Enabling IoT through Gen2 RFID: PHY/MAC research opportunities

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies were considered as the main enabler for the Internet of Things (IoT) vision due to its almost zero energy consumption and efficient price/performance ratio. Small and cost effective devices called tags can report their memory content from NLOS distances and therefore represent true replacement for old-fashioned barcodes. RFIDs are advancing, and as already shown in the literature, there is still work to be done in order to improve overall system performances. To deal with this, research efforts made so far are concentrating on particular details of the protocol stack, while neglecting the influences that appear from the other layers. When looked integrally, these should be properly compensated to be optimal. In this paper an overview of these influences is given while discussing open research questions and opportunities that remained uninvestigated both in PHY and MAC layer.