Factors Affecting RFID System Performance and Non-parametric Analysis

Lidong Wang^1, and Cheryl Ann Alexander²

¹Department of Engineering Technology, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, USA

²Department of Nursing, University of Phoenix, Tempe, USA

Cite this paper:
Lidong Wang and Cheryl Ann Alexander. Factors Affecting RFID System Performance and Non-parametric Analysis. American Journal of Systems and Software. 2014; 2(4):94-100. doi: 10.12691/ajss-2-4-3

Abstract

Many factors can affect radio frequency identification (RFID) system performance. This paper focuses on three selected factors: the RF attenuation, the tagged material, and the tag orientations angle. The effect of the RF attenuation on the response rate of the BlueBean RFID Development Lab System was tested and read ranges at various tag orientations angles were measured. A design of experiments (DOE) method was used to understand and quantify the relative influence of the three factors on the read range of the BlueBean RFID system. There are two main methods of measuring tag performance. The first method uses fixed distance to the tag and finds the minimum transmitted power at which the tag becomes detectable. The second method uses fixed transmitted power while the tag is being moved away until it cannot be read. Both the two experimental methods were used and a comparative study of the two methods was conducted using a non-parametric method based on the U test.

Keywords:
Radio frequency identification (RFID) Design of experiments (DOE) U test RF attenuation read range response rate

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Nikitin, P.V. and Rao, K.V.S. “Antennas and Propagation in UHF RFID Systems.” IEEE RFID 2008 conference proceedings, Las Vegas, NV, April 16-17, 277-288, 2008.
[2]	Debus, W. “RF Path Loss & Transmission Distance Calculations” Technical Memorandum, Axonn, LLC, August 4, 1-12, 2006.
[3]	Nikitin, P.V., Rao, K.V.S., Lazar, S. “An Overview of Near Field UHF RFID.” IEEE International Conference on RFID, 26-28 March, 2007, Grapevine, TX, 167-174, 2007.
[4]	Cole, P.H., Hu Z.-H. and Wang, Y.-X. “Operating Range Evaluation of RFID Systems.” Advanced Radio Frequency Identification Design and Applications, Dr Stevan Preradovic (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-168-8, InTech, 2011. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/advanced-radio-frequency-identificationdesign-and-applications/operating-range-evaluation-of-rfid-systems
[5]	Asif, Z., Mandviwalla, M. “Integrating the supply chain with RFID: a technical and business analysis.” Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 15, 393-427, 2005.
[6]	Grover, A. and Berghel, H. “A Survey of RFID Deployment and Security Issues.” Journal of Information Processing Systems, 7 (4), 561-580, 2011.
[7]	Drori, R. “Selecting RFID antennas.” White Paper, MTI Wireless Edge Ltd., 1-7, 2005.
[8]	Wang, L., Norman, B.A., Rajgopal, J. “Placement of multiple RFID reader antennas to maximise portal read accuracy.” International Journal of Radio Frequency Identification Technology and Applications, 1 (3), 260-277, 2007.
[9]	Lorenzo, J., Girbau, D., Lázaro A. and Villarino, R. “Read range reduction in UHF RFID due to antenna detuning and gain penalty.” Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 53 (1), 144-148, 2011
[10]	Hodges, S., Thorne, A., Mallinson, H. and Floerkemeier, C. “Assessing and Optimizing the Range of UHF RFID to Enable Real-World Pervasive Computing Applications.” PERVASIVE’07 Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Pervasive computing, Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg, 280-297, 2007.
[11]	Hicks, C.R. and Turner, K.V., Fundamental Concepts in the Design of Experiments, Fifth Edition, Oxford University Press, 1999.
[12]	Box, G.E.P, Hunter, J.S., Hunter, W.G. Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.
[13]	Alien Technology Corporation, ALR-9900 Hardware Setup Guide, 2008.
[14]	Alien Technology Corporation, Demonstration Software Guide: Alien RFID Gateway Application, 2008.
[15]	Alien Technology Corporation, Reader Interface Guide, 2008.
[16]	Erdem, E., Zeng, H., Zhou, J., et. al. “Investigation of RFID tag readability for pharmaceutical products at item level.” Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy, 35 (11), 1312-1324, 2009.
[17]	Freund, J.E. and Perles, B.M. Statistics: A First Course. (8th Ed.), Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2004.
[18]	Abdelhalim, M.B., El-Mahallawy, M., Ayyad, M., and El-Mahallawy, A. “Design and implementation of an encryption algorithm for use in RFID system.” International Journal of RFID Security and Cryptography, 1: 51-57, 2012.
[19]	Dixit, V., Verma, H.K., Singh, A.K. “Comparison of various Security Protocols in RFID.” International Journal of Computer Applications, 24 (7): 17-21, 2011.