ieee access special section radio frequency identification and security techniques

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have been receiving much attention in the last few decades due to their effective role in our everyday life. They propose different solutions to many vital applications. Moreover, RFID systems are the backbone of modern Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Near-Field Communication (NFC) systems. Extending the capacity of such systems and making them more secure is the desired objective of the research community

Capacitive coupled RFID tag using a new dielectric droplet encapsulation approach

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a well-known and fast-growing technology used to identify people, animals and products. RFID tags are used to replace bar codes in a wide range of applications, to mention just a few, retail, transportation, logistics and healthcare. The two main driving aspects for most of research and development projects concerning RFID tags are the reduction of assembly costs and the downsizing of microchips. In that respect and considering an Industry 4.0 scenario, the study of a new assembly approach for passive and high frequency RFID tags has been proposed and studied in this thesis. In this new approach, which is based on the inkjet printing technology, a specifically designed radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) will be delivered, inside a liquid dielectric droplet, onto the antenna and no longer placed and oriented precisely as it happens nowadays with pick-and-place and flip chip machines. After a landing phase, the liquid droplet (with the encapsulated chip) will self-aligns with respect to the contact thanks to capillary forces driven by specifically designed wetting conditions on the substrate of the antenna. Finally, with few additional steps, the complete RFID tag is created. This research project brings to light a considerable simplification and a very high potential of parallelization, compatible with large volume manufacturing methods, in comparison to nowadays existing technologies. This may substantially drive down the fabrication costs. An in-depth analysis of electrical performances have been carefully undertaken and compliance with the ISO/IEC 144443 standard has been verified. Mathematical models have been developed showing fundamental limits for the maximum tag reading range and power requirements of the RFID reader

An RFID Directional Antenna for Location Positioning

This thesis presents a new antenna design for passive RFID tags operating at super high frequency band. The proposed antenna includes a cross-array of five elements supporting beam-scanning range over two perpendicular planes. The beam-scanning capability allows the tag to communicate over longer distances without demanding extra power. A matching network between antenna elements and front-end circuitry has also been designed to eliminate phase shift. 3D full-wave electromagnetic simulation results using HFSS CAD tool indicate that the proposed antenna supports 10 dB gain and beam-scanning of more than 180o over two planes which can be exploited to provide location positioning services

Criptografía ligera en dispositivos de identificación por radiofrecuencia- RFID

Esta tesis se centra en el estudio de la tecnología de identificación por radiofrecuencia (RFID), la cual puede ser considerada como una de las tecnologías más prometedoras dentro del área de la computación ubicua. La tecnología RFID podría ser el sustituto de los códigos de barras. Aunque la tecnología RFID ofrece numerosas ventajas frente a otros sistemas de identificación, su uso lleva asociados riesgos de seguridad, los cuales no son fáciles de resolver. Los sistemas RFID pueden ser clasificados, atendiendo al coste de las etiquetas, distinguiendo principalmente entre etiquetas de alto coste y de bajo coste. Nuestra investigación se centra fundamentalmente en estas últimas. El estudio y análisis del estado del arte nos ha permitido identificar la necesidad de desarrollar soluciones criptográficas ligeras adecuadas para estos dispositivos limitados. El uso de soluciones criptográficas estándar supone una aproximación correcta desde un punto de vista puramente teórico. Sin embargo, primitivas criptográficas estándar (funciones resumen, código de autenticación de mensajes, cifradores de bloque/flujo, etc.) exceden las capacidades de las etiquetas de bajo coste. Por tanto, es necesario el uso de criptografía ligera._______________________________________This thesis examines the security issues of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, one of the most promising technologies in the field of ubiquitous computing. Indeed, RFID technology may well replace barcode technology. Although it offers many advantages over other identification systems, there are also associated security risks that are not easy to address. RFID systems can be classified according to tag price, with distinction between high-cost and low-cost tags. Our research work focuses mainly on low-cost RFID tags. An initial study and analysis of the state of the art identifies the need for lightweight cryptographic solutions suitable for these very constrained devices. From a purely theoretical point of view, standard cryptographic solutions may be a correct approach. However, standard cryptographic primitives (hash functions, message authentication codes, block/stream ciphers, etc.) are quite demanding in terms of circuit size, power consumption and memory size, so they make costly solutions for low-cost RFID tags. Lightweight cryptography is therefore a pressing need. First, we analyze the security of the EPC Class-1 Generation-2 standard, which is considered the universal standard for low-cost RFID tags. Secondly, we cryptanalyze two new proposals, showing their unsuccessful attempt to increase the security level of the specification without much further hardware demands. Thirdly, we propose a new protocol resistant to passive attacks and conforming to low-cost RFID tag requirements. In this protocol, costly computations are only performed by the reader, and security related computations in the tag are restricted to very simple operations. The protocol is inspired in the family of Ultralightweight Mutual Authentication Protocols (UMAP: M2AP, EMAP, LMAP) and the recently proposed SASI protocol. The thesis also includes the first published cryptanalysis of xi SASI under the weakest attacker model, that is, a passive attacker. Fourthly, we propose a new protocol resistant to both passive and active attacks and suitable for moderate-cost RFID tags. We adapt Shieh et.’s protocol for smart cards, taking into account the unique features of RFID systems. Finally, because this protocol is based on the use of cryptographic primitives and standard cryptographic primitives are not supported, we address the design of lightweight cryptographic primitives. Specifically, we propose a lightweight hash function (Tav-128) and a lightweight Pseudo-Random Number Generator (LAMED and LAMED-EPC).We analyze their security level and performance, as well as their hardware requirements and show that both could be realistically implemented, even in low-cost RFID tags

