NeTS: Medium: New Technologies for Next-generation Infrastructural Tagged Systems

条形码系统通过激光扫描仪加快了结账过程，从而为零售业带来了一场革命。激光扫描仪可以从打印在每件商品上的条形码中读取产品ID，并从数据库中自动检索其价格。然而，有一个严重的限制因素：条形码只能在非常近的范围内直接阅读，这使得无法批量访问堆放在商店货架或购物车中的对象。RFID(射频识别)技术通过在可附加标签中集成简单的通信/存储/计算能力来消除这一限制，即使在标签和RFID读取器之间存在障碍的情况下，也可以远距离无线读取其ID。今天，RFID标签在零售产品、图书馆书籍、借记卡、护照、驾驶执照、汽车牌照、医疗器械等中随处可见。当前的应用模式只是将标签视为ID携带者，并单独处理每个标签，以便识别标签所附的对象，该对象可能是通过收费站的车辆、受监控的野生动物、机场正在运输的行李或通过制造、组装和运输链的商业产品。超越目前的模式，该项目的独特之处在于将传统的个人观点转变为集体观点，将普遍部署的标签一起视为新的无线基础设施，在该基础设施上可以开发新型应用，用于大规模自动化仓库管理、网络物理数据收集、复杂的库存控制，甚至城市街道上的交通流量监控。这种新的无线平台可以通过将微型传感器集成到标签中进行实时信息收集、通过利用标签的移动性、通过支持安全功能等来进一步增强。这些发展不仅将极大地扩展应用范围，而且将极大地扩展对下一代基础设施标签系统的基础研究。鉴于标签技术在行业和客户市场中的广泛适用性，拟议的研究有可能产生重大的实际影响。此外，作为该项目的一部分，将开发新的教育材料，以便及时将研究成果纳入研究生课程。本课题的研究工作主要包括以下几个方面：首先，本课题通过对少量标签基元的精心选择，使其不仅可以更有效地解决一些已有的问题，而且还可以处理许多以前没有研究过的开放问题。特别是，将彻底研究称为逻辑混合映射、标签排序和标签选择的三个基本原语，目的是产生简单但在支持不同应用需求的能力方面具有通用性的通用标签。其次，虽然大多数以前的工作都集中在优化时间效率上，但该项目为使用带有内部电源的标签的系统带来了一个新的维度，即应用程序级别的能效。拟议的研究将设计节能的解决方案，并提供控制能源与时间权衡的手段。最后，如果标签被普遍使用，人们的隐私将成为一个严重的问题。下一代标签将有助于提高人们的生活质量，但同时，如果人们把它们放在口袋里或车里，它可以揭示人们的位置。为了解决这些问题，该项目将研究在未来的标签系统中保护隐私的信息收集和认证。综上所述，本项目的成果将促进我们对标签系统设计在通用性、能源效率和隐私保护方面的理解。预期的结果包括一组基本原语(设计、分析、评估和实现)，这些原语共同为大量有趣的应用程序提供优化的解决方案。

Barcode systems have brought a revolution in the retail industry by speeding up the checkout process with a laser scanner that reads the product ID from barcode printed on each item and retrieves its price automatically from a database. However, there is a serious limiting factor: barcodes can only be read in a very close range with direct sight, which makes it impossible to batch-access objects that are piled on store racks or in shopping carts. RFID (radio-frequency identification) technologies remove this limitation by integrating simple communication/storage/computation capacities in attachable tags, whose IDs can be read wirelessly over a distance, even when obstacles exist between tags and the RFID reader. Today, RFID tags are ubiquitously available in retail products, library books, debit cards, passports, driver licenses, car plates, medical devices, etc. The current application model treats tags simply as ID carriers and deals with each tag individually for the purpose of identifying the object that the tag is attached to, which may be a vehicle passing through a toll booth, a wild animal under monitoring, a luggage being transported in an airport, or a commercial product through the chain of manufacturing, assembly and shipping. Going beyond the current model, the uniqueness of this project is to change the traditional individual view to a collective view that treats universally-deployed tags together as a new wireless infrastructure, on which novel applications can be developed for large-scale automated warehouse management, cyber-physical data collection, sophisticated inventory control, and even transportation traffic monitoring on the streets of a city. Such a new wireless platform can be further enhanced by integrating miniaturized sensors into tags for real-time information collection, by exploiting the mobility of tags, by supporting security functions, etc. These developments will greatly expand not only the scope of applications but also fundamental research into the next-generation infrastructural tagged systems. The proposed research has the potential of making significant practical impact, given the wide applicability of tag technologies in industries and customer markets. Moreover, as part of the project, new educational materials will be developed to timely incorporate research results into graduate courses. The research activities include the following: First, this project makes the case that a small number of carefully-chosen tag primitives have the potential of not only solving some existing problems much more efficiently, but also handling many open problems that have not been studied before. In particular, three fundamental primitives, called logical mixmap, tag ordering and tag selection, will be thoroughly investigated with the objective of producing generic tags that are simple yet versatile in their ability to support different application needs. Second, while most prior work focuses on optimizing time efficiency, this project brings in a new dimension, application-level energy efficiency, for systems that use tags with internal power sources. The proposed research will design energy-efficient solutions and provide means to control energy-time tradeoff. Finally, should tags be pervasively deployed, people's privacy would become a serious concern. Next-generation tags will help improve the quality of people's lives, but meanwhile can reveal location if people carry them in their pockets or by their cars. To address such concerns, this project will study privacy-preserving information collection and authentication in future tagged systems. In summary, the results from this project will advance our understanding of tagged system design in terms of versatility, energy efficiency and privacy protection. The expected outcome includes a set of fundamental primitives (designs, analysis, evaluation, and implementation) that together provide optimized solutions for a large number of interesting applications.