2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

Perfect Pulses for Ambient Backscatter Communication

Michael A. Varner, Rajib Bhattacharjea, and Gregory D. Durgin, Senior Member, IEEE
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology
777 Atlantic Dr., Atlanta GA, 30332-0250 USA
Abstract—This paper explains how to construct perfect pulses
– antipodal binary waveforms with extraordinary DC-nulling
properties. Several methods for employing perfect pulses in digital
modulation schemes, with particular emphasis on backscatter
(and simply scatter) radio modulation, are demonstrated. These
waveforms enable a completely new type of RF information
exchange by piggy-backing useful information onto ambient
wireless signals using low-powered electronics. A mathematical
model of perfect pulses is shared as well as an overview of
their spectral properties. Software simulations of perfect pulse
enabled communications depict the creation of the channel
waveforms, modulation onto a pseudo-random ambient carrier,
and retrieval of the intended message data from the noisy and
interference laden received signal. A robust receiver system is
described which can be implemented via simple post-processing
techniques in a software defined system or as a low-cost, low-
power RF circuit using commercial-off-the-shelf components.
Experimentally retrieved data is used to create a realistic estimate
of bit rate errors using an actual FM radio station signal.
Key Terms - Perfect pulses, backscatter radio, modulated
carrier communications, RF energy harvesting
I. I NTRODUCTION
In a conventional backscatter system, a reader unit provides
all of the power for communications. Freed from the need
to drive power-hungry RF electronics such as disciplined
oscillators and amplifiers, an RF tag that employs backscatter
can operate on miniscule amounts of power. State-of-the-art
passive UHF RFID tags use so little power that they can power
themselves entirely through harvesting less than 10 µW of
the incident 915 MHz waveform [1]. Despite the impressive
advances of RFID technology in the last decade, both energy-
harvesting and backscatter modulation have not even come
close to approaching their fundamental range limitations [2]–
[4]. Nor have the possible configurations of scatter-based
communications been thoroughly explored . In many prior
works on bistatic backscatter, only CW signals are used rather
than signals that already contain information [5]–[8]. However,
a limitless world of ambient RF power is already available for
communications if the tools for the exploitation of modulated
radio signals are further developed.
RF communications via ambient carriers is non-trivial
using conventional wave-shaping techniques, especially for
low-power, low-cost systems. Because these carriers have an
appreciable bandwidth and are received with the intended
message, the message data must be represented in a way which
can be easily extracted in the presence of noise, interference,
and the much higher powered non-scattered waveform in-band.
Perfect pulse waveforms, introduced by Degnan et. al. [9], have
a unique ability to increase the bandwidth of its spectral null
around DC by increasing the number of transitions in a pulse
shape at strategic locations. Because of this degree of freedom
over the data’s spectral content, it is possible to represent the
message in a way where its content is distinguishable from
that of the ambient carrier, while also minimizing interference
with primary user of that carrier.
This paper examines the properties of the perfect pulse
waveform, explores possibilities for modulation schemes uti-
lizing these waveforms, and describes systems which can
be implemented to handle communication via perfect pulses.
Software simulated data and experimentally retrieved ambient
RF carrier experimentation are analyzed and validate the
possibility to communicate via ambient RF energy.
II. P ERFECT P ULSES
A. Definition
Many electrical signals are, due to physical and hardware
constraints, binary antipodal waveforms; with only two pos-
sible amplitude states, signals can be completely described
by their transitions from one state to another. For example,
a symbol in a binary antipodal signal can be described entirely
by a set of normalized transition times {τ0 , τ1 , τ2 , ·τn }, as
illustrated in Figure 1. The valued of τ are normalized against
the total period of the symbol, Ts , and are therefore unit-less.
Discounting the first and last transitions – which are always
− 12 and 21 , respectively – there are n−1 intrasymbol transitions
in the pulse of Figure 1.
Symbol Period
time, t/Ts
τo = -1/2 τ1 τ2 τn-1 τn = +1/2
Fig. 1: A binary antipodal symbol may be described com-
pletely by a set of transition times {τi }.
A classic square signal results when the transition times
are simply {− 12 , 12 }. If a modulated waveform consists of
ampltiude-modulated versions of this box-shaped pulse with
an informative digital stream, then the resulting power spectral
density (PSD) follows the classic sinc-squared power spectral
density function. In many applications (magnetic drives [10],
optical drives [11], magnetic stripe cards [12], HF and UHF
RFID cards [13], to name a few examples), transmission of
this type of signal is critically impaired by interference at
distortion that exists around DC frequencies – precisely where
the PSD has its frequency peak [2]. This problem is usually
circumvented by applying a channel code to the digital bits.
There are two types of channel coding: synchronous and
asynchronous. In the synchronous variety, the channel code
divides the symbol in Figure 1 into uniformly-spaced binary

