Analytical modeling of RFID Generation-2 protocol using absorbing Markov chain theorem

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a ubiquitous wireless technology which allows objects to be identified automatically. An RFID tag is a small electronic device with an antenna and has a unique identification number. RFID tags can be categorized into passive and active tags. For passive tags, there exists a standard communication protocol called EPC-global Generation-2, or briefly EPC Gen-2 [1]. In this paper, we investigate the EPC Gen-2 protocol and model it using an absorbing Markov chain. We formulate the proposed model and calculate the expected number of queries required to identify all tags in the system. Extensive simulations validate and confirm the accuracy of our proposed analytical model. Without this model, one has to run simulations and average the results to obtain the expected number of required queries for any given number of tags in the system. Using the mathematical formulations provided, there is no need to rely on simulations for studying the behavior of the EPC Gen-2 protocol and we are able to calculate the number of required queries directly. Our proposed analytical model is also useful in studying and comparing other RFID protocols, and in deploying better protocols for RFID systems.