ELG7177 Topics in Communications: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems
Graduate Course

Fall 2011

PROFESSOR

Miodrag Bolic

School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), University of Ottawa
Tel: (613) 562-5800 x 6224, Fax: (613) 562-5175
Email: mbolic@site.uottawa.ca

Web: www.site.uottawa.ca/~mbolic

Office Hours: Wednesday, TBD, CBY A-616

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Components of RFID systems: tags, readers, software. Tag identification protocols: Aloha and tree based. Reader infrastructure networking: Reducing interference in RFID reader networks, deployments of large networks. Localization, read rate improvements, security and privacy. Analysis of related technologies and applications.

LONGER DESCRIPTION

The course is divided in five parts.

Part 1 provides an introduction and describes architectures of both readers and tags. In addition, it defines performance metrics and terminology that will be used in the course. It distinguishes between passive and battery-operated systems with the emphasis on the passive RFID systems.

Part 2 is related to networking protocols that involve one reader and multiple tags with the goal of resolving tag to tag interference. Tag identification protocols are covered in systematic way. They include Aloha-based protocols, tree-based protocols which are the most popular. In addition tag-talks-first and tag-talks-only protocols as well as CDMA and SDMA protocols are discussed. Necessary adjustments in the protocols needed for dynamic environments with mobile tags are covered as well. Hardware solutions that are useful for interference reduction are mentioned.

Part 3 provides coverage of networking protocols that involve host and multiple readers. First, we will consider interface between the host and the readers. Next, MAC layer solutions for reducing reader-to-tag interference are discussed. In addition, redundant reader elimination problem, mobility and energy conservation problems are covered as well. Deployments of large RFID systems are discussed. Optimization of the whole system through cross-layer design is discussed as well.

In Part 4, we will cover several major research problems in RFID field such as read rates that are less than 100% even in the most favorable RF environments, low read ranges, security problems, localization of tags and lack of efficient simulators. Some of these problems are so serious that they prevent wide-spread use of RFID technology (e.g. low read rate). Hence, a number of these problems and potential solutions are analyzed in this section. One solution to some of these issues is to introduce novel RFID technologies.

In Part 5, we will discuss related technologies including bar codes, wireless sensor networks as well as other wireless technologies used for tagging and localization. We will also discuss applications of RFID systems.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Activity	Time	Location
LEC	Friday 13:00-14:30	Morisset Hall (MRT) Room: 221
LEC	Wednesday 13:00 -14:30	Fauteux Hall (FTX) Room: 227

SUGGESTED TEXTS

• Klaus Finkenzeller, ‘RFID Handbook: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification” Wiley 2003.
• M. Bolic, D. Simplot-Ryl, I. Stojmenovic, RFID Systems: Research trends and challenges, edited book, Wiley Series in Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, to be published in 2010.

Other relevant books:

• D. M. Dobkin, “The RF in RFID: Passive UHF RFID in Practice” Newnes, 2007.
• Syed A. Ahson, Mohammad Ilyas, “RFID Handbook: Applications, Technology, Security, and Privacy” 2008.

PREREQUISITES

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TOPICS DISCUSSED

(This is a very preliminary schedule)

Link to the protected Web page

Lecture #	Week of	Topic	Literature	Additional topics
1.	Sep 12	Introduction Components and classification of RFID systems
2.	Sep 19	How RFID works: EPC Generation 2 Standard
3.	Sep 26	Issues and problems in passive UHF RFID systems		UWB RFID
4.	Oct 03	Other components of EPCGlobal, middleware		Dash – 7
5	Oct 10	Standards and implementation of HF systems		NFC – Near Field Comunications
6.	Oct 24	Smart cards and HF systems		RFID/sensor networks
7.	Oct 31	Localization for wireless networks and RFID systems · Methods, techniques and devices used for localization · RTLS with active RFID tags Localization of passive RFID tags		RFID systems with smart antennas
8.	Nov7	Antennas for RFID tags and readers RF design of passive RFID tags RF design of passive RFID readers		Rubee systems
10.	Nov 14	Internet of things		SFH RFID
11.	Nov 21	Merging RFID and wireless sensor networks AIDC technologies: · Bar Coding · Biometrics · Contact Memory		Semi active RFID tags with rechargeable baterries
12.	Nov 28	RFID-enabled sensors		RFID Authentication
13.	Dec 05	Reader-tag protocols – current implementation and research directions: · Aloha-based protocols · Tree based protocols · Other solutions for reducing collision		RFID security
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MARKING SCHEME

· Final exam (45%)

· Lecture preparation (20%)

· Homework (35%)

LECTURE PREPARATION

Additional topics will be prepared by students. Students will need to prepare slides that can cover about 35-40 minutes of the lecture. In addition, the students will write a document about the topic of interest. The document must be in IEEE format.

HOMEWORK

Homework has to be submitted 6 days after the lecture. Please use Google Doc and upload the document. The format of the document is ELG7177_FirstName_LastName_HMW1.

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