Distributed Wireless Algorithms for RFID Systems: Grouping Proofs and Cardinality Estimation

The breadth and depth of the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are becoming more substantial. RFID is a technology useful for identifying unique items through radio waves. We design algorithms on RFID-based systems for the Grouping Proof and Cardinality Estimation problems. A grouping-proof protocol is evidence that a reader simultaneously scanned the RFID tags in a group. In many practical scenarios, grouping-proofs greatly expand the potential of RFID-based systems such as supply chain applications, simultaneous scanning of multiple forms of IDs in banks or airports, and government paperwork. The design of RFID grouping-proofs that provide optimal security, privacy, and efficiency is largely an open area, with challenging problems including robust privacy mechanisms, addressing completeness and incompleteness (missing tags), and allowing dynamic groups definitions. In this work we present three variations of grouping-proof protocols that implement our mechanisms to overcome these challenges. Cardinality estimation is for the reader to determine the number of tags in its communication range. Speed and accuracy are important goals. Many practical applications need an accurate and anonymous estimation of the number of tagged objects. Examples include intelligent transportation and stadium management. We provide an optimal estimation algorithm template for cardinality estimation that works for a {0,1,e} channel, which extends to most estimators and ,possibly, a high resolution {0,1,...,k-1,e} channel

Clone tag detection in distributed RFID systems

Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is poised to displace barcodes, security vulnerabilities pose serious challenges for global adoption of the RFID technology. Specifically, RFID tags are prone to basic cloning and counterfeiting security attacks. A successful cloning of the RFID tags in many commercial applications can lead to many serious problems such as financial losses, brand damage, safety and health of the public. With many industries such as pharmaceutical and businesses deploying RFID technology with a variety of products, it is important to tackle RFID tag cloning problem and improve the resistance of the RFID systems. To this end, we propose an approach for detecting cloned RFID tags in RFID systems with high detection accuracy and minimal overhead thus overcoming practical challenges in existing approaches. The proposed approach is based on consistency of dual hash collisions and modified count-min sketch vector. We evaluated the proposed approach through extensive experiments and compared it with existing baseline approaches in terms of execution time and detection accuracy under varying RFID tag cloning ratio. The results of the experiments show that the proposed approach outperforms the baseline approaches in cloned RFID tag detection accuracy

Embedded Dual Band Rfid Based Blood Glucose Monitoring System For Internet Of Medical Things

Manually recorded health information could lead to errors such as inaccurate patient identification and mismatch patient data that could seriously affect patient safety. In order to reduce the risks of error for patients with diabetes, a new design of wireless blood glucose monitoring system with the embedment of dual band RFID for Internet of Medical Things is being developed. Using this method, passive RFID allows short-range communication to read automatically the patient identification number and active RFID extends long-range communication for recording and monitoring blood glucose data through multi-hop WSN. The work presented in this thesis contributes mainly to the embedded system and its application in healthcare to reduce the burden of recording, tracing and monitoring the patient‘s data by embedding blood glucose sensor, passive RFID, active RFID, WSN, M2M and IoMT into a single platform. A new design concept is established for the patient identification mechanism, where the mechanism is embedded in the source device to enhance the ability of the system to automatically assign the identification number to each blood glucose measurement (mmol/L) during multiple patients monitoring. Additionally, the results from the experiments conducted showed that the developed system produced better overall performance compared to the Bluetooth BGM and conventional BGM system in terms of the shortest recording time and the ability to retransmit data. In the reliability analysis using ANOVA and DOE statistical methods, the result validates that the number of hop and number of end node significantly affects the PDR performance of conventional CSMA/CA. These two parameters are then taken into account in experimental setup for performance evaluation of the enhanced CSMA/CA (EN-CSMA/CA) algorithm that uses an external interrupt mechanism and a cross layer approach. The PDR increased from 94% (conventional CSMA/CA) to 99.33% (EN-CSMA/CA), an improvement of 5.33%. The PDR model estimates that for the best and worst scenario, the percentage of PDR is 100.0% and 51.67%, respectively. To optimize the arrangement of routers for real implementation of the developed system in health facilities, the developed path loss model estimates that the router should be positioned at a distance of 30 m from each other, which agrees with the test results which indicate that the router should be positioned ≤ 40 m in order to achieve the best PDR performance

