Improving Communication Performance of Passive Backscattering Tags Using Collaborative Backscatter

We propose collaborative backscatter techniques for tag-to-tag communication between battery-less RF tags. The low incident backscatter power and the limited processing ability in the passive receive circuits limit the performance of such links. By recruiting 'helper' tags to boost backscatter signals, such links can be substantially strengthened, depending upon the network topology and channel conditions. Two techniques are developed and evaluated on a prototype tag network, demonstrating close-to-optimal performance with low computational overhead.