Protocol for Streaming Data from an RFID Sensor Network

Abstract

Currently, there is an increasing interest in the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags which incorporate passive or battery-less sensors. These systems are known as computational RFID (CRFID). Several CRFID tags together with a reader set up an RFID sensor network. The reader powers up the tags’ microcontroller and their attached sensor using radio frequency waves, and tags backscatter, not only their E P C code but also the value of those sensors. The current standard for interrogating these CRFID tags is the EPC global Class 1 Generation 2 (EPC C1G2). When several tags are located inside the reader interrogation area, the EPC C1G2 results in very poor performance to obtain sensor data values. To solve this problem, a novel protocol for streaming sensor data is presented. The proposed protocol increases the Sensor Read Rate ( S R R ), defined as the number of sensor data reads per second, compared to the standard. Additionally, this paper presents a prototype of an RFID sensor network to compare the proposed custom protocol with the standard, obtaining a 53% of improvement in S R R with respect to the EPC C1G2.

Keywords

• RFID sensor network
• data streaming
• wireless sensor network
• EPC C1G2