Next generation RFID using ultra-wideband signaling

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a powerful technology for asset monitoring and tracking and has a vast potential to reduce operating costs for many applications. While conventional narrowband RFID systems have successfully been used in several applications, the challenges posed by their signal characteristics has prevented their widespread use in some operational scenarios requiring data security and privacy, long lifetime, and operations in cluttered environments. Even though the state-of-the-art research in narrowband RFID systems has overcome some of these challenges, the use of ultra-wideband (UWB) signaling for tag-reader communications could be another option to address the unresolved problems. In this paper we present a summary of such challenges and explain how UWB technology can provide a viable solution for each of them. More detailed discussions on this topic are available in [1]. This paper is organized as follows. We start with an overview of the key challenges of narrowband signaling in tag-reader communications, then we briefly go over the concept of UWB signaling and discuss the distinct advantages of using UWB for tag-reader communications in various RFID challenges. We conclude the paper with a summary of discussions.