Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
2, APRIL 2018
Abstract—Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a key used in industry [4], healthcare [5], transportation [6], etc.
enabling technology for large-scale Internet of Things (IoT). Its An RFID system usually includes three components: 1) tags;
deployment and management impact significantly on the oper- 2) readers; and 3) software [7]. Typically, a tag is composed of
ational effectiveness and scalability of IoT. Redundant reader
elimination is of great importance to reduce the system’s over- an integrated circuit for data storage and an antenna for signal
head and prolong the lifetime of RFID networks. It helps communications [8]. Reader emits signals to read and write
to reduce unnecessary reader-tag interactions and the cost of information onto the tag within its interrogation range [9]. For
collision avoidance algorithm in distributed data collection of instance, in supply chain management, each item is attached
RFID network. In large-scale distributed RFID networks, one with a unique identifier RFID tag to be traced. When receiv-
of the most challenging tasks for redundant reader elimina-
tion is to improve the performance of distributed algorithms. ing the RFID reader’s signal, tag transmits its existence and
This paper proposes a novel distributed redundant reader elim- embedded information to the querying reader. Through this
ination algorithm based on the threshold selection process, interrogation, the system can track the location and move-
named threshold selection algorithm (TSA), for RFID networks. ment of a tagged item [10]. With the widespread deployment
TSA algorithm selects effective reader iteratively based on the of large-scale RFID networks, computational and energy effi-
threshold sequence determined by expected tag coverage. This
paper also introduces an optimization mechanism into TSA based ciency have become important issues. Owing to the limited
on detected movement, named TSA with movement detection interrogation range of RFID reader, it usually requires read-
algorithm. By preliminary simulation, we determine the sug- ers and tags deployed in higher density in order to obtain an
gested parameter of linear multiplier for TSA. Our experiments acceptable overall tag coverage rate. Inevitably, in large-scale
show that TSA algorithm can provide 30%–60% better per- RFID networks, multiple overlapping readers and tags, which
formance than other major distributed algorithms and also
multiphase schemes in both dense and sparse environments. sharing the same working environment, cause the collision
The overhead of TSA algorithm is 30%–50% lower than other problems [11].
selected algorithms, especially in tag-write operations. There are two kinds of collision: 1) tag collision and
Index Terms—Internet of Things (IoT), optimal tag cover- 2) reader collision [12]. Tag collision happens when multi-
age, radio frequency identification (RFID), reader redundancy, ple tags located in the interrogation range of the same reader.
redundant reader elimination, threshold selection. See Fig. 1(a). Without any coordination among the reader
and these tags, the responses from the tags can collide, in
which case the responses will become illegible to the reader.
I. I NTRODUCTION Protocols, such as framed Aloha [13] or tree-splitting [14] are
ADIO frequency identification (RFID), an emerging designed to schedule the activities of tags to avoid such colli-
R technology for automatic object identification and track-
ing through radio frequency [1], [2], is a key enabling
sion. Another kind of problem, reader collision, happens when
a reader locates in the interference region of another reader, or
technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) [3]. Due to its cost- multiple readers attempt to communicate with the same tags
effectiveness and easy-deployment, RFID has been widely simultaneously. For example, in Fig. 1(b), a reader transmits
a signal that interferes with the operation of another reader,
Manuscript received October 18, 2016; revised December 29, 2017; thus preventing the latter from communicating with tags in its
accepted February 4, 2018. Date of publication February 13, 2018; date of interrogation zone. In this case, we need to carefully sched-
current version April 10, 2018. This work was supported in part by the ule the activation of different readers. As Fig. 1(c) shows,
National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant
2017YFB1200700, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of reader collision also occurs when one tag is located in the
China under Grant 61701007, and in part by the China Post-Doctoral Science interrogation zones of two or more readers and more than
Foundation under Grant 2016M600865. (Corresponding author: Ping Wang.) one reader attempts to communicate with that tag simultane-
M. Ma is with the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science,
Peking University, Beijing 100871, China (e-mail: mameng@pku.edu.cn). ously. There are many reader collision avoidance protocols
P. Wang is with the National Engineering Research Center for Software proposed, e.g., Colorwave [15] and RASPberry [16], to man-
Engineering, the School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University, age communications between the RFID readers and tags to
and the Key Laboratory of High Confidence Software Technologies
(Peking University), Ministry of Education, Beijing 100871, China (e-mail: avoid such collisions.
