Physical-layer identification of UHF RFID tags

Abstract

In this work, we study physical-layer identification of passive UHF RFID tags. We collect signals from a population of 70 tags using a purpose-built reader and we analyze time domain and spectral features of the collected signals. We show that, based on timing features of the signals, UHF RFID tags can be classified, independently of the location and distance to the reader (evaluated up to 6 meters), with an accuracy of approx. 71% (within our population). Additionally, we show that is possible to uniquely identify a maximum of approx. 26 UHF RFID tags independently of the population size. We analyze the implications of these results on tag holder privacy. We further show that, in controlled environments, UHF RFID tags can be uniquely identified based on their signal spectral features with an Equal Error Rate of 0% (within our population); we discuss the application of those techniques to cloning detection in RFID-enabled supply chains.