Hybrid ARQ improvements for RFID systems

This paper investigates potential Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) improvements to the RFID ISO 18000-6C standard. Theoretical models that capture the baseline performance in terms of tag read rate are developed, and a new protocol capable of using HARQ or rateless codes is described. Existing HARQ algorithms such as Chase combining (CC) and incremental redundancy (IR) are studied via simulations and the performance quantified in terms of tag read rate. These empirical results show that CC allows for graceful system degradation and IR achieves read rates close to the capacity limit.