Design and Evaluation of "BTTN": A Backscattering Tag-to-Tag Network

Radio frequency (RF)-powered backscatter communication between passive tags holds tremendous potential as an enabling technology for a ubiquitous "Internet of Things." We develop a backscattering tag-to-tag network (BTTN), comprised of passive tags capable of large-scale, passive, and mult...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE internet of things journal 2018-08, Vol.5 (4), p.2844-2855
Main Authors: Jihoon Ryoo, Jinghui Jian, Athalye, Akshay, Das, Samir R., Stanacevic, Milutin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Backscatter
Backscatter communication
Backscattering
battery-less communication
Cancellation
Communication
Excitation
Firmware
Hardware
Internet of Things
Modulation
multihop network
Power consumption
Radio frequency
Radio frequency identification
Reliability
RFID tags
Supply chains
tag-to-tag network
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Summary:Radio frequency (RF)-powered backscatter communication between passive tags holds tremendous potential as an enabling technology for a ubiquitous "Internet of Things." We develop a backscattering tag-to-tag network (BTTN), comprised of passive tags capable of large-scale, passive, and multihop communication with each other via backscatter modulation of an external RF excitation signal. The low sensitivity and lack of active demodulator on passive tags present significant challenges to the communication, including a unique phase cancellation problem, which significantly affects the range and robustness of a passive tag-to-tag link. We overcome these challenges using innovative tag architecture and also develop a novel multiphase backscatter modulation technique with a learning mechanism that overcomes the phase cancellation problem. This improves the link performance bringing passive tag-to-tag communication closer to practical use. The additional hardware compared to the conventional radio frequency identification tag architecture includes one more terminating impedance in the modulator. The data rate is reduced due to backscatter at two different phases while the increase in the power consumption is negligible. We develop prototype BTTN tag hardware and firmware and evaluate its performance. The prototype achieves link ranges of up to 3 m at 5 kb/s with an excitation power level of only -20 dBm while successfully overcoming phase cancellation. We further extend BTTN operation to a multihop network where we demonstrate a four hop link capable of communicating over 12 m under similar conditions.
ISSN:2327-4662
2327-4662
DOI:10.1109/JIOT.2018.2840144