LoRea: A Backscatter Architecture that Achieves a Long Communication Range

• There is the long-standing assumption that radio communication inthe range of hundreds of meters needs to consume mWs of powerat the transmitting device. In this paper, we demonstrate that this isnot necessarily the case for some devices equipped with backscatterradios. We present LoRea an architecture consisting of a tag, areader and multiple carrier generators that overcomes the power,cost and range limitations of existing systems such as ComputationalRadio Frequency Identication (CRFID). LoRea achieves thisby: First, generating narrow-band backscatter transmissions thatimprove receiver sensitivity. Second, mitigating self-interferencewithout the complex designs employed on RFID readers by keepingcarrier signal and backscattered signal apart in frequency. Finally,decoupling carrier generation from the reader and using devicessuch as WiFi routers and sensor nodes as a source of the carriersignal. An o-the-shelf implementation of LoRea costs 70 USD,a drastic reduction in price considering commercial RFID readerscost 2000 USD. LoRea’s range scales with the carrier strength, andproximity to the carrier source and achieves a maximum range of3:4 km when the tag is located at 1m distance from a 28 dBm carriersource while consuming 70 µW at the tag. When the tag is equidistantfrom the carrier source and the receiver, we can communicateupto 75m, a signicant improvement over existing RFID readers.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datavetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datorteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Battery-free

Backscatter

CRFIDs

WISP

Moo

Ultra-low power

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