A Review of Wireless Sensor Technologies and Applications in Agriculture and Food Industry: State of the Art and Current Trends

The aim of the present paper is to review the technical and scientific state of the art of wireless sensor technologies and standards for wireless communications in the Agri-Food sector. These technologies are very promising in several fields such as environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, cold chain control or traceability. The paper focuses on WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), presenting the different systems available, recent developments and examples of applications, including ZigBee based WSN and passive, semi-passive and active RFID. Future trends of wireless communications in agriculture and food industry are also discussed

Novel development of distributed manufacturing monitoring systems to support high cost and complexity manufacturing

In the current manufacturing environment, characterized by diverse change sources (e.g. economical, technological, political, social) and integrated supply chains, success demands close cooperation and coordination between stakeholders and agility. Tools and systems based on software agents, intelligent products and virtual enterprises have been developed to achieve such demands but either because of: (i) focus on a single application; (ii) focus on a single product; (iii) separation between the product and its information; or (iv) focus on a single system characteristic (e.g. hardware, software, architecture, requirements) their use has been limited to trial or academic scenarios. In this thesis a reusable distributed manufacturing monitoring system for harsh environments, capable of addressing traceability and controllability requirements within stakeholders and across high cost and complexity supply chains is presented. [Continues.

RFID Technologies in Intelligent Medical Applications

This thesis examines RFID-technologies as a part of the development of intelligent medical applications. In this context the intelligence is interpreted as a property of a system that is more automatic, safe or efficient due to solutions achieved by information technology. RFID-technologies offer a wide range of possibilities for both containing and acquiring information. With the help of RFID-systems information such as the count, location, or status of hospital equipment can be obtained and monitored without the need for line of sight. In this thesis the task of applying RFID-technologies to achieve more intelligent medical applications is approached by researching the compatibility of all the known RFID-technologies at the moment of writing. However researches presented in this thesis are generally related to systems operating within the UHF-frequency band. The thesis describes the main characteristics of the four main RFID-technology standards. As this research is concentrated on the solutions specialized in hospital environments, the compliances to such a setting are highlighted from the research papers undergone in this thesis. Functionalities that are considered to be useful in an intelligent hospital setting are presented in the literature study. Such functionalities include RFID-tags that are aware of their location and orientation, tags that carry user updatable data and even tags that update their data by themselves. After revising the RFID-technologies, a case-related research conducted for this thesis is presented. The research analyzes and estimates the saturation times of the carbon dioxide absorbers that are used in anesthesia machines. The measurements are conducted by multiple tests where environmental variables are changed to different known values and the results are recorded. The goal of the research is to find out if it is possible to predict the absorber behavior, and whether saving the information needed or the prediction can be done directly to the absorbers themselves. To predict saturation, lifetime and usability of the absorbers a formula is calculated, and the formula is evaluated based on the values measured. As a conclusion UHF-RFID-technology is evaluated to be most compatible to be used in the prototype for the case. In this thesis the RFID-technologies are evaluated to be an economical and functional solution for the monitoring of absorber state, and the case is agreed to be a convenient solution to begin the transformation to intelligent hospitals. /Kir1

Internet of Things Strategic Research Roadmap

Internet of Things (IoT) is an integrated part of Future Internet including existing and evolving Internet and network developments and could be conceptually defined as a dynamic global network infrastructure with self configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual “things” have identities, physical attributes, and virtual personalities, use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information network

