Speedway Revolution Reader Application Note

Low Level User Data Support

This application note provides the operator of a Speedway Revolution reader with the necessary information to utilize the Radio Frequency (RF) phase and Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) low level user data. The target audience is any party interested in using the RF phase and RSSI reporting features. Note that the low level user data feature requires a Speedway Revolution reader with at least Octane 4.4 firmware to receive any low level tag metrics, however the latest optimizations to these tag reports, including the Doppler effects described here, are available beginning with Octane 4.8.

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Speedway Revolution ReaderLow Level User Data Support

Table of Contents
1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................3 1.1 Terminology .....................................................................................................................................3 2 Configuration...........................................................................................................................................4 2.1 Example LLRP ROSpec ...................................................................................................................4 2.2 Example RO_ACCESS_REPORT ...................................................................................................6 3 Low Level User Data...............................................................................................................................8 3.1 Backscatter Power ............................................................................................................................8 3.1.1 Theory ........................................................................................................................................8 3.1.2 Environmental and Other Effects...............................................................................................9 3.1.3 Speedway Revolution Reader RSSI Reporting..........................................................................9 3.2 RF Phase .........................................................................................................................................10 3.2.1 Theory ......................................................................................................................................10 3.2.2 Environmental and Other Effects.............................................................................................10 3.2.3 Inventory, Antenna Switching, and Frequency Hopping Effects ............................................11 3.2.4 Speedway Revolution Reader RF Phase Reporting .................................................................11 3.2.5 Computing Velocity from RF Phase ........................................................................................12 3.3 Doppler Frequency .........................................................................................................................13 3.3.1 Theory ......................................................................................................................................13 3.3.2 Speedway Revolution Reader Doppler Frequency Reporting .................................................13 3.3.3 Accuracy of Doppler Frequency Reporting .............................................................................15 3.3.4 Calculation of Velocity from Doppler Frequency Reporting ..................................................15 4 Revision History....................................................................................................................................16 Notices: .....................................................................................................................................................16

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1 Introduction
This application note provides the operator of a Speedway Revolution reader with the necessary information to utilize the Radio Frequency (RF) phase and Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) low level user data. The target audience is any party interested in using the RF phase and RSSI reporting features. Note that the low level user data feature requires a Speedway Revolution reader with at least Octane 4.4 firmware to receive any low level tag metrics, however the latest optimizations to these tag reports, including the Doppler effects described here, are available beginning with Octane 4.8.

1.1 Terminology
Table 1 provides a listing of terminology used within this document.
Table 1 Terminology

Hz LLRP Radial Isotropic Multipath Propagation RCS RF RFID RSSI SNR UHF Watts

Hertz is an SI unit of frequency (1 Hz = 1 cycle/second) Low Level Reader Protocol Along a vector connecting the reader antenna to the tag Identical in all directions; invariant with respect to direction. Electromagnetic wavefronts from the same transmission source reaching a receiving antenna through two or more paths. Radar Cross Section Radio Frequency Radio Frequency IDentification Receive Signal Strength Indication Signal to Noise Ratio Ultra High Frequency Watt is an SI unit of power (1 Watt = 1 Joule/second)

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Configuration

When loaded with the Octane 4.4, or newer versions of software, the Speedway Revolution reader supports RF phase and RSSI reporting through custom extensions of the Low Level Reader Protocol (LLRP). The ImpinjTagReportContentSelector parameter allows the operator to configure additional parameters to be reported via the TagReportData parameter including the ImpinjRFPhaseAngle and ImpinjPeakRSSI parameters. For a complete description of how to enable the low level user data feature for the Speedway Revolution reader please refer to the Octane LLRP Version 4.4 documentation.