pwang@pku.edu.cn). In large-scale RFID networks, some readers can be redun-
C.-H. Chu is with the College of Information Sciences and Technology, dant. Take Fig. 1(c) as an example, the central reader in
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA (e-mail:
chu@ist.psu.edu). this environment is the best choice to cover all the tags
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JIOT.2018.2805710 with minimal readers. Therefore, the rest of the readers
2327-4662 c 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
MA et al.: REDUNDANT READER ELIMINATION IN LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTED RFID NETWORKS 885
Fig. 1. Example of collisions in an RFID system. (a) Tag collision: three tags respond to the same reader simultaneously. (b) Reader collision: response
from tag to reader is interfered by another reader. (c) Reader collision in more complex environment: multiple readers attempt to communicate with the same
tags [16].
are considered redundant. The existence of redundant read- the first proposed centralized algorithm, in which the algo-
ers leads to unnecessary power consumption and tag/reader rithm utilizes central controller to select reader with the highest
collisions [17]. Moreover, they will produce redundant data, tag coverage, deactivates it and repeats until all the read-
which consumes more computational resources for data clean- ers’ coverage are zero or no active reader remained in the
ing or aggregation in data management procedures. To address network. Another centralized algorithm, NTE [21], defined
this issue, the concept of redundant reader elimination [18] is a new reader weighting approach by taking advantage of inter-
proposed, aiming to detect and deactivate redundant readers in reader communications. Although the number of read-tag and
RFID systems. In this manner, it helps to reduce unnecessary write-tag operations can be greatly reduced when inter-reader
reader-tag interactions, power consumption, and the cost of communication is possible, this network topology requires
collision avoidance algorithms [18]. Therefore, efficient algo- special hardware features and the central controller that is
rithms for detecting and minimizing redundant readers are of usually impractical for real applications. In addition, in NTE
great importance to develop an efficient RFID network. algorithm, the neighboring relation defined based on reader
In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm, named thresh- communication is inaccurate, because two adjacent readers
old selection algorithm (TSA), based on the threshold selection may not cover the same tag simultaneously.
process, to eliminate redundant readers in large-scale dis- Distributed algorithms provide a greedy heuristic approxi-
tributed RFID networks. It selects effective reader iteratively mation solution for redundant reader elimination problem [18].
based on the threshold sequence determined by the expected It is decentralized without the needs of iterations, thus having
tag coverage. The main contributions of this paper are twofold: the advantages of simplified implementation and low algo-
first, TSA algorithm outperforms other distributed algorithms rithm overhead. The first proposed distributed algorithm is
as its performance achieves 90% of the GREEDY benchmark RRE [18], in which each tag is marked with a data record indi-
algorithm, with much lower overhead. Second, we propose an cating the reader with highest tag-coverage in its vicinity and
optimization approach based on movement detection (MD), the reader which issues the highest count for a tag will hold
exploit the mobility nature of RFID networks, which further it locally. A reader holding no tag will be processed as redun-
improves the efficiency of TSA. dant. LEO algorithm [22] attempted to improve RRE in its
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: related cost and efficiency by making the first reader to query the tag
works are summarized in Section II. Section III elaborates the as its holder. A two-phase scheme was introduced to achieve
algorithmic details and Section IV presents our optimization a better algorithmic performance in [23] and [24]. Another
mechanism. In Sections V and VI, we conduct preliminary improved algorithm, named DRRE [25], exploited the con-
experiments to determine the suggested parameters of TSA cept of neighboring reader density to evaluate reader’s priority.
and then evaluate the algorithm’s performance and cost. This Hsu et al. [26] proposed a method based on overlap-aware
paper is concluded and the future works are discussed in technique for eliminating redundant readers. A middleware-
Section VII. based system topology and corresponding algorithm, named
MRRE, was proposed in [27]. To improve the performance of
distributed algorithms with more accurate weighting approach,
II. R ELATED W ORKS NCD algorithm was designed [20], which accurately defined
The redundant reader elimination problem, also known the concept of neighboring reader and introduced a new
as optimal tag coverage problem [19], was first introduced weighting approach based on neighboring coverage density.
in [18]. The problem aims to find the minimum cardinality Like GREEDY algorithm, CBA algorithm used a decentral-
subset of readers which covering all the tags in a given RFID ized strategy to repeatedly select reader if its tag coverage
network [18]. Proposed solutions can be classified into three equals to 1 [28]. However, like centralized algorithms, a clear
categories: 1) centralized; 2) distributed; and 3) hybrid [20]. deficiency of CBA is its high overhead because it requires
Centralized algorithms utilize a central controller that holds coverage update after each iteration. There are other studies
all the readers’ information in the system. GREEDY [19] is on distributed algorithms in [29]–[31].
