Efficient missing tag detection in RFID systems

RFID tags have many important applications in automated warehouse management. One example is to monitor a set of tags and detect whether some tags are missing - the objects to which the missing tags are attached are likely to be missing, too, due to theft or administrative error. Prior research on this problem has primarily focused on efficient protocols that reduce the execution time in order to avoid disruption of normal inventory operations. This paper makes several new advances. First, we observe that the existing protocol is far from being optimal in terms of execution time. We are able to cut the execution time to a fraction of what is currently needed. Second, we study the missing-tag detection problem from a new energy perspective, which is very important when battery-powered active tags are used. The new insight provides flexibility for the practitioners to meet their energy and time requirements.