research-article

Content-agnostic backscatter from thin air

Authors:

Wei GongAuthors Info & Claims

MobiSys '22: Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services

Pages 343 - 356

https://doi.org/10.1145/3498361.3538930

Published: 27 June 2022 Publication History

Abstract

We present CAB, a content-agnostic backscatter system that can demodulate both tag and ambient data from ambient backscattered WiFi alone. In contrast to prior ambient backscatter systems that use ambient data (content) as tag-data carriers, we focus on zero-subcarriers, which are invariant and independent for any ambient OFDM WiFi. The idea of using zero-subcarriers to convey tag data is simple and elegant. Not only does it for the first time remove the dependency of tag-data demodulation on ambient data, but it also significantly improves the practicality of ambient backscatter.

We prototype CAB using off-the-shelf FPGAs and SDRs. Extensive experiments show CAB is universal as it can work with multi-band, multi-stream, and multi-user ambient traffic, including WiFi 3/4/5/6. CAB is also high-performing since it can deliver 340.9 Mbps aggregate throughput, reaching 97% Shannon capacity. Since CAB is general, we extend it to leverage ambient LTE traffic as excitations, and the achieved tag-data BER is below 0.002%. As the first content-agnostic backscatter that delivers near Shannon-capacity throughput, we believe CAB takes a curial step forward on ubiquitous battery-free IoTs.

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Cited By

Wu WGong W(2025)Concurrent WiFi backscatter communication using a single receiver in IoT networksComputer Networks10.1016/j.comnet.2024.111029(111029)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2024.111029
Wang SYan YHan FTian YDing YYang PLi XOkoshi TKo JLiKamWa R(2024)MultiRider: Enabling Multi-Tag Concurrent OFDM Backscatter by Taming In-band InterferenceProceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services10.1145/3643832.3661862(292-303)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643832.3661862
Jang WShao CLee WGanesan DLane NShi W(2024)Rethinking Channel Coding for Wi-Fi Backscatter NetworkingProceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3636534.3697431(1599-1601)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636534.3697431
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Content-agnostic backscatter from thin air
1. Networks
  1. Network architectures
    1. Network design principles
  2. Network types
    1. Cyber-physical networks
      1. Sensor networks

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cover image ACM Conferences

MobiSys '22: Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services

June 2022

668 pages

ISBN:9781450391856

DOI:10.1145/3498361

General Chairs:
Nirupama Bulusu
Portland State University
,
Ehsan Aryafar
Portland State University
,
Program Chairs:
Aruna Balasubramanian
Stony Brook University
,
Junehwa Song
KAIST

Copyright © 2022 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 27 June 2022

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National Natural Science Foundation of China

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MobiSys '22

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MobiSys '22: The 20th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services

June 27 - July 1, 2022

Oregon, Portland

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Overall Acceptance Rate 274 of 1,679 submissions, 16%

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Cited By

Wu WGong W(2025)Concurrent WiFi backscatter communication using a single receiver in IoT networksComputer Networks10.1016/j.comnet.2024.111029(111029)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2024.111029
Wang SYan YHan FTian YDing YYang PLi XOkoshi TKo JLiKamWa R(2024)MultiRider: Enabling Multi-Tag Concurrent OFDM Backscatter by Taming In-band InterferenceProceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services10.1145/3643832.3661862(292-303)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643832.3661862
Jang WShao CLee WGanesan DLane NShi W(2024)Rethinking Channel Coding for Wi-Fi Backscatter NetworkingProceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3636534.3697431(1599-1601)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636534.3697431
Qin QChen KXie YLuo HFang DChen XGanesan DLane NShi W(2024)Pushing the Throughput Limit of OFDM-based Wi-Fi Backscatter CommunicationProceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3636534.3690672(968-983)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636534.3690672
Mei LYin ZWang SZhou XLing THe T(2024)ECRLoRa: LoRa Packet Recovery under Low SNR via Edge–Cloud CollaborationACM Transactions on Sensor Networks10.1145/360493620:2(1-25)Online publication date: 9-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3604936
Wang QZhao JGong W(2024)PilotScatter: High-Throughput OFDM Backscatter via Pilot TonesIEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications10.1109/TWC.2024.343933923:11(16248-16260)Online publication date: Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TWC.2024.3439339
Yuan LGong WFang Y(2024)Native WiFi BackscatterIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2024.340908132:5(3888-3900)Online publication date: Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2024.3409081
Wang BZhu FZhong LJin MWang XChen CGuan XZhou CTian X(2024)Enabling Dual-Band Wi-Fi BackscatterIEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing10.1109/TMC.2024.340001323:12(11750-11764)Online publication date: Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMC.2024.3400013
Mou DXiao LPeng MZhou JLiu GJiang T(2024)Subcarrier Interleaved Index Modulation Assisted OFDM Backscatter CommunicationIEEE Communications Letters10.1109/LCOMM.2024.346766928:11(2533-2537)Online publication date: Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2024.3467669
Wang SHan FYan YDing YYang PLi X(2024)SlickScatter: Retrieve WiFi Backscatter Signal from Unknown Interference2024 IEEE/ACM 32nd International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS)10.1109/IWQoS61813.2024.10682943(1-10)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/IWQoS61813.2024.10682943
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