886 IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 5, NO. 2, APRIL 2018
The hybrid algorithm takes advantages of both centralized although the CBA algorithm selects reader with the lowest
and distributed algorithms. For example, a hybrid redundant tag coverage so that it can get rid of a central controller,
reader elimination technique based on the weighting approach it still requires massive computations to update the read-
associated with reader’s neighbor and coverage was presented ers’ weight because the number of iterations are not limited.
in [32], which designs a load factor to its cost function. Therefore, redundant iteration overhead is the most critical
LE [11] is another hybrid algorithm which combines LEO and problem for similar algorithms. To address this issue, we
the work in [17] based on a central controller. propose a novel distributed redundant reader elimination algo-
The main advantage of centralized algorithms is its detec- rithm, named TSA. TSA is based on the motivation that it
tion capability because it detects redundant readers based on can have a similar effect of centralized algorithm and signif-
global information. However, centralized algorithms are usu- icantly reduces the iteration overhead if we limit the holder
ally impractical to implement because it requires a centralized selection process in a limited number of times. In view of
topology for RFID networks. Furthermore, its greedy iter- the fact that this selection criterion should be proportional
ation consumes high overheads; that is, excessive coverage to every reader’s tag coverage, we select readers as holder
computations between readers and tags. Nonetheless, cen- based on their expected coverage rate. If we assume that read-
tralized algorithm is stable and of good performance which ers and tags are evenly distributed in the system space, each
makes it suitable as a simulation benchmark. In contrast, the reader’s tag coverage is expected to be the ratio of tag number
main advantage of distributed algorithms roots in its greatly and reader number accordingly. Thus, we define the selection
reduced algorithm complexity. However, according to the pre- threshold sequence as follows.
vious studies, they can only achieve 60% to 70% of detection Definition 1 (Selection Threshold): Given an RFID sys-
capability as compared to GREEDY algorithm, even though tem, S = {P, R, T}, the system’s selection threshold is an
the weighting approaches for readers are being continuously arithmetic descending sequence ST = (τ (|T|/|R|), ([n −
improving [20]. Therefore, one of the most important chal- 1]/n)τ (|T|/|R|), . . . , (1/n)τ (|T|/|R|), 0) where n is the num-
lenges for redundant reader elimination is to improve the ber of algorithm iterations and τ is a linear multiplier.
performance of distributed algorithms so as to obtain an TSA is a distributed approximation algorithm based on
approximate capability of centralized algorithms. This paper the selection threshold derived from the average probability
proposes a novel distributed redundant reader elimination reader and tag distributions in an RFID system. It selects the
algorithm to achieve this goal. reader which exceeds the threshold in sequence as the holder
of its covered tags until the last threshold. The process of
III. P ROPOSED A LGORITHM TSA algorithm can be described in four steps.
Step 1: Calculate the selection threshold ST =
In this section, we start with preliminary definitions and
(τ (|T|/|R|), ([n − 1]/n)τ (|T|/|R|), . . . , (1/n)τ (|T|/|R|), 0)
assumptions in redundant reader elimination problem and
according to the system parameters |R| and |T|.
then elaborate the details of our proposed algorithmic. An
Step 2: Query the covered vicinity for each reader Ri ∈ R
example is shown to demonstrate the algorithm process and
to calculate its tag coverage Coverage(Ri ).
intermediate results of the proposed TSA algorithm.
Step 3: If Coverage(Ri ) exceeds the corresponding threshold
STi , Ri is selected as the holder of its covered tags if the tag
A. Threshold Selection Algorithm has no holder. If this is not the last iteration, repeats steps 2
Let S = {P, R, T} denote an RFID system, where P is and 3.
the coverage space, R represents the set of readers, and T Step 4: Each reader contacts its covered tags and queries
is the set of tags. We use Coverage(R, T) to denote the tag their holder. A reader that has not been selected as holder by
coverage of this system. Hence, a redundant reader set R any tag is marked as redundant and deactivated.
is a subset of the original reader set R, where R ⊆ R and Fig. 2 compares the interaction flow of TSA and GREEDY
Coverage(R, T) = Coverage(R − R , T). Therefore, the redun- algorithms. Note that the GREEDY algorithm is centralized
dant reader elimination problem for S = {P, R, T} is to find with three parties including controller, reader, and tag. con-
a redundant reader set R ⊆ R of S, for any other redundant troller selects reader with the highest tag coverage, deactivates
reader set R , |R | ≥ |R | is satisfied. it and repeats the same procedure until all the readers’ cover-
Our discussion is under the following assumptions: first, age is zero or there is no active reader remains in the network.
