RFID reader-tag communication throughput analysis using Gen2 Q-algorithm frame adaptation scheme

Dynamic Frame Slotted ALOHA (DFSA) is widely used Medium Access Control (MAC) mechanism in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. In RFID DFSA, communication between RFID readers and tags is organized in the interrogation rounds contained of frames which are further divided into slots. Upon announcing the size of frame, RFID tags are randomly taking the spot, i.e. the slot of the given time frame and they respond back to the reader when that slot is being interrogated. DFSA throughput, defined as a ratio between the number of successfully read tags (one tag response in the slot) over the size of frame, is greatly influenced by the size of frame. Setting wrong frame size will increase total time for tags identification due to number of empty (none tag responded within the slot) and collision slots (multiple tag responded within the slot) occurred. In this paper we evaluate Q-algorithm frame size adaptation scheme proposed in RFID Gen2 standard along with 3 typical scenarios of Gen2 physical setup, which enables us to measure total time for tags identification. In addition the impact on choosing the initial frame size is studied.