Assessing the Feasibility of Passive and BAP RFID Communications on Construction Site Scenarios

In order to efficiently manage construction operations, assessing the current status of both engineered components and the field processes making use of those components is regarded as critical. To date, active radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies are slowly becoming adopted on construction sites by the owners and contractor organizations in order to track unique engineered components and the processes making use of those components. Although the construction industry has shown a strong interest in adopting active RFID tags due to their potential to innovate and streamline existing processes, such active RFID adoption and usage is regarded as costly and hence advances at a very slow pace. To date, there has not yet been a thorough study on passive and battery-assisted passive (BAP) tags to assess their feasibility to effectively communicate within construction sites. Construction sites are characterized by clustered scenarios under varying, unpredictable, and harsh conditions. In this paper, we report on our analysis and experimental results about the feasible utilization of passive and BAP tags to track the identification of construction components under clustered project site conditions. We modified an EPC RFID monitoring system to leverage and monitor the performance and characteristics of RFID communications in a clustered heating plant. Such communications were then compared with those monitored with the same technologies in an ideal laboratory environment with a clear free-air line-of-sight. The results indicate that, due to multipath effects in metal-crowded scenarios, tags can actually perform better in such scenarios.