A modified grouped-tag TDMA access protocol for radio frequency identification networks

We describe a new medium access protocol termed the modified grouped-tag TDMA protocol (MGTDMA) for networking radio frequency identification tags. It is known that the previously proposed grouped-tag TDMA (GTDMA) protocol performs very well under the conditions of uniform destination distribution and not so well for heterogeneous traffic conditions. The MGTDMA differs from GTDMA in the sense that MCTDMA allows groups experiencing high traffic to steal (cooperatively) from low traffic groups at regular time intervals. The performance of an access scheme is assessed in terms of the average packet delay and average energy consumption. An approximate analytical equation for average delay is derived. More accurate estimates for delay are obtained through simulation studies. We compare the performance of MGTDMA, GTDMA, and a pseudo random protocol and show the usefulness of the new scheme