Global traceability

The use of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in supply chain management (SCM) systems was a big source for optimism. However, the expected rapid industry adoption of RFID did not take place. This research explores some of the existing challenges and obstacles to RFID adoption, such as the lack of consistent UHF spectrum regulations for RFID or the absence of standards that promote integration with Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) media. As a conclusion, in this project we suggest some solutions to these challenges in the use of multi-frequency RFID tags that can be read at more that one frequency or novel migration strategies and standards that would help expand the industry.Outgoin

Definition, Characteristics and Determining Parameters of Antennas in Terms of Synthesizing the Interrogation Zone in RFID Systems

The radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are gaining in popularity in automated processes of object identification in various socioeconomic areas. However, despite the existing belief, there is no universal RFID system on the commercial market that could be used in all user applications. All components of a developed solution should be carefully selected or designed according to the specification of objects being recognized and characteristics of their environment. In order to determine parameters of propagation or inductively coupled system, especially when it is dedicated to uncommon applications, a multiaspect analysis has to be taken into consideration. Due to complexity, the problem is reduced to analytical or experimental determination of RFID system operation range and a “trial and error” method is mostly used in the industry practice. In order to cope with the barriers existing in the RFID technology, the authors give the review of latest achievements in this field. They focus on the definition, comprehensive characteristics and determination of the antenna parameters. They also pay attention to the 3D interrogation zone (IZ) that is the main parameter in which multitude technical aspects of the RFID systems are gathered simultaneously, as regards the theoretical synthesis as well as market needs

A Novel Long-Range Passive UHF RFID System over Twisted-pair Cable

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is one of the most representative, rapidly growing, and highly extendable technologies, which uses electromagnetic waves in accordance with specific communications standards and regulations to identify, track, or even localise desired objects. However, due to its high cost, limited read range, and uncertain reliability, its adoption still lags, especially in large-scale organisations. Even though an RFID distributed antenna system (DAS) can greatly improve the detection range and read rate of a single reader when system uses different combinations of antenna states with frequency and phase hopping, the lossy and heavy coaxial cables between reader and antennas still limits the system coverage and design flexibility for wide-area passive UHF RFID applications. In order to develop a cost-efficient and flexibly-installed passive RFID DAS, a novel large-range passive UHF RFID system over twisted-pair cable is proposed in this dissertation. This new system consists of one baseband central controller and one antenna subsystem, connected by a commonly used twisted-pair cable. It is shown that transmitting/receiving low frequency baseband signals over a twisted-pair cable can significantly reduce cable attenuation and extend the communication distance. A simulation is conducted to demonstrate that frequency and phase hopping can also be remotely controlled to fit this system structure by slightly varying the frequency or phase of the input reference signal of the frequency synthesis system. The features of twisted-pair cable in terms of its low cost, light weight, and bend radius greatly improve the design and installation flexibility of an RFID system. The implemented system is designed based on the ISO 18000-6C and EPC Class 1 Generation 2 standards, and can operate according to FCC (902-928 MHz) and ETSI (865-868MHz) regulations. The results of the measurement show the reader can achieve a sensitivity of - 94.5 dBm over 30 m Cat5e cable, and its sensitivity can still remain at around -94.2 dBm over 150 m Cat5e cable. The experimental results of tag detection show that the passive tags can be successfully detected over a 6 m wireless range following a 300 m of twisted-pair cable between the central controller and antenna. This detection range cannot be achieved by existing commercial RFID systems. Since the transmission and reception in a RFID system are simultaneous, finite isolation of the circulator/directional coupler and environmentally dependent reflection ratio of the antenna lead to serious leakage problems. Leakage can directly cause sensitivity degradation due to saturation of the RF components. A fast leakage suppression block is developed in efforts to solve this problem. Measurements show that this new canceller can deliver an average suppression of 36.9 dB, and this excellent performance remains when the system uses frequency hopping. With help of an improved scanning algorithm, this canceller can find its optimal status within 38 ms, and this settling time is short enough for most commercial RFID readers. By reducing the number of voltage samples taken, the convergence time can be further improved. To fully investigate this new passive UHF RFID system value, a comparison study between the new system and a commercial system is conducted. This new automatic passive UHF RFID system is confirmed to deliver high performance long-range passive tag detection. Particular advantages are shown in the fast tag read rate and capability of uplink SNR improvement. This novel system is also superior to conventional RFID systems in terms of link distance, link cost, and installation flexibility