the tags are passive with limited memory. Second, they Given an RFID system S = {P, R, T}, the number of iterations
are writable to store few types and amount of data. We of centralized algorithm increases with the increase of |R |. In
assume that initial tag collision and reader collision avoidance each round of iteration, the algorithm requires read and write
algorithms [19] has been previously introduced and executed interactions with RFID tags. Obviously, centralized algorithms
in reader-tag interactions. We also assume that the amount are of high algorithmic complexity. Distributed algorithm is
of readers and tags in the RFID system are already known. decentralized without the needs of iterations. As we can see,
These assumptions are common and reasonable for real RFID TSA algorithm limits the iteration and processing procedures
systems. within limited rounds, thus having the advantages of sim-
As the centralized algorithms search the reader with the ple implementation and low algorithmic overhead. Meanwhile,
largest tag coverage iteratively. Inevitably, we need to update a central controller is not necessary for distributed algorithms,
all the readers’ weights in each iteration. For instance, making the algorithm suitable for more hardware and network
MA et al.: REDUNDANT READER ELIMINATION IN LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTED RFID NETWORKS 887
TABLE I
C OMPLEXITY OF M AJOR R EDUNDANT R EADER
E LIMINATION A LGORITHMS
(a)
from the tags, so that the number of tag-read operation is not
limited.
Theorem 2: TSA algorithm is equivalent to the LEO
algorithm when τ = 0 or n = 0.
Proof: When the linear multiplier τ = 0, the selection
threshold of TSA algorithm satisfies STi = 0, 0 < i < n.
Consequently, a tag will be selected by the first reader’s query.
According to the details of LEO algorithm [22], it directly
selects the first reader which queries the tag as its holder.
Therefore, TSA algorithm is equivalent to LEO. Similarly,
when the step of TSA is 0, the selection threshold sequence
(b) ST = (0). The TSA algorithm is also equivalent to LEO.
Theorem 3: TSA algorithm is safe as it does not affect the
Fig. 2. Interaction flow of (a) TSA and (b) GREEDY algorithms.
original system tag coverage rate.
Proof: Every selection threshold sequence of TSA algo-
Algorithm 1 TSA Algorithm rithm satisfies STn = 0. Thus, every originally covered tag
01: TSA(S, τ, n) will be selected by at least one reader in the last step of
02: ST = (τ |T| n−1 |T| 1 |T|
|R| , n τ |R| , . . . , n τ |R| , 0)
TSA. Consequently, TSA algorithm is safe.
03: for i = 0 to n − 1 Theorem 4: If the number of time frames per epoch is set
04: for each Ri ∈ R to the number of readers, ψ, and the number of tags is θ ,
05: Coverage(Ri ) = number of covered tags without holder
then the complexity of the total number of epochs in a n-steps
06: if Coverage(Ri ) > ST i
07: Write Ri as holder for covered tags without holder TSA algorithm is Tn−TSA = O(nθ ).
08: end Proof: Because estimating the number of tags covered by
09: end a reader can be done in a constant time [33], every iteration
10: for each Ri ∈ R of TSA has the same complexity as the LEO algorithm, which
11: for each tag covered by Ri
is O(θ ) [20]. Therefore, the complexity of TSA algorithm is
12: if holder == IDi then Ri is not redundant
13: end Tn−TSA = O(nθ ).
14: end Based on our previous work in [20], we compare the com-
15: return S plexity of major redundant reader elimination algorithms with
TSA in Table I. As the centralized algorithm requires a large
amount of iteration computations, GREEDY and NTE have the
conditions. For the sake of clarity, we summarize the pseudo highest algorithmic complexity. Compared to other distributed
code for TSA in Algorithm 1. algorithms, LEO has the minimal algorithmic complexity as
In order to conduct complexity analysis on TSA algorithm, it uses a simplified holder selection approach. Owing to its
we first prove that it has the following properties. holder selection approach, CBA has the highest algorithmic
Theorem 1: The maximum number of tag-write operations complexity in distributed algorithms. According to Theorem 4,
of TSA algorithm equals the number of covered tags in the TSA algorithm has an algorithmic complexity of constant
system. level. The complexity of TSA algorithm is obviously lower
Proof: In TSA algorithm, if a tag is not covered by any than the other distributed algorithms, so that TSA can reduce
reader, it will not be written by any reader in the holder selec- the reader-tag interactions, especially the number of tag-write
tion. If the tag is covered by a reader, it will not be written operations as much higher signal power level is required when
for holder selection when the tag already has a holder accord- writing.
ing to the algorithm (see Algorithm 1, line 7). Thus, each
tag will only be written once in holder selection. Accordingly, B. Running Example
the maximum number of tag-write operations in TSA algo- In this section, we show an example to demonstrate the
rithm is the number of covered tags in the system. However, in algorithmic process of TSA. We set TSA algorithm parame-
each iteration readers need to query for the holder information ters τ and n as τ = 2.00 and n = 3, choose the environment
888 IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 5, NO. 2, APRIL 2018
TABLE II
R ESULTS OF S TEP 1
TABLE III
R ESULTS OF S TEP 3
TABLE IV
R ESULTS OF S TEP 4
Algorithm 2 TSAMD Algorithm Ti will not change its holder recorded in the last detection.
