SBIR Phase I: Passive Radio for the Internet of Things

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使Wi-Fi和其他无线电传输的功耗比现有的低10000倍。该技术首次可以使用反向散射通信产生Wi-Fi和其他无线电传输，其功率比传统技术低几个数量级。这些反向散射传输可以在传统的Wi-Fi接入点、电话和其他设备上解码。考虑到人们对嵌入在日常物品和环境中的小型计算设备的物联网的兴趣日益增加，将通信的能源效率提高1万倍将大大延长电池寿命。因此，这个项目将使物联网在经济和环境上更加可行，因为电池将以更慢的速度被送往垃圾填埋场。从经济上讲，减少或消除无处不在的传感器的电池将导致半导体行业的增长，以及其他行业的增长，由于有了关于物理世界的新数据来源，这些行业将能够让他们的客户搜索物理世界。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目介绍了关键的见解，即在电池供电的无线电中发现的耗电、高频模拟和射频组件可以组合在一起，形成一个称为辅助节点的壁挂式供电设备。能量有限，电池供电的移动/嵌入式终端设备只包含低频和主要数字组件，使其功耗可以忽略不计。移动设备通过反射助手产生的射频信号来传输数据。这种新颖的无线电系统分区使端点能够比主动无线电技术更有效地进行通信。本项目旨在创建一个完整的网络堆栈，使ISM频段的无源设备与传统的有源设备共存。该系统由超低能耗端点传感器、壁挂式辅助设备和商用现货有源无线路由器组成。该项目包括构建工作网络硬件，设计和实现与该项目相匹配的网络堆栈。S的独特需求，并与实际客户测试生成的系统。如果成功，该项目将提供关键的支持技术，实现数十亿设备连接到互联网而无需更换电池的普遍连接设备的愿景。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to enable Wi-Fi and other radio transmissions at up to 10000 times lower power than has been possible. The technique for the first time can generate Wi-Fi and other radio transmissions using backscatter communication, for orders of magnitude lower power than conventional techniques. These backscatter transmissions can be decoded on conventional Wi-Fi Access Points, phones, and other devices. Given the increasing interest in the Internet-of-Things where small computing devices are embedded in everyday objects and environments, improving the energy efficiency of communication by up to 10,000 times will substantially extend battery life. As a result, this project would make the Internet of things more viable economically and environmentally, since batteries will travel to landfills at a slower rate. Economically, reducing or eliminating batteries from pervasive sensors will lead to growth in the semiconductor industry, and also in other businesses, which will be able to allow their customers to search the physical world, thanks to the new sources of data about the physical world. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project introduces the key insight that the power-hungry, high-frequency analog and RF components found in battery-powered radios can be grouped together into a wall-powered device called the helper node. The energy constrained, battery-powered mobile/embedded endpoint device contains only low frequency and mostly digital components, making its power consumption negligible. The mobile devices transmit data by reflecting RF signals generated by the helper. This novel partitioning of the radio system allows the Endpoint to communicate far more efficiently than was possible with active radio techniques. This project aims to create a complete network stack that enables passive devices to coexist with conventional active devices in the ISM band. The system consists of ultra-low energy endpoint sensors, wall-powered helper devices, and commercial off the shelf active radio routers. The project involves building working networking hardware, designing and implementing a network stack matched to the project?s unique needs, and testing the resulting system with real customers. If successful, the project will have delivered the critical enabling technology for the vision of pervasively connected devices with billions of devices connected to the Internet without the need to replace batteries.