Backscatter Communications for 6G
(2022) EITM02 20221Department of Electrical and Information Technology
- Abstract
- The success of future Internet of Things (IoT) depends on, among the other things, developing energy-effcient communication techniques that can enable information exchange among billions of IoT devices with ultra-low/zero power consumption requirements. Ambient backscatter communications is an emerging technology, which utilizes the ambient Radio Frequency (RF) signal as the carrier to reduce the form-factor, and the battery requirements of low-cost small sensor type communication devices. It is, therefore, regarded as a promising technology for massive IoT paradigm, especially for applications with low data-rate requirements. However, ambient backscatter communications face many challenges, such as the presence of strong interference and... (More)
- The success of future Internet of Things (IoT) depends on, among the other things, developing energy-effcient communication techniques that can enable information exchange among billions of IoT devices with ultra-low/zero power consumption requirements. Ambient backscatter communications is an emerging technology, which utilizes the ambient Radio Frequency (RF) signal as the carrier to reduce the form-factor, and the battery requirements of low-cost small sensor type communication devices. It is, therefore, regarded as a promising technology for massive IoT paradigm, especially for applications with low data-rate requirements. However, ambient backscatter communications face many challenges, such as the presence of strong interference and channel fading. Additionally, these challenges have to be addressed without increasing the complexity and power consumption of the backscatter communication system. Furthermore, the wide-range of prospective backscatter applications means that the performance of ambient backscatter systems have to be studied in a variety of scenarios.
Motivated by this, we study the performance characteristics of ambient backscatter systems using different RF frequencies, data-rates and propagation environments. First, the problem of strong interference is addressed using the well known repetition technique for transmitting the backscatter data. Second, the effects of channel fading are minimized using the scrambling technique. Further, the performance of ambient backscatter systems is studied using a simple quasi-static channel model and a realistic continuous fading channel. The simulations for this purpose are performed using Monte-Carlo simulations in MATLAB. General conclusions are drawn for the relations among different performance metrics, and the effectiveness of the chosen receiver (Rx) structure against channel fading is also evaluated. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- Recent developments in wireless communications, and the road towards 6G means that, billions of small communication devices will be used, in a broad range of applications, in the near future. Existing technology for these devices uses complex components, making them costly and consume considerable amounts of energy, as they have to generate their own radio signals. Therefore, it is interesting to explore an alternative technology, in which these small devices can be designed with simple components, and require little to no power to operate. Ambient backscatter technology is one such alternative, in which the devices can communicate using the ambient radio signals, generated from already existing sources like Wi-Fi routers and cellphone... (More)
- Recent developments in wireless communications, and the road towards 6G means that, billions of small communication devices will be used, in a broad range of applications, in the near future. Existing technology for these devices uses complex components, making them costly and consume considerable amounts of energy, as they have to generate their own radio signals. Therefore, it is interesting to explore an alternative technology, in which these small devices can be designed with simple components, and require little to no power to operate. Ambient backscatter technology is one such alternative, in which the devices can communicate using the ambient radio signals, generated from already existing sources like Wi-Fi routers and cellphone towers. This technology can also allow devices to harvest energy from the ambient signals, thereby making them self-sustainable. These features
mean that the ambient backscatter devices can operate with a net-zero/ultra-low power consumption.
That said, the ambient backscatter technology is at its infancy, and it needs to overcome many challenges, before it is adopted widely. For instance, the backscatter signals are typically very weak, and they face strong interference from the existing signals in the environment. In addition, backscatter signals are also severely affected by the fading in the channels. It becomes a challenge for the backscatter devices to solve these problems, using simple designs, and very low power consumption. Furthermore, a wide range of future applications mean that the performance of ambient backscatter systems needs to be studied across various environments. Therefore, in this thesis, we provide simple structures for the backscatter device and the receiver, and we address the above problems using well-known transmission and detection techniques. We also study the performance of ambient backscatter systems across different channels, environments, and frequencies. In addition, we provide an analysis on how the error rates, data rates, and signal coverage of ambient backscatter systems are related to one another in a variety of scenarios. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9100967
- author
- Cheekati, Lakshmi Rajeev LU and Yan, Jin
- supervisor
-
- Ove Edfors LU
- organization
- course
- EITM02 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- report number
- LU/LTH-EIT 2022-894
- language
- English
- id
- 9100967
- date added to LUP
- 2022-09-28 14:42:03
- date last changed
- 2022-09-28 14:42:03
@misc{9100967,
abstract = {{The success of future Internet of Things (IoT) depends on, among the other things, developing energy-effcient communication techniques that can enable information exchange among billions of IoT devices with ultra-low/zero power consumption requirements. Ambient backscatter communications is an emerging technology, which utilizes the ambient Radio Frequency (RF) signal as the carrier to reduce the form-factor, and the battery requirements of low-cost small sensor type communication devices. It is, therefore, regarded as a promising technology for massive IoT paradigm, especially for applications with low data-rate requirements. However, ambient backscatter communications face many challenges, such as the presence of strong interference and channel fading. Additionally, these challenges have to be addressed without increasing the complexity and power consumption of the backscatter communication system. Furthermore, the wide-range of prospective backscatter applications means that the performance of ambient backscatter systems have to be studied in a variety of scenarios.
Motivated by this, we study the performance characteristics of ambient backscatter systems using different RF frequencies, data-rates and propagation environments. First, the problem of strong interference is addressed using the well known repetition technique for transmitting the backscatter data. Second, the effects of channel fading are minimized using the scrambling technique. Further, the performance of ambient backscatter systems is studied using a simple quasi-static channel model and a realistic continuous fading channel. The simulations for this purpose are performed using Monte-Carlo simulations in MATLAB. General conclusions are drawn for the relations among different performance metrics, and the effectiveness of the chosen receiver (Rx) structure against channel fading is also evaluated.}},
author = {{Cheekati, Lakshmi Rajeev and Yan, Jin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Backscatter Communications for 6G}},
year = {{2022}},
}