01: TSAMD(S, τ, n) Otherwise, if R = ∅, that means Ti is not covered by any
02: ST = (τ |T| n−1 |T| 1 |T|
|R| , n τ |R| , . . . , n τ |R| , 0) reader. Apparently, Ti will not affect the system tag coverage
03: for i = 0 to n − 1 rate.
04: for each Ri ∈ R, detect and mark the change condition of Ri
05: if changed
06: Coverage(Ri ) = number of covered tags without holder V. E XPERIMENTAL D ESIGN
07: if Coverage(Ri ) > ST i
08: Write Ri as the holder for covered tags without holder In this section, we present our simulation environment and
09: end discuss the experiments designed to evaluate the proposed
10: end algorithm.
11: for each Ri ∈ R
12: for each tag covered by Ri
13: if holder == IDi then Ri is not redundant reader A. Simulation Environment
14: end
15: end We implement an RFID system simulator for experiments
16: return S and evaluation. This simulator uses area size, number of
reader, number of tag, and reader radius as parameters to
generate randomly distributed RFID networks. In our simu-
lation, we assume that the number of readers and tags in the
Therefore, the solution of the distributed redundant reader RFID systems are known. We also assume that collision avoid-
algorithm for S is the same as in t and t. ance algorithms have been previously executed in reader-tag
According to Theorem 5, we propose an optimization algo- interactions to avoid collisions. Two system environment den-
rithm based on the MD for TSA algorithm, namely TSA with sities, dense and sparse, are deployed for random evaluations.
MD (TSAMD). This optimized algorithm is an extension of In the dense environment, we randomly place 100 readers into
TSA, which can be described in the following steps. a testing domain of 50 × 50 and the number of tags increases
Step 1: Calculate the selection threshold ST = from 500 to 4000. The interrogation radius is set to 5. In the
(τ (|T|/|R|), ([n − 1]/n)τ (|T|/|R|), . . . , (1/n)τ (|T|/|R|), 0) sparse network, we randomly place 2000 readers in the testing
according to the system parameters |R| and |T|. domain of 250 × 250 and the number of tags increases from
Step 2: Query the covered vicinity for each reader Ri ∈ R to 5000 to 20000. The interrogation radius is also set to 5.
calculate Coverage(Ri ). Compare the current tag coverage of Three types of distribution: 1) uniform distribution (UD);
each reader’s last detection. If changed, the reader updates the 2) Gaussian distribution (GD); and 3) partition distribu-
recorded value, clear its covered tag’s holder and proceed to tion (PD), are used to reflect different system characteristics.
the following steps. If the coverage has not been changed, the In UD, the location for each reader and tag is randomly
reader marks itself as unchanged and its covered tag’s holder generated subject to the UD. Likewise, GD means the ran-
is kept as recorded in the last detection. domly generated location follows the GD. In PD, the testing
Step 3: If Coverage(Ri ) exceeds the corresponding threshold domain is first divided into several independent subdomain
STi , it is selected as the holder of the covered tags if the tag and each of them is subject to independent GD. Furthermore,
has no holder. If this is not the last step, repeats steps 2 and 3. we implement two additional simulation environments from
Step 4: Each reader contacts its covered tags and queries real applications—RFID-enabled warehouse and hospital. In
their holder. A reader that has not been selected by any tag as warehouse scenario, each product is tagged with an RFID tag
holder is redundant. and RFID reader is used to monitor the inventory. In hospi-
Differing from TSA algorithm, TSAMD detects the move- tal scenario, RFID technology is used to manage patients and
ment of covered tags to determine whether a recalculation of medical equipment. These two simulation environments are
weight is needed. If there is no movement happen, write-to- implemented according to how readers and tags are deployed
tag operation will be conserved which is essential for overhead in real applications.
reduction. The pseudo code for TSAMD algorithm is shown
in Algorithm 2.
Note that TSAMD is an approximate algorithm. It estimates B. Benchmarks and Metrics
the change of reader’s characteristics according to its tag cov- The experiment aims to compare the relative performance
erage. This is a tradeoff between accuracy and algorithmic of TSA algorithm with selected algorithms. GREEDY [19]
complexity. We prove the following theorem for TSAMD. algorithm is implemented as the benchmark and RRE [18],
Theorem 6: TSAMD algorithm is safe. LEO [22], DRRE [25], NCD [20] algorithms are implemented
Proof: For each tag Ti ∈ T in the system S = {P, R, T}, for comparison. These algorithms are selected for the fol-
R denotes the set of reader which covers Ti . If R = ∅ and lowing reasons: GREEDY algorithm has the best and most
∃Ri ∈ R that Ri is changed, Ri will recalculate its coverage and stable performance. Therefore, we use GREEDY as the basis
compare it with the threshold. According to Theorem 2, when for measurement and comparison of algorithmic performance.
the step of TSA is 0, the selection threshold of TSA algorithm RRE algorithm is known for its relative stable performance
satisfies STn = 0. Consequently, a tag will be selected by the and low overhead. LEO algorithm has the simplest imple-
first reader’s query and Ti will certainly select one reader from mentation and lowest overhead among the selected algorithms.
