A Reliability Study of the RFID Technology

RFID is a transformational technology that can bring about numerous benefits for its users. The US Department of Defense recognizes the potential benefits and has therefore issued a mandate for its suppliers to be RFID equipped. RFID allows for hands-free data capturing thus enabling the efficient recording of material transactions as well as increased efficiencies within the supply chain. Accurate tag reads are vital for the successful implementation of an RFID system. The factors that affect the read reliability of an RFID system are examined in this paper. The extent to how these factors affect the reliability is studied and the possible methods of mitigating these factors are explored, with the aim of increasing the reliability of reading single tags. Specific study into alternative coding and modulation techniques is done, and their performance compared with techniques used in the existing technology.