Slotted Scheduled Tag Access in Multi-Reader RFID Systems

Abstract—Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology where a reader device can “sense” the presence of a closeby object by reading a tag device attached to the object. To improve coverage, multiple RFID readers can be deployed in the given region. In this paper, we consider the problem of slotted scheduled access of RFID tags in a multiple reader environment. In particular, we develop centralized algorithms in a slotted time model to read all the tags using near-optimal number of time slots. We consider two scenarios – one wherein the tag distribution in the physical space is unknown, and the other where tag distribution is known or can be estimated a priori. For each of these scenarios, we consider two cases depending on whether a single channel or multiple channels are available. All the above version of the problem are NP-hard. We design approximation algorithms for the single channel and heuristic algorithms for the multiple channel cases. Through extensive simul...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICNP
• Authors: Zongheng Zhou, Himanshu Gupta, Samir R. Das, Xianjin Zhu
• Keywords: Algorithm, Approximation Algorithms, ICNP 2007, Network Protocols, Single Channel