Backscatter Communication Using Ultrawide Bandwidth Signals for RFID Applications

Abstract

The article looks at ways in which everyday devices are being given the ability to connect to a data network. Giving everyday objects the ability to connect to a data network would have a range of benefits: making it easier for homeowners to configure their lights and switches, reducing the cost and complexity of building construction, assisting with home health care. Many alternative standards currently compete to do just that--a situation reminiscent of the early days of the Internet, when computers and networks came in multiple incompatible types. To eliminate this technological Tower of Babel, the data protocol that is at the heart of the Internet can be adopted to represent information in whatever form it takes: pulsed electrically, flashed optically, clicked acoustically, broadcast electromagnetically or printed mechanically. Using this "Internet-0" encoding, the original idea of linking computer networks into a seamless whole--the "Inter" in "Internet"--can be extended to networks of all types of devices, a concept known as interdevice internetworking. The solution to building a global network out of heterogeneous local networks, called internetworking, was found in two big ideas. The first was packet switching. The second idea was the "end-to-end" principle.