Evaluation of the State of Passive UHF RFID: An Experimental Approach

In this paper, we identify the state of the technical capability of passive UHF RFID tags and readers using a simple, empirical, experimental approach. This paper does not focus on theoretical capabilities of RFID systems in ideal environments, but rather a pragmatic evaluation of the state of commercially available ISO 18000-6c systems and identifying areas where there are opportunities for improvements in the technology. We examine the free-space read distance of tags by readers, near-metal read distance, near-water read distance, frequency-dependence of read distance in those environments, near-field read distance in those environments, read speeds, and a determination of forward or reverse channel limits.