2.1 Example LLRP ROSpec

The following is an example ROSpec that includes the ImpinjTagReportContentSelector parameter with the ImpinjRFPhaseAngle and ImpinjPeakRSSI parameters enabled.
<?xml version="1.0"?> <llrp:ADD_ROSPEC Version="1" MessageID="0" xmlns:llrp="http://www.llrp.org/ltk/schema/core/encoding/xml/1.0" xmlns:Impinj="http://developer.impinj.com/ltk/schema/encoding/xml/1.8"> <llrp:ROSpec> <llrp:ROSpecID>1</llrp:ROSpecID> <llrp:Priority>0</llrp:Priority> <llrp:CurrentState>Disabled</llrp:CurrentState> <llrp:ROBoundarySpec> <llrp:ROSpecStartTrigger> <llrp:ROSpecStartTriggerType>Null</llrp:ROSpecStartTriggerType> </llrp:ROSpecStartTrigger> <llrp:ROSpecStopTrigger> <llrp:ROSpecStopTriggerType>Null</llrp:ROSpecStopTriggerType> <llrp:DurationTriggerValue>0</llrp:DurationTriggerValue> </llrp:ROSpecStopTrigger>

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</llrp:ROBoundarySpec> <llrp:AISpec> <llrp:AntennaIDs>0</llrp:AntennaIDs> <llrp:AISpecStopTrigger> <llrp:AISpecStopTriggerType>Null</llrp:AISpecStopTriggerType> <llrp:DurationTrigger>0</llrp:DurationTrigger> </llrp:AISpecStopTrigger> <llrp:InventoryParameterSpec> <llrp:InventoryParameterSpecID>1</llrp:InventoryParameterSpecID> <llrp:ProtocolID>EPCGlobalClass1Gen2</llrp:ProtocolID> </llrp:InventoryParameterSpec> </llrp:AISpec> <llrp:ROReportSpec> <llrp:ROReportTrigger>Upon_N_Tags_Or_End_Of_ROSpec</llrp:ROReportTrigger> <llrp:N>1</llrp:N> <llrp:TagReportContentSelector> <llrp:EnableROSpecID>false</llrp:EnableROSpecID> <llrp:EnableSpecIndex>false</llrp:EnableSpecIndex> <llrp:EnableInventoryParameterSpecID>false</llrp:EnableInventoryParameterSpecID> <llrp:EnableAntennaID>false</llrp:EnableAntennaID> <llrp:EnableChannelIndex>false</llrp:EnableChannelIndex> <llrp:EnablePeakRSSI>false</llrp:EnablePeakRSSI> <llrp:EnableFirstSeenTimestamp>false</llrp:EnableFirstSeenTimestamp> <llrp:EnableLastSeenTimestamp>false</llrp:EnableLastSeenTimestamp> <llrp:EnableTagSeenCount>false</llrp:EnableTagSeenCount>

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<llrp:EnableAccessSpecID>false</llrp:EnableAccessSpecID> <llrp:C1G2EPCMemorySelector> <llrp:EnableCRC>false</llrp:EnableCRC> <llrp:EnablePCBits>false</llrp:EnablePCBits> </llrp:C1G2EPCMemorySelector> </llrp:TagReportContentSelector> <Impinj:ImpinjTagReportContentSelector> <Impinj:ImpinjEnableSerializedTID>false</Impinj:ImpinjEnableSerializedTID> <Impinj:ImpinjEnableRFPhaseAngle>true</Impinj:ImpinjEnableRFPhaseAngle> <Impinj:ImpinjEnablePeakRSSI>true</Impinj:ImpinjEnablePeakRSSI>

<Impinj:ImpinjEnableRFDopplerFrequency>true</Impinj:ImpinjEnableRFDopplerFrequency> </Impinj:ImpinjTagReportContentSelector> </llrp:ROReportSpec> </llrp:ROSpec> </llrp:ADD_ROSPEC>

2.2 Example RO_ACCESS_REPORT

The following example RO_ACCESS_REPORT illustrates the reported RF phase and the RSSI values. The RF phase parameter is a 12-bit value that can be converted to degrees as

768

360 2 = 67.5 o , or to radians as 768 = 1.18 rad. 4096 4096

The RSSI is reported in dBm x 100 so a reported value of -4050 = -40.50 dBm. For a complete description of RF phase and RSSI formatting, please refer to Sections 3.1.3 and 3.2.4 of this document.

