research-article

Minding the Billions: Ultra-wideband Localization for Deployed RFID Tags

Authors:

Nicholas Selby,

Fadel AdibAuthors Info & Claims

MobiCom '17: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking

Pages 248 - 260

https://doi.org/10.1145/3117811.3117833

Published: 04 October 2017 Publication History

Abstract

State-of-the-art RFID localization systems fall under two categories. The first category operates with off-the-shelf narrowband RFID tags but makes restrictive assumptions on the environment or the tag's movement patterns. The second category does not make such restrictive assumptions; however, it requires designing new ultra-wideband hardware for RFIDs and uses the large bandwidth to directly compute a tag's 3D location. Hence, while the first category is restrictive, the second one requires replacing the billions of RFIDs already produced and deployed annually. This paper presents RFind, a new technology that brings the benefits of ultra-wideband localization to the billions of RFIDs in today's world. RFind does not require changing today's passive narrowband RFID tags. Instead, it leverages their underlying physical properties to emulate a very large bandwidth and uses it for localization. Our empirical results demonstrate that RFind can emulate over 220MHz of bandwidth on tags designed with a communication bandwidth of only tens to hundreds of kHz, while remaining compliant with FCC regulations. This, combined with a new super-resolution algorithm over this bandwidth, enables RFind to perform 3D localization with sub-centimeter accuracy in each of the x/y/z dimensions, without making any restrictive assumptions on the tag's motion or the environment.

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Index Terms

Minding the Billions: Ultra-wideband Localization for Deployed RFID Tags
1. Networks
  1. Network types
    1. Cyber-physical networks
      1. Sensor networks
    2. Mobile networks

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cover image ACM Conferences

MobiCom '17: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking

October 2017

628 pages

ISBN:9781450349161

DOI:10.1145/3117811

General Chair:
Kobus Van der Merwe
University of Utah
,
Program Chairs:
Ben Greenstein
Google, USA
,
Kannan Srinivasan
Ohio State University, USA

Copyright © 2017 ACM.

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Published: 04 October 2017

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MobiCom '17: The 23rd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking

October 16 - 20, 2017

Utah, Snowbird, USA

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MobiCom '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 35 of 186 submissions, 19%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 440 of 2,972 submissions, 15%

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3712279
Sun HMa XHu RChristensen R(2025)Precise Coil Alignment for Dynamic Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles with RFID SensingIEEE Wireless Communications10.1109/MWC.004.230059332:1(182-189)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MWC.004.2300593
Tavanti ENepa PGabbrielli RPirozzi M(2025)Review on Systems Combining Computer Vision and Radio Frequency IdentificationIEEE Internet of Things Journal10.1109/JIOT.2024.348475512:2(1291-1319)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2024.3484755
Al-Hadithi BPastor C(2024)Cost-Effective Localization of Mobile Robots Using Ultrasound Beacons and Differential Time-of-Flight MeasurementApplied Sciences10.3390/app1417759714:17(7597)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/app14177597
Zhao CLi ZDing HSun XXi WZhao J(2024)A Self-Enhancement Solution for Standard RFIDs: Software-based Cross-protocol Communication and LocalizationProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36997778:4(1-22)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2024
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Jiang JWang JChen YTong SXie PLiu YLiu YOkoshi TKo JLiKamWa R(2024)Willow: Practical WiFi Backscatter Localization with Parallel TagsProceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services10.1145/3643832.3661853(265-277)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
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Hada RArun ABharadia DSakuta MSaruwatari SOkoshi TKo JLiKamWa R(2024)Demo: UWB localization and Tracking for XR ApplicationsProceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services10.1145/3643832.3661840(604-605)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
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Huang RZhao RMa YZhang PGanesan DLane NShi W(2024)Ultra-WideBand Backscatter Towards Multipath-resilient Passive IoT LocalizationProceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3636534.3698844(1739-1741)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2024
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