Life-cycle information management and acquisition for blood products

Ten of thousands patients die every year because of medical errors. Many more patients suffer permanent damage and have to be medicated for the rest of their life. In the context of a blood donation, blood production and blood transfusion process, a lack of consistent and complete trace and tracking of individual blood bags has been identified as a source of medical errors. This research aims to address this challenge to help organisations such as blood banks to track the donation, manufacture, distribution and in-use of blood products, to remove/minimise the potential medical errors. Although the major goal of this research study is to increase patient security, reduction of wastage is also part of the research aims because donated blood is a scarce resource. Nowadays, up to 20% of the blood bags are put to scrap without use and each of the blood bag costs 220 Euro to produce (i.e. from collection, production and storage until it is consumed/discarded). In Austria alone, 5.6 million Euros could be saved each year if the wastage can be removed. Besides the economic issue, donated human blood is a scarce resource and always gives a poor psychological response from the general public when preventable wastage occurs. This research study approaches the challenges through a life-cycle point of view because it sees the goal can only be achieved through ‘real-time’ life-cycle information that governs the quality and life-span of such products. As a result, a new RF based semi-active transponder (13.56 MHz, ISO 15693 compatible HF interface) with integrated data storage and temperature sensor, which is able to sustain high g - forces have been developed to provide the ‘real-time’ temperature data and other related information support. The developed life-cycle information system has been trialled at the University Clinic of Graz not only to test its effectiveness, but also used as a case study for this research study. Due to the resources constraints (e.g. time), the case study does not create sufficient data to establish any statistical significance to quantify the benefits of the proposed systems. However, all the involved persons including both the operational and professional staff at University Clinique of Graz, have agreed the proposed RFID transponders, together with its lifecycle management system provides better decision support to handle individual blood bag at any stage of its lifecycle. They believe the proposed system will improve patients’ safety and reduce the wastage of blood bags. During the trail, it happened that two blood bags ready for transfusion were detected to be below 0°C somehow during their life-cycle. A blood transfusion would have been 100% mortal to the patients. The detection of this fatal mistake did save at least the life of one human being and illustrated the importance of an objective, overarching and complete life-cycle system for blood products. Although this research is focused on blood products for blood banks and medical environments, the benefits of the system approach and methodologies could also apply to other types of sensitive and fragile goods that require life-cycle information support

Specification, design and evaluation of an automated agrochemical traceability system

Traceability through all the stakeholders in food production is an issue of increasing importance, being specifically required by the regulations for food safety and quality (EC 178/2002), and for compliance with environmental protection. The agricultural market perceives a need for systems and technologies to automate the currently manual process of producing records of agrochemical inputs loaded into a spraying machine. A novel prototype Automated Agrochemical Traceability System (AACTS) to identify and weigh agrochemicals as they are loaded into crop sprayer has been designed, constructed, fitted to a machine and evaluated with commercial operators. The functional blocks of the system are a 13.56 MHz RFID reader, 1.4 litre self cleaning weighing funnel mounted on a 3 kg load cell, a user interface with a screen and three user command buttons (Yes, No, Back), and a progress bar made of 8 coloured LED’s (green, amber, red). The system is able to trace individual agrochemical containers, associate the product identity with national agrochemical databases, quantify the required amount of product, assist the sprayer operator and control workflow, generate records of sprayer inputs and interoperate with (recommending extensions to) task management standards as set out in ISO 11783-10. The evaluation of the quantity weighing has demonstrated that with such a system, the principal noise component is in the range of 33–83 Hz, induced by the operating tractor engine. A combined 3 Hz low pass digital filter with a second stage rolling mean of 5 values improves performance to allow a practical resolution of 1 gram (engine switched off) to 3.6 grams (sprayer fully operational) with a response appropriate to suit human reaction time. This is a significant improvement over the ±10 grams of the work of Watts (2004). An experiment with 10 sprayer operators has proved that in the majority of cases (92%) an accuracy equal or better than ±5% is achieved regardless of dispensing speed. The dispensed amounts (100.36% of target) and recorded (100.16%) are in accordance with prescribed values (100%; LSD(5%) 2.166%), where amounts dispensed by manual methods (92.61%) differ significantly from prescribed and recorded value (100%). The AACTS delivers a statistically similar work rate (211.8 s/task) as manual method (201.3 s/task; Δt = 10.5 s/task; LSD(5%) 28.2 s/task) in combined loading and recording cycle. Considering only the loading time (181.2 s/task) of manual method, the difference is 30.6 s/task (LSD(5%) 30.1 s/task). In practice this difference is believed to be marginal compared to the time required to load the water, random external events during the spraying session and in time moving, checking and storing paper records. The integrated weighing funnel concept is another significant improvement over previous work. Using this system, the mean duration of measuring per container for all tasks (34.0 s) is approximately half the time (68.5 s) achieved by Watts (2004). The AACTS was rated to be safer than the manual method regarding operator health and safety and risk of spillage. All operators who evaluated the AACTS were interested in purchasing such a system. The work confirmed that an RFID system was an appropriate media for agrochemical identification performing more than 250 product identification operations during operator tests without failure, with a speed of operation <1 s per cycle and reading distance of 100 mm. A specific format for RFID tag data is proposed for adoption, using low cost tags, that combines item level traceability with identification of products independently without access to worldwide databases. The AACTS follows ISO 11783 task management logic where a job is defined in a prepared electronic task file. It is proposed to extend the ISO 11783-10 task file to integrate the records provided by AACTS by handling the tank loads as individual products resulting from loading task and allocating them to spraying tasks. It is recommended to produce a production prototype following the design methodology, analysis techniques and performance drivers presented in this work and develop the features of user interface and records of tank content into software for ISO 11783-10 cabin task controller to deliver business benefits to the farming industry. The results with RFID encourage the adoption of RFID labelling of agrochemical containers. The reader may wish to read this thesis in parallel with Gasparin (2009) who has considered the business and industry adoption aspects of the AACTS.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo