NeTS: Small: RFID-Based Networking

新兴的计算型RFID （Radio Frequency IDentification）标签将传感和计算技术与传统的RFID技术相结合。这种组合使得小型、寿命长的传感器可以像贴纸一样不显眼地放置在日常物品上，当它们靠近RFID读取器时就可以读取。该技术是普适计算、网络物理系统和传感器网络的推动者。该项目将计算RFID发展为一个网络系统，重点是操作系统软件和硬件对计算RFID标签和网络协议的支持，以支持新的应用。一个关键的研究挑战是，这些设备的能量极其有限，并且依赖于它们可以收集的不同能量；标签必须很好地安排任务，以有效地利用能量。第二个研究挑战是设计非常适合计算RFID的网络协议，因为传统的RFID协议旨在用于重复的库存任务，而传感器网络协议假设节点具有对称能力。所采取的方法是实验性的。该项目在现有的计算RFID标签上构建软件支持和硬件扩展，并对候选应用程序进行原型设计。这项研究的影响将是扩大计算系统可以测量物理世界的覆盖范围，从而实现新的应用，例如老年人护理的自动活动检测，这对社会是有益的。作为该项目的一部分开发的软件和硬件将提供给其他研究人员并用于教育用途。

Emerging computational RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags combine sensing and computation with traditional RFID technology. The combination allows small, long-lived sensors that are as unobtrusive as a sticker to be placed on everyday objects and read when they are in the proximity of an RFID reader. The technology is an enabler for ubiquitous computing, cyber-physical systems, and sensor networks. This project is developing computational RFIDs as a networked system, with an emphasis on operating system software and hardware support on the computational RFID tags and network protocols that will support new applications. One key research challenge is that these devices are extremely energy limited and dependent on the varying energy they can harvest; the tags must schedule tasks well to use energy effectively. A second research challenge is to design network protocols that are well suited to computational RFID, since traditional RFID protocols are intended for repetitive inventorying tasks and sensor network protocols assume that nodes have symmetric abilities. The approach taken is experimental. The project is building software support and hardware extensions on an existing computational RFID tag, and prototyping candidate applications. The impacts of this research will be to extend the coverage with which computing systems can instrument the physical world, which in turn enables new applications, such as automated activity detection for eldercare, that are beneficial to society. The software and hardware developed as part of this project will be made available to other researchers and for educational use.