Passive Tags Research Articles

Mutual authentication protocol for low cost passive tag in RFID system

Internet of things (IoT) contains a massive number of “things” that are connected to the internet and communicates without human interaction. In these IoT devices, Radio frequency identification is used to detect the location of devices in communication networks. However, the RFID tag contains a low power battery and low memory capacity (i.e., few KB). Hence, it requires a lightweight or ultra-lightweight solutions for these RFID tags. This paper proposes a novel ultra-lightweight authenticate approach for a passive tag that uses XOR and rotate operations. This scheme contains three different phases: tag identification, mutual authentication, and pseudonyms and key updating phases. The first phase comprises the identification of the tag. After that, the second phase performs mutual authentication between the tag and the reader. The last phase involves the updating of the key between the tag and the reader. This scheme also defines the function “MIX” to enhance the security of the protocol. This scheme analyses in terms of communication cost between tag and reader, and storage cost for a passive tag.

Pulsed Harmonic Doppler Radar and Passive RF Tags for Tracking the Dynamic Motion of Held Objects

A new method for detecting microwave harmonic Doppler signatures of held objects in cluttered environments is presented. Based on a passive harmonic tag combined with a pulsed microwave radar, the motion of tagged objects held by a person can be detected in high-clutter environments. In this letter, we present a new derivation of the dynamic harmonic signal response of a harmonic tag in motion. Based on a truncated Bessel function expansion, the model predicts the time-frequency signatures of sinusoidally moving objects with high accuracy. We present a pulsed harmonic radar transmitting at 2.51 GHz and receiving at 5.02 GHz, which is capable of measuring the harmonic micro-Doppler response of the tag with better signal-to-noise since the clutter response only exists at 2.51 GHz. The pulse waveform provides detection of the harmonic tag at larger distances than continuous-wave systems by increasing the peak power of the signal incident on the tag, while the average power is fixed with a low level. Measurements of a held tag at a distance of 1 m in a highly cluttered environment are presented, showing a strong match to the simulated results.

Privacy-Preserving RFID-Based Search System

The employment of mobile readers (or mobile phone collaborated with a Radio frequency identification (RFID) reader) opens a novel application for RFID technology. In particular, an RFID tag search system has been designed to find a particular tag in a group of tags using a mobile reader. Unfortunately, privacy infringement and availability issues in the search system have not been adequately addressed to date. In this paper, we propose a novel RFID tag search protocol that will enhance mobile reader user privacy while being able to operate under conditions of unstable connection to a central server. First, the proposed protocol preserves the privacy of mobile reader users. The privacy of the mobile reader user is at risk because the signal strength emitted from a mobile reader is much stronger than that from the tag, exposing the location of the mobile reader user and thus compromising the user’s privacy. Thus far, such privacy issues have been overlooked. The second issue is presented because of wireless connections that are either unreliable or too remote, causing a mobile reader to disconnect from the central server. The proposed protocol enables serverless RFID tag searches with passive tags, which obtain operating power from the mobile reader. In unstable environments, the protocol can successfully locate specific tags without any server.

Constructing effective lightweight privacy protection in RFID-based systems

RFID systems usually involve passive tags (with limited computing and storage capacity) to secure data exchange via wireless communication. This paper builds an effective lightweight privacy protection authentication protocol, over the XCro, rotation and XOR functions, to handle the privacy and security problems in RFID systems. We employ both BAN Logic and ProVerif to prove that the new protocol is secure, its writing logic is correct, the query results are true and the protocol is free of all common attacks. We also conduct the OPNET simulation to evaluate the performance of our protocol and the existing lightweight protocol of Fan, in terms of authentication time, throughput, bandwidth consumption rate and queuing delay. The obtained results show that our protocol is more secure and effective—because we can resist all of the mentioned common attacks by a more efficient authentication process which involves less calculations, communications and transmissions.

A Hydrogen Concentration Monitoring System With Passive Tags

This article describes the design of a hydrogen concentration monitoring system based on ultrahigh-frequency radio-frequency identification (RFID) passive tags, which adopts ISO/IEC 18000-6 Type C standard. Tag devices have been designed by employing a microcontrol unit, making the proposed solution very suitable for low-cost hydrogen concentration measurement in wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, anti-collision capability has been realized by implementing a new true random number generator based on the hydrogen concentration sensing circuit and analog-to-digital converter, without employing any additional device. The correctness of all operations of the RFID system has been experimentally verified in a multiple-tag environment, as well as the hydrogen concentration monitoring capability. Particularly, measurement on an RFID tag prototype developed for the bandwidth 920-925 MHz has revealed that when the ambient temperature is 25 °C and humidity 80%, a maximum error of 9.8% is found within a hydrogen concentration range from 0.24% to 2.4%.

