Randomized Scheme for Cognizing Tags in RFID Networks and Its Optimization

Abstract

An RFID network is a network in which a reader inquire about the identities of tags and tags respond with their identities to a reader. The diversity of RFID networks has brought about many applications including an inexpensive system where a single reader supports a small number of tags. Such a system needs a tag cognizance scheme that is able to arbitrate among contending tags as well as is simple enough. In this paper, confining our attention to a clan of simple schemes, we propose a randomized scheme with aiming at enhancing the tag cognizance rate than a conventional scheme. Then, we derive an exact expression for the cognizance rate attained by the randomized scheme. Unfortunately, the exact expression is not so tractable as to optimize the randomized scheme. As an alternative way, we develop an upper bound on the tag cognizance rate. In a closed form, we then obtain a nearly optimal value for a key design parameter, which maximizes the upper bound. Numerical examples confirm that the randomized scheme is able to dominate the conventional scheme in cognizance rate by employing a nearly optimal value. Furthermore, they reveal that the randomized scheme is robust to the fallacy that the reader believes or guesses a wrong number of neighboring tags.