RF-CHORD: Towards Deployable RFID Localization System for Logistics Network

TL;DR

RF-Chord is a deployable RFID localization system that achieves high reliability, throughput, and range simultaneously, enabling efficient inventory management in logistics networks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel wideband RFID localization system with real-time processing, range extension techniques, and error reduction methods, addressing practical deployment challenges.

Findings

Localizes over 180 tags within 6 meters in 1 second

Achieves 99% long-tail error of 0.786 meters

Zero miss reading rate in deployment scenarios

Abstract

RFID localization is considered the key enabler of automating the process of inventory tracking and management for high-performance logistic network. A practical and deployable RFID localization system needs to meet reliability, throughput, and range requirements. This paper presents RF-Chord, the first RFID localization system that simultaneously meets all three requirements. RF-Chord features a one-shot multisine-constructed wideband design that can process RF signal with a 200 MHz bandwidth in real-time to facilitate one-shot localization at scale. In addition, multiple SINR enhancement techniques are designed for range extension. On top of that, a kernel-layer-based near-field localization framework and a multipath-suppression algorithm are proposed to reduce the 99% long-tail errors. Our empirical results show that RF-Chord can localize more than 180 tags 6 m away from a reader within 1 second and with 99% long-tail error of 0.786 m, achieving a 0% miss reading rate and ~0.01% cross-reading rate in the warehouse and fresh food delivery store deployment.