Cable Current Detection With Passive RF Sensing Tags

Cable current detection plays a vital role in power grids toward improving transmission efficiency, relieving power congestion, and ensuring grid reliability. However, the sensors in existing current detection systems either are wired with measurement instruments or are wireless yet require batteries, which is inconvenient for monitoring overhead powerlines. Inspired by RF sensing tags, which are widely used for applications such as temperature and humidity measurements, in this article, we propose a distinctive cable current detection system that can avoid the constraint of wires and batteries. By detecting the ambient magnetic field produced by ac current flowing through a cable, the proposed system realizes a minimal measurement range of 5–17.5 A at 50/60 Hz with a maximum wireless distance of 5.2 m. This prototype can detect cable current with an extendable measurement range, providing a promising strategy for passive and wireless current detection.

3-D Indoor Device-Free Object Detection by Passive Radio Frequency Identification

Indoor device-free object detection has many applications, such as assisted living, home security, and occupant-centered building utility control. To accommodate 3-D room layout variations and improve accuracy, multiple observation units with spatial diversity are often required, which will unavoidably cause a significant increase in the component and deployment cost if each unit needs wired power or battery. In this article, we present an indoor device-free object detection system implemented by a commercial radio frequency identification reader and many passive tags around the room. The passive tag as a dispersed observation point offers a cost-effective solution for the necessary spatial diversity. The tag backscattering phase is assembled to generate the reflectivity image inside the capture volume using Fourier-based reconstruction. A new calibration technique is proposed to compensate for multiplicative path losses and subtract the effect of background clutters, such as furniture. Noisy channels and channels with their line-of-sight blocked by the target are also filtered out during postprocessing to improve locating accuracy and mitigate ambiguity. A 1:6 room model was first used to study the effects of the indoor materials and room layout, where occupant recognition and centimeter-level locating were successfully demonstrated. Real-scale rooms were then tested, where decimeter-level 3-D location error was achieved for a single occupant, and useful information for occupant posture can also be evaluated.

Recent Advances in Passive UHF-RFID Tag Antenna Design for Improved Read Range in Product Packaging Applications: A Comprehensive Review

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a rapidly developing technology, and RFID sensors have become important components in many common technology applications. The passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) tags used in RFID sensors have a higher data transfer rate and longer read range and usually come in unique small and portable application designs. However, these tags suffer from significant frequency interference when mounted on metallic materials or placed near liquid surfaces. This paper presents the recent advancements made in passive UHF-RFID tag designs proposed to resolve the interference problems. We focus on those designs that are intended to improve antenna read range as well as scalability designs for miniaturized applications.

Patch Antennas with T-Match, Inductively Coupled Loop and Nested-slots Layouts for Passive UHF-RFID Tags

Patch Antennas with T-Match, Inductively Coupled Loop and Nested-slots Layouts for Passive UHF-RFID Tags

Exploring Half-Duplex Communication of NFC Read/Write Mode for Secure Multi-Factor Authentication

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a prominent short-range, contact-less communication technology, which is rapidly getting popular in modern smart devices. For communication between two active devices via NFC, applications generally choose the peer-to-peer operation mode. In this paper, we exploit the possibility of using the NFC read/write mode, designed primarily for unidirectional data transfer from an active NFC reader to a passive NFC tag, for bi-directional half-duplex communication between two active NFC devices. The advantages of using the NFC read/write mode include low protocol overhead and permitting different data formats. However, the challenges are avoiding the reader collision problem, maintaining a secure session, and completing all transactions in an acceptable time frame. In this paper, we address the above challenges and propose a methodology for efficient communication between active NFC devices using NFC read/write mode. To evaluate the scheme, we design a secure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) system that requires bi-directional communication for mutually authenticating two NFC devices. The proposed methodology is experimentally verified using NFC-enabled Android smartphones and a Kerberos server as the third-party authenticator.

A 1 to 10-bit, 85.3 fJ/Conv-step ADC for RFID Sensors

This paper presents the design results of an ultra-low power 1 to 10 bit arbitrary resolution switched capacitor analog to digital converter. In addition to using low-power elements, his project also used a library specifically optimized for the proposed converter rather than a standard library as in traditional approach. This approach enabled the overall converter consumption to be reduced by about 70 %. Consuming 7.29 μA at 1 V supply and taking less than 9 μs per conversion (10 bit mode) it can be used in LF, HF or UHF RFID passive sensor tags. The presented converter was designed in 180 nm CMOS technology occupying about 0.052 mm2 of silicon area. A simulation result shows a figure of merit equal to 85.3 fJ/Conversion-step and 9.5 effective number of bits.

