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http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/jproc.2010.2053015
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http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66245
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CONTRIBUTED
P A P E R
ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology for use
in real-time object identification is facing rapid adoption in
Manuscript received March 15, 2009; revised March 16, 2010; accepted June 4, 2010.
Date of publication July 12, 2010; date of current version August 20, 2010.
This work was performed within the framework of FP7 European Projects EUWB
under Grant 215669 and SELECT under Grant 257544.
D. Dardari is with the WiLAB, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informatica e Sistemistica
(DEIS), University of Bologna at Cesena, 47023 Cesena (FC), Italy (e-mail:
ddardari@ieee.org).
R. DErrico carried out this work in a collaboration framework between ENSTA-ParisTech
and University of Bologna. He is now with the Laboratory of Electronic and
Information Technologies, French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA-LETI),
38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France (e-mail: raffaele.derrico@cea.fr).
C. Roblin and A. Sibille are with the ENSTA-ParisTech, Paris Cedex 15 75739, France
(e-mail: christophe.roblin@ensta.fr; alain.sibille@ensta.fr).
M. Z. Win is with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139 USA (e-mail:
moewin@mit.edu).
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2010.2053015
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Typical indoor environments often exhibit the presence of a dense multipath with delay spread much larger
than the resolution capability of the signal being employed
[24]. The transmission of ultrashort pulses can potentially
resolve extremely large number of paths experienced by
the received signal thus eliminating significant multipath
fading. This may considerably reduce fading margins in
link budgets and may allow low power transmission
operation. In addition, rich multipath diversity can be
collected through the adoption of Rake receivers which
combine the signals coming over resolvable propagation
paths in a way that maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR) [25].
p
Ep pt nt
(1)
^ Ef2 g
Vard
c2
82 B2eff SNR
(2)
where d^ d is the ranging estimation error. The righthand side term in (2) represents the CramerRao bound.
Here SNR Ep =N0 and parameter B2eff represent the second
moment of the Fourier transform Pf of pt,2 that is
B2eff
R1
R1
1
f 2 jPf j2 df
1 jPf j
df
(3)
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B. Localization Capability
The first application of UWB technology in the RFID
field was for precision asset location systems operating in
indoor environments [16][18]. In these systems only
transmitting tags are employed. Tag position estimation
cannot rely on an absolute distance estimate between tag
and readers, and localization schemes based on time difference of arrival (TDOA) are usually adopted. In TDOAbased localization systems, UWB burst signals are
broadcast periodically by the tag and are received by several
readers placed in known positions. The readers share their
estimated TOA and compute the TDOA provided that they
have a common reference clock. Considering that time
Fig. 5. Pseudorandom active UWB reflector scheme and example of timing structure in case of single pulse transmission [33].
1575
st
1
X
dn pt nTf
(4)
n1
Fig. 6. Scheme of the tag and the reader composed of a transmitter and a receiver section proposed in [19].
rt
1 X
L
X
n1 l1
1
X
l dn wl t nTf l ; xn ; 0
dn wc t nTf nt
(5)
(6)
n1
the multipath related to the tags antenna mode component of the backscattered signal. Parameters l and l are,
respectively, the paths amplitude and delay of the lth
multipath component related to the readertagreader
round-trip channel. Assume that l G Tf , 8l 1; 2; . . . ; L
(no intersymbol interference present) and static channel
conditions during a symbol time Ts . The function
wl t; xn ; 0 represents the backscattered pulse from the
lth path which is in general distorted and depends on the
tag status xn and on the orientation 0. The first path
corresponds to the direct path (when it exists) between
the reader and the tag and its TOA 1 can be exploited
to estimate their reciprocal distance as explained in
Section II-C. The signal wc t represents the backscattered version of the pulse pt due to the clutter component which also accounts for pulse distortion, multipath
propagation, and tag antenna structural mode.
Considering the receiver scheme reported in Fig. 6,
where a simple single-path MF demodulator is adopted,
the received signal is first passed through a filter having
impulse response hMF t to obtain the signal
vt rt hMF t, where is the convolution operator. In the absence of other information, hMF t can be
chosen to be proportional to wref t; 0; 0max
wref t; 1; 0max , where wref t; x; 0max , for x 1 and
x 0, is the received pulse at the reference distance dref
in free-space propagation at the orientation 0max of
maximum tags antenna radiation for open and short load
conditions, respectively. This receiver is optimal in
AWGN when 0 0max , but it is suboptimal in a
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Fig. 7. Example of reader transmitted and received signals. For simplicity, an all-ones sequence for fdn g is considered.
