Exploring the Frontiers of RFID Coverage Capacity: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, pivotal in sectors such as retail, logistics, healthcare, and security, faces a fundamental challenge in maximizing the efficiency of large-scale systems-specifically, the coverage capacity of RFID readers. This paper addresses the under-investigated problem of RFID coverage capacity by merging theoretical analysis and practical implementation to optimize reader deployment. By incorporating tag layout factors along with the link loss budget, we construct a theoretical model of coverage capacity that reflects the maximum number of tags a reader can effectively cover. Additionally, we develop a cutoff-power-based solution to bridge the gap between theoretical limits and practical application, without requiring any predetermined system parameters. A prototype is built upon commercial RFID systems and experimental results demonstrate a significant improvement in coverage capability.