R as its holder. If ∀Ri ∈ R satisfies that Ri is unchanged, then DRRE is selected to examine the effect of multiphase scheme.
890 IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 5, NO. 2, APRIL 2018
TABLE V
AVERAGE RDA IN D IFFERENT E NVIRONMENTS
Fig. 12. Tag-read operations in sparse environment. Fig. 15. Number of read operation with MD.
TABLE VI
AVERAGE I MPROVEMENT OF TSA A LGORITHM better performance. Moreover, TSA algorithm can also be
safely combined with other distributed algorithms, the com-
bination strategy can further improve the effectiveness of
TSA algorithm.
VII. C ONCLUSION
The problem of redundant reader elimination in large-scale
distributed RFID network is a critical design issue which
impacts significantly on the operational effectiveness and scal-
ability of the IoT. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed
redundant reader elimination algorithm, called TSA, to address
the deficiencies known in early studies. TSA selects effective
reader based on the threshold sequence defined by the expected
tag coverage. We also propose an optimization based on MD,
named TSAMD, to explore the mobility of the RFID networks.
By preliminary simulation, we determine the suggested lin-
ear multiplier for TSA is around 2.2 and the recommended
iteration steps of TSA is 7 to 9. According to the experimen-
tal results, the performance of TSA is 30%–60% better than
other selected algorithms and the multiphase schemes in both
dense and sparse environments. The overhead of TSA’s algo-
rithm is 30%–50% lower than most algorithms especially in
terms of tag-write operations. Meanwhile, TSAMD algorithm
is proved effective in reducing the overall tag-write operations
when partially, bulky tag movement happens in RFID systems.
Although this paper has preliminarily elaborated the details
Fig. 17. Redundant reader detected with multiphase scheme.
and properties of TSA algorithm, there are important issues
still need further exploration. For example, the suggested linear
multiplier value of TSA algorithm is empirically evaluated by
E. Comparison to Multiphase Scheme simulation. Moreover, the relationship between τ and the per-
In [20], the principles of combining multiphase redundant formance of TSA still needs in-depth explorations. Therefore,
reader elimination algorithms are preliminarily explored and real-world experiments instead of simulations are expected in
proved effective. Fig. 17 depicts the number of redundant read- our future work because there are other factors which are
ers detected with different multiphase schemes as compared unknown but may affect the performance of redundant reader
to TSA and GREEDY algorithms. As the results show, the elimination algorithms. In real large-scale RFID networks,
amount of detected redundant reader of multiphase scheme missing or unregistered tags are common and may affect the
is higher than single-phase. Moreover, the four-phase scheme performance of TSA. It is important in our future work to
LEO +RRE+DRRE+NCD can achieve around 80% RDA over explore the approach for handling the cases, where number of
the GREEDY algorithm. tags and readers are unknown in RFID systems.
However, the results show that TSA algorithm outper-
forms the combination of four different distributed algorithms.
Apparently, the multiphase combination consumes high algo- R EFERENCES
rithmic cost than a single-phase algorithm. Table VI summa- [1] M. Bolic, D. Simplot-Ryl, and I. Stojmenovic, RFID Systems: Research
rizes the average improvement of TSA algorithm comparing Trends and Challenges. New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2010.
with other major algorithms and the multiphase schemes [2] R. Want, “An introduction to RFID technology,” IEEE Pervasive
Comput., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 25–33, Jan./Mar. 2006.
in terms of RDA to GREEDY, tag-read operation and tag- [3] M. S. Khan, M. S. Islam, and H. Deng, “Design of a reconfigurable RFID
write operations in both dense and sparse environments. As sensing tag as a generic sensing platform toward the future Internet of
indicated, the performance of TSA is 30%–60% better than Things,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 300–310, Aug. 2014.