978-1-5090-4576-1/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE

978-1-5090-4576-1/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

samples, which lends itself to conventionally clocked logic functions:

circuits [10]. Thus, the operation of channel coding can be r
 
−1 1   1 
represented as a mapping of input binary sequences to cor- xn (t) = sgn sin 2(n+1) sin t+ u −|t| (2)
responding output sequences [10]. In asynchronous channel 2 2
| {z }
coding, the channel code divides the symbol into arbitrary, Φ(t)
even irrational, transitions in an attempt to optimize the desired
spectral property [9]. This expression can be used to provide some analytical insight
into the frequency domain properties of the waveform. The
Each transition added to a symbol provides an extra degree underlying oscillations, before the effective rounding of the
of freedom for nulling spectral content. For example, the signum function in Equation (2), follow a sort of chirped
DC frequency component can be removed from a pulse by sinusoid with time-varying phase:
adding a transition τ1 = 0 in the middle of the symbol – a r
well-known result in early digital communications that results −1 1
Φ(t) = 2(n + 1) sin t+ (3)
in Manchester coding [10]. Allowing for two intrasymbol 2
transitions at τ1 = − 14 and τ2 = 14 provides a symbol with a The instantaneous frequency fi can be used to estimate fre-
deeper DC frequency null, having removed not only the order quency content, with the minimum fi roughly corresponding
f 0 term in the pulse’s power spectrum, but also the f 2 terms to the frequency peak in the spectrum:
as well.
1 dΦ(t) n+1 n+1
A pulse is said to be perfect if the number of intrasymbol fi = = √ −→ fpeak ≈ (4)
transitions n − 1 in Figure 1 results in the removal of f 2(n−1) 2π dt πTs 1 − 4t2 πTs
frequency components in the pulse’s power spectrum. A per- where the symbol period Ts has been re-inserted into the
fect pulse, P(n−1), is generated with the following transitions: analysis. The spectra of perfect pulses approaches this ideal
1
 
iπ shape as the number of intrasymbol transitions approaches
τi = − cos (1) infinity.
2 n
Perhaps a more intuitive way of realizing perfect pulses
There is actually a simple geometrical intepretation of this is representing them in term of Chebyshev polynomials. The
rule for transition generation, illustrated in Figure 2. If a radial projection theory shown in Figure 2 directly links the
unit-diameter semicircle is broken into n uniform sectors, the transition locations of perfect pulse waveforms to those of
projection of the arc endpoints onto a flat timeline perfectly an equivalent order Chebyshev polynomial. Succinctly written
describe a perfect pulse. in 5, the perfect pulse waveform is simply the sign of the
P2 P8
Chebyshev polynomial in its transition region.
   
−1 2t
time t time t xn (t) = sgn cos n cos −1 (5)
Tb

uniform 3-sectored
uniform 9-sectored
half-circle half-circle
Fig. 2: A perfect pulse, P[n − 1], is described by projecting
the lines of a sectored circle onto the time axis.
A catalog of perfect pulses and their corresponding Fourier
transforms are illustrated in Table I. As the order n of the
perfect pulse increases, the spectral null at DC becomes
deeper and deeper. Past P2, the set of transitions include
irrational transitions times that can only be approximated
by synchronous logic. However, Equation (1) and Figure 2
provide a remarkably simple rule for generating antipodal
binary waveforms with arbitrarily deep DC nulls. A proof of
this nulling is sketched in the appendix.
B. Properties
A perfect pulse P[n−1] may be described using special
functions such as the signum sgn(x) and unit step u(x)
C. Modulation Methods
Perfect pulses may be incorporated and adapted into any
number of modulation schemes conventionally practiced in
communications. Figure 3 illustrates 3 examples of such
modulation schemes. In Perfect Binary Phase Shift Keying (P-
BPSK), a perfect pulse is selected and amplitude modulated by
replicating either the pulse or its inverse depending on whether
a 1 or 0 is sent. The example in Figure 3 illustrates BPSK
modulation of a P6 waveform, which will ultimately produce
a signal spectrum equal to the magnitude-squared of the P6
spectrum in Table I.
The second example of modulation in Figure 3 is perfect
frequency shift keying (P-FSK), where digital data is encoded
on the number of transitions in the waveform over a pre-
defined time period. Though detection of this signal would
resemble conventional FSK, the transitions in perfect FSK
would clearly be irregular within the time period. In the
illustrated example of P-FSK, four different combinations of
two-bits are modulated by sending either P5, P6, P7, or P8
pulses.
The third example of modulation in Figure 3 is perfect
pulse width modulation (P-PWM). In this scheme, a perfect
pulse is selected and dilated in time depending on the binary
or analog value transmitted. Detection is simple because the
 2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

