Delft University of Technology
Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Transport Technology
M. Barends Active RFID as communication device for sensors
Literature survey, Report 2007.PEL.7118, Transport Engineering and Logistics.
RFID has been promoted as a tool to implement in many applications. The possibility of using RFID as a communication device for sensors has opened the question to determine what would be the advantage of such an application.
In this report there is investigated how such a system could look like and how it can be applied. To find an answer on these questions the following wireless protocols are investigated:
Wi-Fi Bluetooth Zigbee UWB
For these protocols the common characteristics are determined and based on these characteristics is analyzed which protocol fits as best with the requirements for active RFID sensor system. The largest influence on the performances of the protocol is caused by interference and collusion in the network.
From these protocols offers the Zigbee protocol the best opportunities, it answers as best the dynamic character of a RFID system and combines it with reliability and a high flexibility on tag level.
Disadvantage is the higher complexity of the system in comparison with the other systems. This makes it more difficult to implement such a system and can form a barrier. For systems where the requirements are not high, the Wi-Fi structure can be a solution. This structure is easier to implement but has as disadvantage that it can not work in environments with high signal traffic.
Active RFID as communication device has potency to improve processes in the future. Reports on Transport Engineering and Logistics (in Dutch)