4
Note that the reader and the tags have their own clock sources and
hence have to be treated as asynchronous. Only the tags code fcn g, which is
not in general time aligned to the readers code fdn g, has to be acquired. For
this purpose, powerful acquisition techniques [44] and the TOA estimator
proposed in [45] can be adopted. Once the TOA 1 is estimated, the reader
can adjust its internal clock so that it becomes synchronous to that of the
intended tag, and the optimal choice for 0 is obtained. A more general
analysis considering asynchronous multiple tags can be found in [43].
5
Multiple readers can access the same tag by using different reader
codes provided they are designed with good cross-correlation properties.
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u
u
d
uPt Gref 21 21 ref
t
1
d
Pb erfc
2
N0 Rb
(7)
does not exceed 2.5% [21]. This would mean ten times
increased data rate, thus making passive UWB RFID very
attractive for next generation RFID systems. However, for
a complete characterization of passive UWB RFID technology, important related topics that have not yet been
sufficiently addressed in the literature need to be investigated, for example, experimental clutter and round-trip
multipath channel characterization, performance assessment in the presence of multiple tags/readers, and
narrowband interference [43].
C. Localization Capability
The theoretical performance of a localization system is
investigated based on passive UWB tags. Consider a
scenario composed of N readers placed at known
coordinates which interrogate a tag located in unknown
coordinates with the purpose of obtaining an estimate of
the readertag distance (through the measurement of the
round-trip time of the backscattered signal) and determine
the tags position by means, for example, of a classical
multilateration localization algorithm [26], [27].
In Fig. 9, an example is given of theoretical achievable
localization accuracy in a square area of 20
20 m2
composed of N 4 readers. Results are derived starting
from measured data in AWGN and considering random
tag orientation. The same system parameters used in
Section V-B are considered with Ns 1000. In particular,
Fig. 9 shows the covered locations in a predefined grid,
where a location is defined as covered if for at least 70%
of possible tag orientations the localization estimation
Fig. 9. Coverage map using four readers (R1R4) and passive UWB
tags. Locations with position estimation RMSE less than 20 cm
are marked.
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VI . CONCLUSION
UWB technology in next generation RFID systems is a
promising solution to overcome most of the limitations of
current narrow bandwidth RFID technology. Thanks to the
high-definition ranging capabilities of UWB RFID systems,
new advanced real-time object identification and localization applications are possible in several fields such as logistic, automotive, surveillance, and automation systems.
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Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank M. Chiani, A. Giorgetti,
and A. Conti for motivating this work. They would also like
to thank F. Guidi for his work on measurement equipment
and R. Cohen for text editing.
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Tutorial Chair for 2009 ICC and the 2001 IEEE Semiannual International
Vehicular Technology Conference. He served as the Chair (20042006)
and Secretary (20022004) for the Radio Communications Committee of
the IEEE Communications Society. He is currently an Editor for the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS. He served as Area Editor for
Modulation and Signal Design (20032006), Editor for Wideband
Wireless and Diversity (20032006), and Editor for Equalization and
Diversity (19982003), all for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS.
He was Guest-Editor for the 2002 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN
COMMUNICATIONS Special Issue on Ultra-Wideband Radio in Multiaccess
Wireless Communications. His recognitions include the Office of Naval
Research Young Investigator Award (2003), the U.S. Presidential Early
Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2004), and the Laurea
Honoris Causa from the University of Ferrara, Italy (2008). His papers
have received numerous awards including the IEEE Antennas and
Propagation Societys Sergei A. Schelkunoff Transactions Prize Paper
Award (2003) and the IEEE Communications Societys Guglielmo Marconi
Best Paper Award (2008). In 2004, he was named Young Aerospace
Engineer of the Year by the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics (AIAA), and he received a Fulbright Foundation Senior
Scholar Lecturing and Research Fellowship, and an Institute of Advanced
Study Natural Sciences and Technology Fellowship. He was honored with
the IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award (2006), an IEEE Technical Field Award, for
Bpioneering contributions to ultrawide band communications science
and technology.[ He is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer and an elected
Fellow of the IEEE, cited for Bcontributions to wideband wireless
transmission.[