Energy Management in RFID-Sensor Networks: Taxonomy and Challenges

Ubiquitous Computing is foreseen to play an important role for data production and network connectivity in the coming decades. The Internet of Things (IoT) research which has the capability to encapsulate identification potential and sensing capabilities, strives towards the objective of developing seamless, interoperable and securely integrated systems which can be achieved by connecting the Internet with computing devices. This gives way for the evolution of wireless energy harvesting and power transmission using computing devices. Radio Frequency (RF) based Energy Management (EM) has become the backbone for providing energy to wireless integrated systems. The two main techniques for EM in RFID Sensor Networks (RSN) are Energy Harvesting (EH) and Energy Transfer (ET). These techniques enable the dynamic energy level maintenance and optimisation as well as ensuring reliable communication which adheres to the goal of increased network performance and lifetime. In this paper, we present an overview of RSN, its types of integration and relative applications. We then provide the state-of-the-art EM techniques and strategies for RSN from August 2009 till date, thereby reviewing the existing EH and ET mechanisms designed for RSN. The taxonomy on various challenges for EM in RSN has also been articulated for open research directives

Wearable flexible lightweight modular RFID tag with integrated energy harvester

A novel wearable radio frequency identification (RFID) tag with sensing, processing, and decision-taking capability is presented for operation in the 2.45-GHz RFID superhigh frequency (SHF) band. The tag is powered by an integrated light harvester, with a flexible battery serving as an energy buffer. The proposed active tag features excellent wearability, very high read range, enhanced functionality, flexible interfacing with diverse low-power sensors, and extended system autonomy through an innovative holistic microwave system design paradigm that takes antenna design into consideration from the very early stages. Specifically, a dedicated textile shorted circular patch antenna with monopolar radiation pattern is designed and optimized for highly efficient and stable operation within the frequency band of operation. In this process, the textile antenna's functionality is augmented by reusing its surface as an integration platform for light-energy-harvesting, sensing, processing, and transceiver hardware, without sacrificing antenna performance or the wearer's comfort. The RFID tag is validated by measuring its stand-alone and on-body characteristics in free-space conditions. Moreover, measurements in a real-world scenario demonstrate an indoor read range up to 23 m in nonline-of-sight indoor propagation conditions, enabling interrogation by a reader situated in another room. In addition, the RFID platform only consumes 168.3 mu W, when sensing and processing are performed every 60 s

Survey and Systematization of Secure Device Pairing

Secure Device Pairing (SDP) schemes have been developed to facilitate secure communications among smart devices, both personal mobile devices and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Comparison and assessment of SDP schemes is troublesome, because each scheme makes different assumptions about out-of-band channels and adversary models, and are driven by their particular use-cases. A conceptual model that facilitates meaningful comparison among SDP schemes is missing. We provide such a model. In this article, we survey and analyze a wide range of SDP schemes that are described in the literature, including a number that have been adopted as standards. A system model and consistent terminology for SDP schemes are built on the foundation of this survey, which are then used to classify existing SDP schemes into a taxonomy that, for the first time, enables their meaningful comparison and analysis.The existing SDP schemes are analyzed using this model, revealing common systemic security weaknesses among the surveyed SDP schemes that should become priority areas for future SDP research, such as improving the integration of privacy requirements into the design of SDP schemes. Our results allow SDP scheme designers to create schemes that are more easily comparable with one another, and to assist the prevention of persisting the weaknesses common to the current generation of SDP schemes.Comment: 34 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted at IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 2017 (Volume: PP, Issue: 99