ISO/IEC 18000 defines the air interfaces for radio frequency identification (RFID) devices used in item management applications. ISO/IEC 18000-6 defines the air interface for these devices operating at frequencies from 860 MHz to 960 MHz.

ISO/IEC TR 18047 provides test methods for conformance with the various parts of ISO/IEC 18000.

Each part of ISO/IEC TR 18047 contains all measurements required to be made on a product in order to establish whether it conforms to the corresponding part of ISO/IEC 18000. For ISO/IEC TR 18047-6:2008, each interrogator needs to be assessed for operation with both types A and B, while each tag is only required to support at least one of the types A or B or C.

Measurement of tag and interrogator performance is covered by ISO/IEC 18046.

ISO/IEC TR 18047-6:2008 defines test methods for determining the conformance of radio frequency identification devices (tags and interrogators) for item management with the specifications given in ISO/IEC 18000-6, but does not apply to the testing of conformity with regulatory or similar requirements.

The test methods require only that the mandatory functions, and any optional functions which are implemented, be verified. This may, in appropriate circumstances, be supplemented by further application-specific functionality criteria that are not available in the general case.

The interrogator and tag conformance parameters in ISO/IEC TR 18047-6:2008 are the following:

• type-specific conformance parameters including nominal values and tolerances;
• parameters that apply directly affecting system functionality and inter-operability.

The following are not included in ISO/IEC TR 18047-6:2008:

• parameters that are already included in regulatory test requirements;
• high-level data encoding conformance test parameters (these are specified in ISO/IEC 15962).

Unless otherwise specified, the tests in ISO/IEC TR 18047-6:2008 are to be applied exclusively to RFID tags and interrogators defined in ISO/IEC 18000-6.

ISO/IEC TR 18047-6:2008 also describes all necessary conformance tests.