An empirical study of UHF RFID performance

Abstract

This paper examines the performance of EPC Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID reader systems in a realistic setting. Specifically, we identify factors that degrade overall performance and reliability with a focus on the physical layer, and we explore the degree to which reader configuration options can mitigate these factors. We use a custom software-radio based RFID monitoring system and configurable RFID readers to gather fine-grained data and assess the effects of the different factors. We find that physical layer considerations have a significant impact on reader performance, and that this is exacerbated by a lack of integration between the physical and MAC layers. We show that tuning physical layer operating parameters can increase the read rate for a set of tags by more than a third. Additionally, we show that tighter integration of the physical and MAC layers has the potential for even greater improvements.