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The Doppler frequency is reported as a 16-bit twos-complement value with four fractional bits and can be X X 216 converted to Hertz as when X > 32768 or 4 when X 32768. For the example below the 4 2 2 16 65376 2 conversion would be = 10 Hz. 24
<?xml version="1.0"?> <RO_ACCESS_REPORT Version="1" MessageID="909784410" xmlns:llrp="http://www.llrp.org/ltk/schema/core/encoding/xml/1.0" xmlns:Impinj="http://developer.impinj.com/ltk/schema/encoding/xml/1.8"> <TagReportData> <EPCData> <EPC Count="128">99997777777755555555333333330000</EPC> </EPCData> <Impinj:ImpinjRFPhaseAngle> <Impinj:PhaseAngle>768</Impinj:PhaseAngle> </Impinj:ImpinjRFPhaseAngle> <Impinj:ImpinjPeakRSSI> <Impinj:RSSI>-4050</Impinj:RSSI> </Impinj:ImpinjPeakRSSI> <Impinj:ImpinjRFDopplerFrequency> <Impinj: DopplerFrequency>65376</Impinj: DopplerFrequency> </Impinj:ImpinjRFDopplerFrequency> </TagReportData> </RO_ACCESS_REPORT> <?xml version="1.0" ?>

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Low Level User Data

This application note provides a cursory introduction to those radio propagation topics immediately relevant to the Speedway Revolution reader RSSI and RF phase user data. A comprehensive description of radar techniques and electromagnetic wave propagation are beyond the scope of this paper. The operator is encouraged to reference one of the many texts available on those subjects.

3.1 Backscatter Power

3.1.1 Theory

Figure 3-1 provides a conceptual diagram of the radio wave propagation between an RFID reader and a passive RFID tag.

Figure 3-1: Conceptual diagram of radio wave propagation between RFID reader and tag

The two-way radar equation for a monostatic transmitter, Equation 3-1, provides an estimate of the tag backscatter signal power received (PR) by an RFID reader as a function of the following parameters: PT GT

= Reader transmit power at the transmit antenna input (Watts) = Reader antenna gain = Carrier wavelength (meters)
= Tag Radar Cross Section (meters2) = Distance between reader and tag (meters)

PR =

(4 )

2 GT 2 3

PT (Watts)

Equation 3-1

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The two-way radar equation is a form of the well known Friis equation applied to both directions of the radar link (reader-to-tag and tag-to-reader). The receiver antenna gain term (GR) in the standard Friis equation is replaced by a factor comprehending the targets Radar Cross Section (RCS), GR = 4/2. An objects RCS is a measure of the effective area for capturing incident energy and isotropically scattering it back to the source. The RCS for a passive RFID tag depends on antenna design, impedance matching, and the changes in reflection coefficient as a function of tag modulator state. The received signal power decays as 1/R4 due to the product of the two free-space loss factors, 1/R2, for each link direction (reader-to-tag and tag-to-reader).
3.1.2 Environmental and Other Effects

Many factors can affect the received power, causing it to be different than predicted by the two-way radar equation. Propagation effects such as absorption and scattering as well as antenna effects such as impedance mismatch and polarization mismatch can reduce the power observed at the reader receiver. Multipath propagation and undesired signals in the environment can combine with the primary backscatter, thereby increasing or decrease the received signal power at the reader receiver.
3.1.3 Speedway Revolution Reader RSSI Reporting

The RSSI reported by the Speedway Revolution reader is a power measurement taken within the channel filter bandwidth and reported as a 16-bit signed value in units of dBm x 100. Table 3-1 provides an overview of the Speedway Revolution reader RSSI reporting capabilities.
Table 3-1: RSSI Reporting Parameters
Description RSSI Word Size RSSI Range -110 Min Typ 16 0 Max Units Bits dBm Comments/Conditions Twos complement Reporting range only Reader measurement capability limited to approximately -90 dBm

RSSI Resolution RSSI Standard Deviation

0.5 1

dB dB Standard deviation from mean value over 1000 EPC packets in an anechoic chamber or a cabled test. 0 to +40 C Absolute accuracy of mean value is not specified.

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3.2 RF Phase
3.2.1 Theory

For an RF carrier wave at frequency f (Hz), the relation between frequency and wavelength is given by

c (meters) f

Equation 3-2

where c is the speed of the EM wave in the communication medium which, in air, is equal to the speed of light (3 108 m/s). As shown in Figure 3-1, the total distance traversed by the signal will be 2R. In addition to the RF phase rotation over distance, the readers transmit circuits, the tags reflection characteristic, and the readers receiver circuits will all introduce some additional phase rotation T, TAG, and R respectively. The total phase rotation can be expressed as

= 2

2R + T + R + TAG

Equation 3-3

Since phase is a periodic function with period 2 radians, the phase values will clearly repeat at distances separated by integer multiples of one-half the carrier wavelength n , n = 0,1,2, 2

Rn =

Equation 3-4

3.2.2 Environmental and Other Effects

A reader might employ open-loop estimation techniques such as preamble correlation or closed-loop estimation for acquiring and/or tracking carrier phase. In all cases the phase estimate must be derived from the received signal and the estimate will be a function of the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR). The more noise energy within the receiver bandwidth, the greater the phase standard deviation. Thermal noise from the reader receiver is always present but other noise sources, such as external interference, can also affect the reported RF phase.

