Color table based distributed collision avoidance algorithm for RFID reader network

In this paper, we propose a color table based distributed collision avoidance algorithm to resolve the reader collision problem (RCP) of radio frequency identification (RFID) reader network. The proposed algorithm is developed to overcome the drawbacks of distributed color selection (DCS) and Colorwave algorithms. Firstly, we use a systematic method to help reader select a new color when collision occurs rather than a random selection in both DCS and Colorwave algorithms. Secondly, we increase or decrease the maximum number of colors used in the reader network in a synchronous manner based on a time stamp technique. We have tested the proposed algorithm by solving RCPs of several RFID reader network with various sizes and also apply DCS and Colorwave algorithms to the same tested RCPs. The comparison results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms both DCS and Colorwave algorithms.