[4] P. Yang, “PRLS-INVES: A general experimental investigation strategy
other algorithms and 10% better than four-phase scheme. The for high accuracy and precision in passive RFID location systems,” IEEE
improvement of TSA algorithm over other algorithms are more Internet Things J., vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 159–167, Apr. 2015.
obvious in dense environment. In terms of algorithmic cost, [5] S. Amendola, R. Lodato, S. Manzari, C. Occhiuzzi, and G. Marrocco,
“RFID technology for IoT-based personal healthcare in smart spaces,”
TSA’s overhead is lower than the other algorithms, especially IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 144–152, Apr. 2014.
in the measure of tag-write operations. TSA has 35% to 60% [6] R. Sundar, S. Hebbar, and V. Golla, “Implementing intelligent traffic
less tag-write operations over RRE and NCD algorithms. It control system for congestion control, ambulance clearance, and stolen
also has 80% less write operations than selected four-phase vehicle detection,” IEEE Sensors J., vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 1109–1113,
Feb. 2015.
schemes. Therefore, TSA algorithm has a significant lower [7] J. Landt, “The history of RFID,” IEEE Potentials, vol. 24, no. 4,
algorithmic consumption than the multiphase schemes with pp. 8–11, Oct./Nov. 2005.
894 IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 5, NO. 2, APRIL 2018
[8] K. Finkenzeller and R. Waddington, RFID Handbook: Radio-Frequency Meng Ma (S’14–M’16) received the Ph.D. degree
Identification Fundamentals and Applications. New York, NY, USA: in computer science from Peking University, Beijing,
Wiley, 1999. China, in 2016.
[9] S. A. Weis, “RFID (radio frequency identification): Principles and He is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
applications,” System, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 1–23, 2007. with the School of Electronics Engineering and
[10] K. Traub et al., The EPCglobal Architecture Framework, GS1 Computer Science, Peking University. He has
Standards, Mar. 2009. [Online]. Available: https://www.gs1.org/docs/ authored or co-authored over 20 papers in major
architecture/architecture_1_3-framework-20090319.pdf international journals and conferences such as the
[11] W. A. A. Alsalihy and N. A. Askar, “Enhancement of redundant reader IEEE I NTERNET OF T HINGS J OURNAL, the IEEE
elimination by using hybrid algorithm in RFID systems,” Wireless Pers. T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRIAL I NFORMATICS,
Commun., vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 1139–1156, 2013. and Knowledge-Based Systems. His current research
[12] H. Vogt, “Efficient object identification with passive RFID tags,” in Proc. interests include intelligent computing and sensing, complex event processing,
Int. Conf. Pervasive Comput., 2002, pp. 98–113. Internet of Things, and semantic computing.
[13] F. Schoute, “Dynamic frame length ALOHA,” IEEE Trans. Commun., Dr. Ma was a recipient of the Best Paper Award from the 2013 IEEE
vol. COM-31, no. 4, pp. 565–568, Apr. 1983. International Conference on RFID-Technologies and Applications.
[14] C. Law, K. Lee, and K.-Y. Siu, “Efficient memoryless protocol for
tag identification (extended abstract),” in Proc. 4th Int. Workshop Disc.
Algorithms Methods Mobile Comput. Commun., 2000, pp. 75–84.
[15] J. Waldrop, D. W. Engels, and S. E. Sarma, “Colorwave: A MAC
for RFID reader networks,” in Proc. IEEE Wireless Commun. Netw.
(WCNC), vol. 3. 2003, pp. 1701–1704.
[16] S. Tang et al., “RASPberry: A stable reader activation scheduling proto-
col in multi-reader RFID systems,” in Proc. 17th IEEE Int. Conf. Netw.
Protocols, 2009, pp. 304–313.
[17] N. Irfan and M. C. Yagoub, “Efficient algorithm for redundant reader
elimination in wireless RFID networks,” Int. J. Comput. Sci. Issues,
Ping Wang (M’88–SM’16) received the Doctorate
vol. 3, no. 11, pp. 1–8, 2010.
degree in computer science from the University of
[18] B. Carbunar, M. K. Ramanathan, M. Koyuturk, C. Hoffmann, and
Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA, in 1996.
A. Grama, “Redundant reader elimination in RFID systems,” in
He is a Professor with the National Engineering
Proc. 2nd Annu. IEEE Commun. Soc. Conf. Sensor Ad Hoc Commun.
Research Center for Software Engineering, School
Netw., 2005, pp. 176–184.
of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University,
[19] B. Carbunar, M. K. Ramanathan, M. Koyutürk, S. Jagannathan, and
and the Key Laboratory of High Confidence
A. Grama, “Efficient tag detection in RFID systems,” J. Parallel Distrib.
Software Technologies (Peking University), Ministry
Comput., vol. 69, no. 2, pp. 180–196, 2009.
of Education, Beijing, China. He is the Director
[20] M. Ma, P. Wang, and C.-H. Chu, “A novel distributed algorithm for
of Intelligent Computing and Sensing Laboratory,
redundant reader elimination in RFID networks,” in Proc. IEEE Int.
