Backscatter Communications with Self-Radiated Nodes

Gordillo A.C. · 2022 IEEE ANDESCON: Technology and Innovation for Andean Industry, ANDESCON 2022 (2022) · DOI: 10.1109/andescon56260.2022.9989919

Resumen

Backscatter communications are the result of electromagnetic waves going through or reflected from an antenna, which is driven by a baseband signal from a transmitter node. Therefore, for this to happen, it requires an external radio frequency (RF) source. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate that a node can be self-radiated without includind a RF fron end or any RF component, exepting an antenna. It can be explained by taking into account the harmonic components generated by the digital clock of a microcontroller-based node, which acts as the external RF generator and self radiates the modulating antenna. However, our results show that this is not achievable with all the harmonics components because of insufficent power issues. Our tests, using an Arduino Pro Mini board to implement the node element, shows that these kind of transmissions are feasible and can be used in suitable environments. Moreover, a PlutoSDR platform is used to implement the receiver making this work a low cost project. On the other hand, the attainable range is limited by the restricted available power and we tested it for low data rates having in mind sensory applications.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Tecnológica de Lima Sur