MCSMARA: A MAC Protocol for RFID Systems

Dense RFID environments pose critical challenges such as Reader-to-Reader Interference (RRI), Reader-to-Tag Collisions (RTC), and inefficient resource utilization, which degrade system performance and scalability. Traditional Media Access Control (MAC) protocols, including CSMA and TDMA, struggle to address these issues effectively, particularly in dynamic and large-scale deployments. This paper introduces MCSMARA (Markov Decision Process (MDP)-based Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Reader Arbitration), a novel MAC protocol designed to optimize reader coordination in dense RFID networks. By leveraging an MDP framework, MCSMARA models reader state transitions and employs a utility-based arbitration mechanism to dynamically allocate frequencies and time slots. The protocol incorporates adaptive backoff and decentralized neighborhood discovery for efficient resource management without centralized control. Simulation results demonstrate that MCSMARA reduces collisions by up to 30 %, improves throughput by 25 %, and ensures superior scalability, supporting a large amount of readers with minimal computational overhead. These findings establish MCSMARA as a transformative solution for RFID networks in logistics, retail, and industrial IoT, with potential for extension to mobile and heterogeneous environments.