Peking University. His current research interests
Conf. RFID Technol. Appl. (RFID TA), 2013, pp. 1–6.
include Internet of Things, system software, and information security. He
[21] K. Ali, H. Hassanein, and W. Alsalih, “Using neighbor and tag esti-
has authored or co-authored over 70 papers in journals or proceedings such
mations for redundant reader eliminations in RFID networks,” in Proc.
as the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON D EPENDABLE AND S ECURE C OMPUTING,
IEEE Wireless Commun. Netw. (WCNC), 2011, pp. 832–837.
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Network and
[22] C.-H. Hsu, Y.-M. Chen, and C.-T. Yang, “A layered optimization
Distributed System Security, the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRIAL
approach for redundant reader elimination in wireless RFID networks,”
I NFORMATICS, and the IEEE I NTERNET OF T HINGS J OURNAL.
in Proc. 2nd IEEE Asia–Pac. Service Comput. Conf., 2007, pp. 138–145.
Dr. Wang was a co-recipient of the Best Paper and two Outstanding Paper
[23] C.-H. Hsu, Y.-M. Chen, and H.-J. Kang, “Performance-effective and
Awards from different professional societies.
low-complexity redundant reader detection in wireless RFID networks,”
EURASIP J. Wireless Commun. Netw., vol. 1, pp. 1–9, May 2008.
[24] C.-H. Hsu, S.-C. Chen, C.-H. Yu, and J. H. Park, “Alleviating reader
collision problem in mobile RFID networks,” Pers. Ubiquitous Comput.,
vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 489–497, 2009.
[25] K.-M. Yu, C.-W. Yu, and Z.-Y. Lin, “A density-based algorithm for
redundant reader elimination in a RFID network,” in Proc. 2nd Int.
Conf. Future Gener. Commun. Netw. (FGCN), 2008, pp. 89–92.
[26] C.-H. Hsu, C.-H. Yu, C.-Y. Chung, C.-T. Yang, and C.-H. Chou, “An
overlap aware technique for redundant reader elimination,” in Proc. 9th
Int. Conf. Ubiquitous Intell. Comput. (UIC), 2012, pp. 357–360.
[27] Y. Huang and S. Lv, “A middleware-based approach for redundant reader Chao-Hsien Chu received the Ph.D. degree in
elimination,” in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. New Trends Inf. Sci. Service Sci., business from the College of Information Sciences
2011, pp. 209–214. and Technology, Pennsylvania State University,
[28] S. Pan and Z. Yang, “A count based algorithm for redundant reader University Park, PA, USA in 1984.
elimination in RFID application system,” in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Intell. He is a Professor with the College of Information
Syst. Design Eng. Appl. (ISDEA), 2013, pp. 30–33. Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State
[29] Z.-Y. Yang and J.-L. Chen, “The simulation and analysis of algorithms University, where he is the Co-Director of PKU-
for redundant reader elimination in RFID system,” in Proc. 3rd UKSim PSU Joint Intelligent Computing and Sensing
Eur. Symp. Comput. Model. Simulat. (EMS), 2009, pp. 494–498. Laboratory (PSU side). He has authored or
[30] J.-W. Hung, I.-H. Li, H.-H. Lin, and J.-A. Cai, “The first search co-authored over 190 papers, many of which
right algorithm for redundant reader elimination in RFID network,” in have appeared in IEEE S ENSORS J OURNAL,
Proc. 9th WSEAS Int. Conf. Softw. Eng. Parallel Distrib. Syst., 2010, the IEEE I NTERNET OF T HINGS J OURNAL, the IEEE T RANSACTIONS
pp. 177–183. ON E VOLUTIONARY C OMPUTATIONS , the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON
[31] Y.-J. Gong et al., “Optimizing RFID network planning by using a par- I NFORMATION F ORENSICS AND S ECURITY, INFORMS Journal on
ticle swarm optimization algorithm with redundant reader elimination,” Computing, the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON D EPENDABLE AND S ECURE
IEEE Trans. Ind. Informat., vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 900–912, Nov. 2012. C OMPUTING, the ACM Conference on CCS, and the IEEE Conference
[32] N. Irfan and M. C. E. Yagoub, “Efficient approach for redundant reader on Computer Communications (INFOCOM). His current research interests
elimination in large-scale RFID networks,” in Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Integr. include integration and applications of smart sensing and RFID technologies,
Intell. Comput. 2010, pp. 102–107. intelligent technologies and their applications, and information security and
[33] M. Kodialam and T. Nandagopal, “Fast and reliable estimation schemes privacy assurance.
in RFID systems,” in Proc. 12th Annu. Int. Conf. Mobile Comput. Netw., Dr. Chu was a recipient of the Best Paper Award from different professional
Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2006, pp. 322–333. societies.