Reader Anti-collision in dense RFID networks with mobile tags

Abstract

In a Radio-Frequency IDentification network, while several readers are placed close together to improve coverage and consequently read rate, reader-reader collision problems happen frequently and inevitably. High probability of collision not only impairs the benefit of multi-reader deployment, but also results in misreadings in moving RFID tags. In order to eliminate or reduce reader collisions, we propose an Adaptive Color based Reader Anti-collision Scheduling algorithm (ACoRAS) for 13.56 MHz RFID technology where every reader is assigned a set of colors that allows it to read tags during a specific time slot within a time frame. Only the reader holding a color (token) can read at a time. Due to application constraints, the number of available colors should be limited, a perfect coloring scheme is not always feasible. ACoRAS tries to assign colors in such a way that overlapping areas at a given time are reduced. To the best of our knowledge ACoRAS is the first reader anti-collision algorithm which considers, within its design, both application and hardware requirements in reading tags. We show, through extensive simulations, that ACoRAS outperforms several anti-collision methods and detects more than 99% of mobile tags while fitting application requirements.