| Summary: | Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to identify, track, and manage tagged
animate or inanimate objects automatically using wireless communication technology. RFID is
similar to existing barcode identification, but it has additional features. RFID has the capability
of scanning multiple objects at the same time. This improves productivity by reducing the time
taken to identify objects. RFID has the capability to read through opaque material without
requiring line of sight, thus saving time in processing that would otherwise require upwardfacing
objects. RFID is extremely appropriate for applications that require tags to be read at large
distances. RFID readers and tags come in various sizes and forms, thus permitting this type of
technology to be used in a broad variety of situations. Some tags are blast-proof, some tags are
the size of lunch boxes, and some are smaller than a grain of rice. Also, RFID tags can be
reprogrammable, thus reducing cost.
As RFID technology continues to grow rapidly, different issues and challenges are
presented. A serious concern faced by RFID technology is the collisions that occur during
communication. This is considered one of the immense challenges in RFID development because
collisions limit system performance significantly. Collisions bring extra delay, a waste of
bandwidth, and extra energy consumption to the interrogation process of RFID. Delays that arise
due to collisions in RFID systems create significant issues and challenges to applications that
require high inventory speed. Therefore, RFID system designers and researchers need to simulate
these different environments before deployment to correctly identify various factors, such as the
number of RFID readers needed, where to place these readers, etc.
The simulator developed in this research is called the RFID Simulator. It was developed
completely from scratch to evaluate the performance of Slotted Aloha and EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 protocols for RFID systems. The RFID Simulator was designed to replicate a reallife
RFID environment. It can be used to imitate hardware and has the capability to calculate the
delay to any number of RFID tags, which is not possible with real-life RFID systems. As a result,
the performance of RFID systems can be improved significantly. The integrity of the simulator
was verified by comparing its results with mathematical analysis and experimental results. The
RFID Simulator is a complete, all-in-one package, designed with the ability to be extended to a
commercial RFID simulator, which will help immensely in the future development of RFID. === Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
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