Performance of Passive UHF RFID Systems in Practice

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology that has risen to prominence over the past decade. The clear advantages of this technology over traditional identification methods, along with mandates from supply chain giants like Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense, led to a large number of research and commercialization efforts in the early 2000s. However, almost a decade on, the early promise of widespread, ubiquitous adoption of RFID is yet to materialize. This is due to a combination of several technical and commercial factors. The technical imperfections and shortcomings existing in presentday RFID systems pose a very significant obstacle to the widespread adoption of RFID. Overcoming some of these challenges would amount to a very significant step forward towards realizing the tremendous potential of RFID technology. This book describes the ongoing efforts of some of the leading researchers in the field towards tackling the most challenging issues in today’s RFID systems. With this in mind, the aim of this chapter is to clearly demonstrate, through experimentation, some of these technical challenges faced by RFID systems in practice. This chapter will enable the reader to better recognize the shortcomings of today’s RFID systems and will allow for a better understanding and appreciation of the research efforts described in the rest of the book. In this chapter, we focus on passive RFID systems operating in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band and adhering to the popular EPC Global Class 1 Generation 2 (Gen 2)