USING RFID TECHNOLOGY AT OPERATING A DRONE SWARMS IN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM MODE

Background. Currently, of great interest for developers of modern distributed electronic communications systems are communication architectures based on a swarm (a connected set of separate mobile devices-nodes) of drones (small unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs). At the same time, RFID technology is increasingly being used with various security systems. The field of joint application of RFID and UAV technologies has now become very extensive, as demonstrated by many publications.Objective. The aim of the paper is to present the possibility of using radio frequency identification technology when a swarm of drones operates in the communication system mode, that is, the use of RFID to form control and traffic channels of a distributed self-organizing drone system.Methods. The structural and functional methods of constructing a wireless network based on a drone swarm are investigated.Results. An analytical review of the literature on the combined use of RFID and UAVs is presented. High interest in this topic is shown. A scenario has been developed for a swarm of drones operating in a self-organizing communication system using RFID technology. The procedure for exchange of control commands in a swarm using RFID is described. A feature of this procedure is thepresence of drone authorization in it, which can be performed using inductive coupling, when all drones in the swarm have their own specific passive tags, which are triggered (emitted) only if a signal from the reader hits them.The frequency ranges and transmission powers of RFID systems are presented, which can be used for the scenario presented in the paper.Conclusions. The use of RFID, first of all, makes it possible to provide an increase in protection against external interception of control channels, a decrease in the likelihood of external interference, and a decrease in the energy consumption of the on-board battery. Further research may include numerical modeling of the operation of a swarm of drones in the mode of a self-organizing communication system using RFID technology.

High Frequency RFID Module Design and Performance Comparison between Different Antenna Geometries for TV Applications

This paper examines the design of a 13.56 MHz Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader that is used in secure TV access applications. It also presents the performance analysis between different geometry and sizes of the reader’s antennas in order to achieve the optimum operational excellence. Four different antenna geometries and sizes are designed and analyzed; square (4 loop and 6 loop), rectangular, and circular antennas. In order to find the best way for achieving the optimum performance, simulations, calculations, and measurements have been implemented by comparing the antennas in terms of gain, read distance, and cost performances with the availability of proximity of metals and smart cards, considering accuracy and reliability. The reader design for secure TV access is aimed to work with a passive tag. The rectangular antenna operated at the 13.56 MHz of frequency level with a return loss of -27 dB. The 6 loop square antenna and circular antenna operated with frequencies different than the optimum frequency of 13.56 MHz for the desired application, so the adjustments and other tests were not necessary for such antennas. It has been observed that for such TV applications, the best performance in terms of read range and gain, is achieved for a read distance up to 5 cm using the 4 loop square antenna operating at the 13.56 MHz of frequency level with a return loss of -30 dB. Some enhancement techniques to optimize system performance against the capacitive effects of close proximity to metals and smart cards are also discussed like detuning the capacitor values in the matching circuit. This paper aims to fill the gap in literature in observing RFID systems’ performance with comparison of different size and geometry antennas by setting forth the best antenna geometry with metal and smart card effects.

A Physical Layer Security Enhancement Scheme under the Ambient Backscatter System

In this paper, we proposed a scheme that Injects artificial noise from the tag end (IANT) to enhance the physical layer security of the ambient backscatter communication (ABC) system. The difference between the ABC system and the traditional radio frequency identification system is whether it uses the radio frequency (RF) signals in the environment to supply energy and modulation information for passive tags. In the IANT scheme, we select the best tag to communicate with the reader according to the channel quality between tags and reader, and at the same time select another tag to generate artificial noise that affects the receiving effect of the eavesdropper. This paper uses the method of generating noise copies in the reader to reduce the interference of artificial noise on the signal received by the reader. The simulation results show that with the increase in channel quality between tags and reader and the increase in the number of tags, the proposed IANT scheme is significantly superior to the contrast scheme in terms of system achievable secrecy rate, effectively enhancing the physical layer security of the ABC system.

Setup, Test and Validation of a UHF RFID System for Monitoring Feeding Behaviour of Dairy Cows.

Feeding behaviour can be used as an important indicator to support animal management. However, using feeding behaviour as a tool for dairy cow management an automatic sensor system is needed. Hence, the objective of this study was to setup, test and validate a ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for measuring time dairy cows spent at the feed fence using two types of passive UHF ear tags. In a first experiment, the reading area of the system was evaluated in two antenna positions. Subsequently, the UHF RFID system was validated with video observations and compared to the measurements of chewing time of a noseband pressure sensor and of the time spent at the feed fence registered by a sensor system with real-time localisation. Differences in the reading area were detected between the two antenna positions and types of ear tag. The antenna position leading to less false positive registrations was chosen for the experiment with cows. The validation with video data showed a high average sensitivity (93.7 ± 5.6%, mean ± standard deviation), specificity (97.8 ± 1.1%), precision (93.8 ± 2.3%) and accuracy (96.9 ± 0.9%) of the UHF RFID system for measuring the time spent at the feed fence. The comparison with the noseband pressure sensor and the real-time localisation resulted in high correlations with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.95 and r = 0.93, respectively. However, substantial absolute differences between the three systems pointed out differences between direct and indirect measures of feeding behaviour in general and between the different sensors in particular. Thus, detailed considerations are necessary before interpreting automatically measured feeding data generally.