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As mentioned in 3.1.1 the RF phase is a periodic function and will be estimated modulo-2. In addition, the Speedway Revolution reader receive signal processing introduces radians of ambiguity such that the reported phase can be the true phase () or the true phase plus radians (+).
3.2.3 Inventory, Antenna Switching, and Frequency Hopping Effects

The Speedway Revolution reader provides one RF phase estimate each time a tag is successfully inventoried. If an application employs multiple samples of the RF phase from a single tag, the application must comprehend the following: 1. Phase estimates should only be compared on a single antenna and channel. RF phase is a function of frequency and antenna path as shown by Equation 3-3. 2. Gen2 UHF RFID employs a slotted-aloha media access scheme, which means that the order in which tags are inventoried will be random. The time between successive inventories of the same tag will depend on reader mode, tag population size, and environmental conditions (e.g. interference levels). Since RF phase is a function of radial distance between reader and tag, the phase difference between successive inventories of the same tag will depend on the elapsed time between the two inventories and the tags radial velocity.
3.2.4 Speedway Revolution Reader RF Phase Reporting

Table 3-2 provides an overview of the Speedway Revolution reader RF phase reporting capabilities.
Table 3-2: RF Phase Reporting Parameters
Description Phase Word Size Phase Word Range 0 0 Phase Standard Deviation -0.1 -5.7 Min Typ 12 +2 +360 0.1 5.7 Max Units Bits Rad Deg Rad Deg Standard deviation from mean value over 1000 EPC packets in an anechoic chamber or a cabled test. 0 to +40 C Absolute accuracy of mean value is not specified. Across frequency band RSSI from 70 to 30 dBm See Figure 3-2 for phase mapping Comments/Conditions

Phase Resolution

0.0015 0.088

Rad Deg

Figure 3-2 diagrams the mapping of phase to the 12-bit value reported by the Speedway Revolution reader.
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0x400 = 90o

0x7FF = 179.912o 0x800 = 180o 0x801 = 180.088o

0x001 = 0.088o 0x000 = 0o 0xFFF = 359.912o

0xC00 = 270o

Figure 3-2: Mapping of phase to the 12-bit reported value

3.2.5 Computing Velocity from RF Phase

If two time-phase pairs are measured for the same tag, one at (t0, 0) and one at (t1, 1), the radial distance traversed by the tag is 1 1 0 (m) 2 212

d RADIAL =

Equation 3-5

Equation 3-5 assumes that the tag moves less than half a wavelength in the radial direction between observations (dRADIAL < /2). The difference in the observation times provides the radial velocity

v RADIAL =

d RADIAL (m/s) t1 t 0

Equation 3-6

The radial direction of travel is given by the sign of the radial velocity vRADIAL.

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3.3 Doppler Frequency

3.3.1 Theory

Doppler frequency is the shift in frequency of the received signal at the reader due to relative motion between the reader and the tag. Let T denote the time duration of a packet. Then, a Doppler frequency of fm Hz introduces a phase rotation over this packet duration given by

= 2 (2 f m T )

Equation 3-7

The Doppler frequency experienced by the reader can thus be calculated by measuring the phase rotation across a packet and using the following expression:

fm =

4T

Equation 3-8

Estimating Doppler frequency over the duration of a single packet avoids many of the pitfalls (e.g. stochastic inventory protocol, antenna switching, channel hopping) inherent to using the RF phase from two different packets. Of course, the time aperture of a single packet places limits on the range and accuracy of Doppler frequency estimates (refer to Table 3-3).
3.3.2 Speedway Revolution Reader Doppler Frequency Reporting

Table 3-3 provides an overview of the Speedway Revolution reader Doppler frequency reporting capabilities.
Table 3-3: Doppler Frequency Reporting Parameters
Description Representation Min -212 Typ Max 212-1 Units Hz Comments/Conditions 16-bit (four fractional) Twos complement Phase Accumulation () -720 -4 +720 +4 Deg Rad Maximum allowed phase accumulation over the duration of any single packet T = packet duration (sec) Lower limit assumes a (arbitrary) minimum of 4 phase rotation.

