader, microcontroller sends a request
to the entrance monitoring controller to search the user and its
entrance status in NV-RAM. Upon receiving a „no‟ signal
Fig. 5. Block diagram of exit monitoring controller.
from the entrance controller, exit controller blocks RFID tag

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 IACSIT International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 4, August 2014

security and access control system is installed in eighteen

hostels and computer systems in these hostels share the
information to a web server which is the central station and
can be searched to locate a particular user inside the hostels.

Fig. 6. Flow chart for exit monitoring controller.

C. Mess Monitoring Controller

While entrance and exit monitoring controllers help in
tracking the users, mess monitoring controller automates the
mess attendance system. The mess monitoring module
comprises of an RFID reader, 4x3 keypad, 16x4 LCD, a
NV-RAM, door lock and alarm indicator; all interfaced to
AT89C52 microcontroller as shown in Fig. 7. Upon receiving
RFID tag number, the controller searches it in a list of
registered numbers stored in NV-RAM. If a match is found, Fig. 8. Flow chart for mess monitoring controller.
controller asks the user to enter the password. The password
list of registered users is also maintained in NV-RAM
corresponding to RFID tag numbers. If the entered password
is correct, controller grants access to the user for entering the
mess hall. At the same time, controller sends the user
information along with mess attendance to the computer
system through main controller. The computer system
updates the database and sends „attendance recorded‟
message to the mess controller. In this way, the exact mess
charges are maintained in on-line database. The flow chart
describing the operation of mess monitoring controller is
shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 9. A screenshot of user form in hostel database.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Fig. 7. Block diagram of mess monitoring controller.
In this paper, design of a security and access control system
D. Computer System and Web Server for use in Punjab University hostels is presented. The system
The information provided by the system modules is uses radio frequency identification with biometrics
maintained in a database inside the computer system. The technology to differentiate between valid and invalid users.
database keeps record of user history including check-in time The system accomplishes the security and access control task
and date, check-out time and date, electricity, gas and mess by processing information from sub-controllers. These
charges, fine (penalty) details, RFID card lost details and controllers include entrance monitoring controller, exit
user‟s visitor record. In addition to this, database also keeps monitoring controller and mess monitoring controller
record of illegal persons trying to enter the hostel premises. A installed at entrance gate, exit gate and mess gate respectively.
screen short of a user form in database is shown in Fig. 9. The These controllers read RFID tag issued to the user and search

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this tag number in non-volatile RAM. On a successful match, Umar Farooq received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. both in
electrical engineering from University of Engineering
the controllers request the computer terminal to capture the & Technology Lahore in 2004 and 2010 respectively.
user image. The computer system uses neural network trained He is currently with the Department of Electrical
face recognition module to verify the user authenticity and Engineering, University of The Punjab Lahore. His
responds to the controllers by sending them „access granted‟ research interests include the application of intelligent
techniques to problems in control engineering,
or „access denied‟ message. The controllers grant the access robotics and power electronics.
to the user or make emergency call accordingly. This system
is made centralized with the help of a web server. The web
Mahmood ul Hasan received his B.Sc. in electrical
server takes information from computer terminals in hostels engineering from University of Engineering &
and keeps track of a particular user. Although the developed Technology Lahore in 2006. He is the recipient of
system is useful in reducing security threats to the hostels, prestigious silver and bronze medal awards in his pre
engineering and secondary school studies respectively.
there is a room for improvement in the response time of the He is with Department of Electrical Engineering
system. The response time can be improved by using Mirpur University of Science and Technology Azad
dedicated processors instead of computer systems capable of Kashmir and is working towards M.Sc. degree in
processing the images in real time. electrical engineering from University of Engineering
& Technology Lahore. His research interests include electronic
Author‟s formalintelligent control and robotics.
instrumentation,
REFERENCES photo

[1] D. L. Wu, Wing W. Y. NG, D. S. Yeung, and H. L. Ding, “A brief Muhammad Amar received his B.Sc. in electrical
survey on current RFID applications,” in Proc. International engineering from University of The Punjab Lahore in
Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernatics, Baoding, July 2010 and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from
12-15, 2009, pp. 2330-2334. University of Engineering & Technology Lahore in
[2] B. Yan and D. Y. Lee, “Design of spot ticket management system 2012. He is currently working towards Ph.D. degree in
based on RFID,” in Proc. International Conference on Networks electrical engineering from Monash University,
Security, Wireless Communications and Trusted Computing, 2009, pp. Australia. His research interests include the
496-499. application of intelligent techniques to problems in
[3] G. Ostojic, S. Stankovski, and M. Lazarevic, “Implementation of RFID control engineering, robotics and machine vision.
technology in parking lot access control system,” in Proc. Annual
RFID Eurasia Conference, 2007, pp. 1-5.
[4] N. Ahmad, S. Butler, and U. Ramachandran, “GuardianAngel: An Athar Hanif holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in
RFID based indoor guidance and monitoring system,” 2010, pp. electrical engineering from University of Engineering
546-551. & Technology Taxila and University of Engineering &
Technology Lahore respectively. He is currently
[5] K. S. Huang and S. M. Tang, “RFID applications strategy and
working towards the Ph.D. degree in control
deployment in bike renting system,” in Proc. ICACT 2008, pp.
engineering from Muhammad Ali Jinnah University
660-663.
Islamabad. He is with Department of Electrical
[6] S. Lahiri, RFID sourcebook, IBM Press, Westford, Massachusetts, Engineering, The University of Lahore where he is
2006. working as Assistant Professor. His research interests
[7] F. Lourenco and C. Almeida, “RFID based monitoring and access include the robust nonlinear control of hybrid vehicles and power converters.
control system,” in Proc. INFORUM, 2009. Author‟s formal
[8] R. Weinstein, “RFID: A technical overview and its application to the photo Muhammad Usman Asad received his B.Sc. in
enterprise,” IT Professional, vol. 7, no. 3, May-June 2005, pp. 27-33. Electrical Engineering from University of The Punjab
[9] X. L. Meng, Z. W. Song, and X. Y. Li, “RFID-Based security Lahore in 2010. During his stay at electrical
authentication system based on a novel face-recognition structure,” in engineering Department University of The Punjab
Proc. WASE International Conference on Information Engineering, Lahore, he served as President of Society of
2010, pp. 97-100. Engineering Excellence (2009) and contributed in the
[10] D. L. Wu, Wing W. Y. NG, Patrick P. K. Chan, H. L. Ding, B. Z. Jing, research activities of the society. He is the recipient of
and D. S. Yeung, “Access control by RFID and face recognition based Gold Medal award for his paper on Ball Scoring Robot
on neural network,” in Proc. International Conference on Machine in 24th IEEEP International Multi-topic Symposium,
Learning and Cybernatics, July 11-14, 2010, pp. 675-680. 2009 and Silver Medal award for his paper on Neural Controller for Robot
[11] M. A. Mazidi, J. C. Mazidi, and R. D. Mckinaly, The 8051 Navigation in 26th IEEEP International Multi-topic Symposium, 2011. He is
Author‟s formal
Microcontroller and Embedded Systems, Pearson Education, 2006. photo
currently working towards M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from G.C.
University Lahore. He is with Department of Electrical Engineering, The
University of Lahore where he is a Lecturer. His research interests include
intelligent control of Robotics and Power systems.

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