Effects of Reader-to-Reader Interference on the UHF RFID Interrogation Range

In this paper, the effects of ultrahigh-frequency band passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader-to-reader interference are investigated in terms of the interrogation range. A reader-to-reader interference model based on interference statistics is proposed, and the nominal interrogation range of a desired reader is derived by this model. In order to evaluate the RFID reader-to-reader interference quantitatively, the interrogation-range-reduction ratio (IRRR) is also defined. For a simple case with only one interfering reader, the analytic and experimental results are in good agreement. Reader-reader distance achieving 0% IRRR, indicating no interference between the readers, is 1200 m for the multiple-reader environment. Additionally, IRRR values are calculated in various environments according to the North American and Korean regulations. The maximum number of allowable interfering readers is then calculated by the proposed interference model and a target IRRR.