Frequency Range ( fm )

1 1 < fm < 180 T T

Hz

The first row in Table 3-3 states the reported value is a 16-bit twos complement number with four fractional bits and units of Hertz. Much of this binary word range will remain unused since typical RFID applications experience Doppler frequencies from 0 Hz (no motion) up to perhaps 30 Hz (velocities up to

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10 m/sec). Some RFID applications, such as vehicle tracking, might experience Doppler frequencies greater than 100 Hz. The bottom row in Table 3-3 gives a typical range of Doppler frequencies (fm) that might be reasonably estimated for a given packet duration. For example, if the reader is configured for DRM mode operation (M=4, BLF=256 kHz) and is receiving a 256-bit EPC from the tag, the packet duration is T = 256 bits = 4 ms 64 kHz

For these specific DRM settings and EPC length, an estimate of the minimum and maximum Doppler frequency shift that can be measured is (from Table 3-3): min ( f m ) = 1 2 Hz , 180 4 ms max( f m ) = 1 250 Hz 4 ms

It should be clear that estimating small Doppler frequency requires longer packet durations (e.g. increased EPC length and/or slower reverse link rate). The opposite is obviously true for large Doppler frequency. Since RFID applications typically experience small Doppler frequency, Figure 3-3 provides a graphical illustration of how the minimum measurable Doppler frequency might vary with data rate and packet length.
Figure 3-3: Guide to Minimum Doppler Frequency
10
3

Minimum Doppler Frequency (Hz)

10

32-bit Packet

128-bit Packet

10

512-bit Packet

10

10

-1

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Reverse Link Rate (Kbits/sec)

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3.3.3 Accuracy of Doppler Frequency Reporting

Table 3-3 provides only a typical range of measurable Doppler frequency and Figure 3-3 is only intended as a guide. Many factors influence the readers ability to obtain useful Doppler estimates. As described in Subsection 3.2.2, both the minimum detectable Doppler frequency and the accuracy of these estimates will depend upon the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio of the received signal. Any increase in noise energy within the receive bandwidth will increase the variance of the measurements. Non line-of-sight (NLOS) signal components due to multipath propagation can also distort the measurement results.
3.3.4 Calculation of Velocity from Doppler Frequency Reporting

Let vtr be the relative velocity of the tag with respect to the reader. When vtr<<c, where c is the speed of light in m/s, Doppler frequency can be approximated by the following expression:

fm =

vtr f c

Equation 3-9

Here, f is the frequency of the reader. Note that vtr is assumed to be positive when the tag and the reader are moving towards each other. The relative velocity in terms of Doppler frequency is then given by,

vtr =

fm c f

Equation 3-10

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4 Revision History
Date 08/12/2010 05/26/2011 Revision 1.0 2.0 -original release -updated for Doppler Frequency in Octane 4.8 Comments

Notices:
Copyright 2011, Impinj, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is conditionally issued, and neither receipt nor possession hereof confers or transfers any right in, or license to, use the subject matter of any drawings, design, or technical information contained herein, nor any right to reproduce or disclose any part of the contents hereof, without the prior written consent of Impinj and the authorized recipient hereof. Impinj reserves the right to change its products and services at any time without notice. Impinj assumes no responsibility for customer product design or for infringement of patents and/or the rights of third parties, which may result from assistance provided by Impinj. No representation of warranty is given and no liability is assumed by Impinj with respect to accuracy or use of such information. These products are not designed for use in life support appliances, devices, or systems where malfunction can reasonably be expected to result in personal injury. This product is covered by one or more of the following U.S. patents. Other patents pending. 7283037, 7026935, 7049964, 7501953, 7030786, 7246751, 7245213, 7408466, 7187290, 7304579, 7510117, 7107022, 7419096, 7382257, 7405660, 7436308, 7417548, 7391329, 7391329, 7592897, 7589618, 7633376, 7696882, 7830262

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