Ambient backscatter: wireless communication out of thin air

We present the design of a communication system that enables two devices to communicate using ambient RF as the only source of power. Our approach leverages existing TV and cellular transmissions to eliminate the need for wires and batteries, thus enabling ubiquitous communication where devices can communicate among themselves at unprecedented scales and in locations that were previously inaccessible. To achieve this, we introduce ambient backscatter, a new communication primitive where devices communicate by backscattering ambient RF signals. Our design avoids the expensive process of generating radio waves; backscatter communication is orders of magnitude more power-efficient than traditional radio communication. Further, since it leverages the ambient RF signals that are already around us, it does not require a dedicated power infrastructure as in traditional backscatter communication. To show the feasibility of our design, we prototype ambient backscatter devices in hardware and achieve information rates of 1 kbps over distances of 2.5 feet and 1.5 feet, while operating outdoors and indoors respectively. We use our hardware prototype to implement proof-of-concepts for two previously infeasible ubiquitous communication applications.

[1]  W. Marsden.  I and J , 2012 .

[2]  A.P. Chandrakasan,et al.  A 350 $\mu$ W CMOS MSK Transmitter and 400 $\mu$W OOK Super-Regenerative Receiver for Medical Implant Communications , 2009, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[3]  David Wetherall,et al.  RFID: From Supply Chains to Sensor Nets , 2010, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[4]  John G. Proakis,et al.  Digital Communications , 1983 .

[5]  J. Mastrototaro,et al.  The MiniMed continuous glucose monitoring system. , 2000, Diabetes technology & therapeutics.

[6]  Brian R. Mace,et al.  Wave reflection and transmission in beams , 1984 .

[7]  Vijay Pillai,et al.  An Ultra-Low-Power Long Range Battery/Passive RFID Tag for UHF and Microwave Bands With a Current Consumption of 700 nA at 1.5 V , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[8]  Anantha Chandrakasan,et al.  A 350μW CMOS MSK transmitter and 400μW OOK super-regenerative receiver for Medical Implant Communications , 2009, 2008 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits.

[9]  Patrick D. Wolf,et al.  Evaluation of spike-detection algorithms fora brain-machine interface application , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[10]  Amory Wakefield,et al.  Integrating segmented electronic paper displays into consumer electronic devices , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE).

[11]  Thomas H. Lee,et al.  The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits: RF CIRCUITS THROUGH THE AGES , 2003 .

[12]  Dan Rubenstein,et al.  Energy harvesting active networked tags (EnHANTs) for ubiquitous object networking , 2010, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[13]  Sanjay Kumar Madria,et al.  Sensor networks: an overview , 2003 .

[14]  Emmanuel Bergeret,et al.  Auto-tuning in passive UHF RFID tags , 2010, Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International NEWCAS Conference 2010.

[15]  L. Kleinrock,et al.  Packet Switching in Radio Channels: Part I - Carrier Sense Multiple-Access Modes and Their Throughput-Delay Characteristics , 1975, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[16]  Kwangjo Kim,et al.  Enhancing Security of EPCglobal Gen-2 RFID Tag against Traceability and Cloning , 2006 .

[17]  S. J. Thomas,et al.  A 96 Mbit/sec, 15.5 pJ/bit 16-QAM modulator for UHF backscatter communication , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID).

[18]  David Wetherall,et al.  Backscatter protocols and energy-efficient computing for rf-powered devices , 2012 .

[19]  Xianming Qing,et al.  A folded dipole antenna for RFID , 2004, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Symposium, 2004..

[20]  Brian Ellis.  The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits , 2004 .

[21]  Robert H. Walden,et al.  Analog-to-digital converter survey and analysis , 1999, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[22]  Leilani Battle,et al.  Building the Internet of Things Using RFID: The RFID Ecosystem Experience , 2009, IEEE Internet Computing.

[23]  Behzad Razavi,et al.  RF Microelectronics , 1997 .

[24]  Hiroki Morikawa,et al.  FOR ATSC DIGITAL TELEVISION STANDARD , 1998 .

[25]  B. Otis,et al.  PicoRadios for wireless sensor networks: the next challenge in ultra-low power design , 2002, 2002 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.02CH37315).

[26]  Brian P. Otis,et al.  A Sub-100 $\mu$ W MICS/ISM Band Transmitter Based on Injection-Locking and Frequency Multiplication , 2011, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[27]  P. Nikitin,et al.  Antenna design for UHF RFID tags: a review and a practical application , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[28]  Joshua R. Smith,et al.  Experimental results with two wireless power transfer systems , 2009, 2009 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium.

[29]  Aaron Parks,et al.  A wireless sensing platform utilizing ambient RF energy , 2013 .

[30]  P.V. Nikitin,et al.  Theory and measurement of backscattering from RFID tags , 2006, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.

[31]  A. Lazarus.  Remote, Wireless, Ambulatory Monitoring of Implantable Pacemakers, Cardioverter Defibrillators, and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Systems: Analysis of a Worldwide Database , 2007, Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE.

[32]  S. Ramamurthy,et al.  Passive tag-to-tag communication , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID).

[33]  Chenling Huang,et al.  Digital Correlation Demodulator Design for RFID Reader Receiver , 2007, 2007 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference.

[34]  Alanson P. Sample,et al.  Design of an RFID-Based Battery-Free Programmable Sensing Platform , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[35]  Yi Zhao,et al.  A wireless sensing platform utilizing ambient RF energy , 2013, 2013 IEEE 13th Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems.