LoRea: A Backscatter Architecture that Achieves a Long Communication Range

Abstract

We present LOREA an architecture consisting of a backscatter tag, a reader and multiple carrier generators that overcomes the power, cost and range limitations of existing backscatter systems such as Computational Radio Frequency Identification (CRFID). LOREA achieves this by: First, generating narrow-band backscatter transmissions. Second, by mitigating self-interference without the complex designs employed on RFID readers by keeping carrier signal and backscattered signal apart in frequency. Finally, by decoupling carrier generation from the reader and using devices such as WiFi routers and sensor nodes as a source of the carrier signal. LOREA's communication range scales with the carrier strength, and proximity to the carrier source and achieves a maximum range of 3.4km when the tag is located 1 m from the carrier source while consuming 70 μWs at the backscatter tag. We present various ultra-low power and long-range features of the LoRea architecture.