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Wi-fi backscatter: internet connectivity for RF-powered devices

Authors:

Shyamnath Gollakota,

Joshua R. Smith,

David WetherallAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCOMM '14: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM conference on SIGCOMM

Pages 607 - 618

https://doi.org/10.1145/2619239.2626319

Published: 17 August 2014 Publication History

Abstract

RF-powered computers are small devices that compute and communicate using only the power that they harvest from RF signals. While existing technologies have harvested power from ambient RF sources (e.g., TV broadcasts), they require a dedicated gateway (like an RFID reader) for Internet connectivity. We present Wi-Fi Backscatter, a novel communication system that bridges RF-powered devices with the Internet. Specifically, we show that it is possible to reuse existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to RF-powered devices. To show Wi-Fi Backscatter's feasibility, we build a hardware prototype and demonstrate the first communication link between an RF-powered device and commodity Wi-Fi devices. We use off-the-shelf Wi-Fi devices including Intel Wi-Fi cards, Linksys Routers, and our organization's Wi-Fi infrastructure, and achieve communication rates of up to 1 kbps and ranges of up to 2.1 meters. We believe that this new capability can pave the way for the rapid deployment and adoption of RF-powered devices and achieve ubiquitous connectivity via nearby mobile devices that are Wi-Fi enabled.

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Cited By

Li XYuan YAn YJiang B(2024)A BLE 5.0 Extended Advertising Backscatter with Commodity Devices in Passive IoT ScenariosElectronics10.3390/electronics1305096113:5(961)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13050961
Wang BZhu FLi WYang ZJin MTian XOkoshi TKo JLiKamWa R(2024)Frequency-agile OFDM BackscatterProceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services10.1145/3643832.3661873(252-264)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643832.3661873
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
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Wi-fi backscatter: internet connectivity for RF-powered devices
1. Networks
  1. Network types
    1. Mobile networks
    2. Wireless access networks

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCOMM '14: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM conference on SIGCOMM

August 2014

662 pages

ISBN:9781450328364

DOI:10.1145/2619239

General Chairs:
Fabián E. Bustamante
Northwestern University, USA
,
Y. Charlie Hu
Purdue University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Arvind Krishnamurthy
University of Washington, USA
,
Sylvia Ratnasamy
University of California, Berkeley, USA

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Volume 44, Issue 4
SIGCOMM'14
October 2014
672 pages
ISSN:0146-4833
DOI:10.1145/2740070
Editors:
Konstantina Papagiannaki
Telefonica Research, Barcelona, Spain
,
Katerina Argyraki
EPFL, Switzerland
,
Hitesh Ballani
Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK
,
Fabián Bustamante
Northwestern University, USA
,
Joseph Camp
SMU, USA
,
Augustin Chaintreau
Columbia University, USA
,
Phillipa Gill
Stony Brook University, USA
,
Marco Mellia
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
,
Bhaskaran Raman
IIT Bombay, India
,
Joel Sommers
Colgate University, USA
,
Aline Carneiro Viana
INRIA, France
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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SIGCOMM: ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication

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New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 17 August 2014

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SIGCOMM'14

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SIGCOMM

SIGCOMM'14: ACM SIGCOMM 2014 Conference

August 17 - 22, 2014

Illinois, Chicago, USA

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SIGCOMM '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 45 of 242 submissions, 19%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 554 of 3,547 submissions, 16%

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Cited By

Li XYuan YAn YJiang B(2024)A BLE 5.0 Extended Advertising Backscatter with Commodity Devices in Passive IoT ScenariosElectronics10.3390/electronics1305096113:5(961)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13050961
Wang BZhu FLi WYang ZJin MTian XOkoshi TKo JLiKamWa R(2024)Frequency-agile OFDM BackscatterProceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services10.1145/3643832.3661873(252-264)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643832.3661873
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
Liang ZXing GXu CDavies N(2024)SRIS: Self-powered Reconfigurable Intelligent SurfacesProceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications10.1145/3638550.3641124(66-72)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3638550.3641124
Johnson JPalacios AArvonen CLundrigan PGanesan DShi W(2024)Wireless Latency Shift KeyingProceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3636534.3649373(452-466)Online publication date: 29-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636534.3649373
Hemour SDauny RGu X(2024)Beyond Rectification: Passive Backscattering Modulation2024 IEEE Wireless Power Technology Conference and Expo (WPTCE)10.1109/WPTCE59894.2024.10557448(209-212)Online publication date: 8-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/WPTCE59894.2024.10557448
Liu WShen STsang DMallik RMurch R(2024)An Efficient Ratio Detector for Ambient Backscatter CommunicationIEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications10.1109/TWC.2023.332893523:6(5908-5921)Online publication date: Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TWC.2023.3328935
Chen HZhang QLong RPei YLiang Y(2024)Pilot Design and Signal Detection for Symbiotic Radio Over OFDM CarriersIEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications10.1109/TWC.2023.328639523:2(1129-1142)Online publication date: Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TWC.2023.3286395
Yang YGong W(2024)Universal WiFi Backscatter With Ambient Space-Time StreamsIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2023.333692232:3(2042-2052)Online publication date: Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2023.3336922
Gong WHuang YWang QChen SZhao JLiu J(2024)Efficient Single-Symbol Backscatter With Uncontrolled Ambient OFDM WiFiIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2023.333222032:2(1797-1806)Online publication date: Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2023.3332220
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