Decentralized Power Control with Implementation for RFID Networks

In radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, the detection range and read rates will suffer from interference among high power reading devices. This problem grows severely and degrades system performance in dense RFID networks. In this paper, we investigate a suite of feasible power control schemes to ensure overall coverage area of the system while maintaining a desired read rate. The power control scheme and MAC protocol dynamically adjusts the RFID reader power output in response to the interference level seen locally during tag reading for an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We present novel distributed adaptive power control (DAPC) and probabilistic power control (PPC) as two possible solutions. A generic UHF wireless testbed is built using UMR/SLU GEN4-SSN for implementing the protocol. Simulation and hardware results are included