Transceiver Design and Signal Detection in Backscatter Communication Systems With Multiple-Antenna Tags

Abstract

Ambient backscatter technology utilizes ambient radio frequency (RF) signals to enable battery-free devices (tags and readers) to communicate. Most existing studies assume single-antenna tags. However, in this paper, we consider tags with multiple antennas, which are exploited to provide transmit diversity. Channel state information (CSI) estimation is then a fundamental challenge because the tags can transmit few or no training symbols. To overcome it, we require detectors that operate without CSI. Thus, we propose and design three detectors based on the chi-squared test, F-test and Bartlett's test. The latter two are blind detectors because they require neither CSI nor the knowledge of RF source power and noise variance. We derive the detection probability bounds for the first two detectors. We also propose optimal tag antenna selection schemes to maximize the detection probabilities. Finally, simulation results are provided to corroborate our theoretical studies.