Novel metal-oxide arrester monitoring technology based on RFID sensor and mind evolutionary computation

This paper proposes an online monitoring method of metal-oxide arrester (MOA) based on passive RFID sensor tag and mind evolutionary computation (MEC). Firstly, an RFID sensor tag is designed to collect the leakage current of MOA, so as to realize the rapid fault location and equipment life cycle management. The proposed RFID sensor incorporates the sensor data into its ID information. The proposed power management block adopts a new architecture of a low-voltage DC-DC charge pump after a single-stage rectifier circuit. A method of MOA condition monitoring based on MEC is proposed. According to the measured operating voltage and leakage current, the parameters k and α which can reflect the aging condition of MOA are solved by using MEC's better optimization calculation ability, so as to monitor the MOA condition. In addition, the influence of harmonic voltage on the algorithm is analyzed through MATLAB simulation. The results show that the designed sensor tag can effectively measure the leakage current, and the proposed monitoring algorithm can accurately calculate the relevant parameters reflecting the state of MOA. Moreover, under the influence of harmonic voltage, the maximum errors of parameters k and α are 1.8% and 2.0%. Compared with the existing monitoring technology, it has the advantages of low cost, high precision and rapid fault location, which provides a new method and idea for on-line monitoring of MOA.

Battery-Less HF RFID Sensor Tag for Soil Moisture Measurements

This article shows the feasibility of a high-frequency RFID passive sensor tag equipped with sensors based on a thin-film circuit on a Si substrate for the measurement of soil moisture. Three tags embedding different sensing systems compliant with the energy harvesting requirements were developed. The used sensors were previously characterized with the aim of tailoring an adequate electronic front-end. All the typical solutions for soil moisture detection were implemented: a fringe capacitance sensor, a soil impedance sensor, and finally a humidity sensor based on functionalization with TiO2 nano particles. The obtained results prove that the conceived solution is satisfactory and that the sensors have good sensing properties. The proposed system can be applied within the Internet of Things (IoT) framework in manifold monitoring scenarios of soil moisture sensing.

New Capacitive Thermal Age Tag for Predicting Remaining Thermal Life of Multiple Products

This paper proposes use of a new capacitive thermal age sensor that inherently integrates time and temperature without batteries or electronic memory to predict the remaining thermal life of a wide range of monitored products. The sensor is a tiny capacitor comprising a polymeric dielectric between two conductive plates. Capacitance of the sensor increases during thermal aging due to shrinkage of the polymer. Additives such as catalysts adjust the activation energy (Ea) of capacitance change with thermal age.A thermal age tag, incorporating two capacitive sensors of different activation energy, can be used to determine the effective temperature (Teff) of a complex thermal environment at wide range of product degradation activation energies. Correlation of the thermal age of the tag at the monitored product’s degradation activation energy to product thermal aging data provides estimated remaining thermal life of the product. The thermal age tag requires no batteries or electronic memory required in data-logging approaches resulting in reduced size, weight and cost. These passive tags are potentially maintenance free for the life of the product.This paper describes the development of a universal thermal age (UTA) tag incorporating capacitive thermal age sensors and preliminary co-aging trials with a variety of selected polymeric products to demonstrate feasibility of this approach.

Statistical Analysis on Readability of RFID Gen2 Passive Tags Using Bayesian Information Criterion and 2-Level Factorial Design

RFID holds a large potential for changing how a process is manipulated and controlled. RFID is a valuable improvement in many organizations, whether it is used for monitoring logistics and supply chains, securing access within the facility to locate and validate inventory. Most of the time, the main technical concern with RFID is whether the tags can be read in the environment they are being incorporated in. This paper examines the effect of different factors such as distance from an antenna, tag size, the surface on which tag is placed, tag location & velocity/speed on the readability of the RFID tag. In this paper, we developed an effective model analysis of the factors that affect the readability of the RFID tag using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) & Design of Experiment (DOE) technique. Experiments were conducted and readings were taken to consider the effect of different factors and identify the critical factors that affect the readability, and a redundant regression model was developed using BIC. Design of Experiments (DOE) was used, specifically 2k factorial design and 2(k-1) fractional factorial design to perform statistical analysis and understand the source of variation in the model. The two designs were compared and the best out of the two was chosen to develop a model. Statistical analysis was performed using Minitab software to validate. The developed model intends to read the intensity of the tag with 97% accuracy.

Statistical Analysis on Readability of RFID Gen2 Passive Tags Using Bayesian Information Criterion and 2-Level Factorial Design

Statistical Analysis on Readability of RFID Gen2 Passive Tags Using Bayesian Information Criterion and 2-Level Factorial Design