TABLE I: Examples of perfect pulses for backscatter modulation.

Symbol Definition {τi } Spectrum Plot Symbol Definition {τi } Spectrum Plot

P0 P1 (Manchester) P2 (Bucket)
1 0 1 0 1
0 5 0 5 10 0 0 5 10
frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs

P3 P4 P5
1 1 1
0 0 5 10 0 0 5 10 0 0 5 10
frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs

P6 P7 P8
1 1 1
0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs

P9 P11 P15
1 1 1
0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs frequency f /Rs

P6-BPSK D. Discrete Approximation

1 1 0 1 0 0
Even without asynchronous circuitry, it is possible to em-
ploy perfect pulses by simply over-clocking synchronous logic
P6 P6 -P6 P6 -P6 -P6
faster than the transmitted symbol rate. One can still preserve
the number of transitions in a perfect pulse by rounding to
P5-8 FSK
the nearest synchronous logic transition, provided the clocking
00 01 11 10 10 00
period Tc falls below this threshold:

P5 P6 P8 P7 P7 P5 Ts π 
Tc < sin2 (6)
2 2n
P8 PWM Otherwise, at least the first transition in the perfect pulse will
0 1 1 0 be lost to aliasing.

P8 -P8 P8 -P8 III. C OMMUNICATIONS U SING P ERFECT P ULSE

Fig. 3: Examples of modulated waveforms that incorporate
perfect pulses. Each signal has a DC null that is at least as
deep and broad as the lowest-order perfect pulse used in the
scheme.
pulse widths correspond to the highest density of transitions.
The example in Figure 3 uses P8 pulses that fill up one symbol
period for 1 or two symbol periods for 0 transmissions. Clearly
there are many more straight-forward adaptations of perfect
pulses to classical modulation schemes.
WAVEFORMS
A. Communications Concept
To visualize the implementation of perfect pulses in a
potential means of communication, a tool was developed in
a simulation environment to validate the theoretical properies
discussed above and to gain insight into the behavior of
the novel waveshape. Consider the P-FSK modulation in
which logic ones and zeros are represented by P32 and P16
waveforms, respectively. The pulse profiles are depicted in
Figure 4.a.The intended message, [10110101], is shown in
Figure 4.b. and is transmitted at a data rate of 10 kbps. The
ambient carrier created is a 10 kbps BPSK signal modulated at
 2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)
Logic One [P32] Logic Zero [P16]
1 1
Amplitude
0 0
-1 -1
-1 0 1 -1
Bit Period
(a) Perfect pulse symbol waveform
1 transitions after filtering out the modulated signal [14].
Amplitude
0
-1
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time [sec]
(b) Simulated byte of perfect pulse shaped data
Fig. 4: Perfect pulse waveforms at baseband.
a frequency of 200 kHz, where the message bits are pseudo-
randomly generated upon each simulation. While these data
rates are low compared to state of the art RFID systems, the
concept displayed is easily migrated to higher frequencies,
constrained only by system hardware. Though the ambient
BPSK signal is a nice example to simulate the proof of concept
of the demodulation scheme, it is subsequently shown that
perfect pulses can be employed in a variety of RF climates
within the spectrum, such as using FM radio as a carrier.
0.3
Amplitude
0.2
0.1
0 capable of overcoming limitations previously discussed to suc-
-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5
Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 5: Comparison of perfect pulse and modulated carrier
spectra. In an ideal case, the latter sits within the DC-Null.
The ideal spectra of a perfect pulse waveform and the ambi-
ent carrier are compared in Figure 5. The actual backscattered
signal is the result of the two spectra mixed. As anticipated, the
BPSK carrier has a canonically described first null bandwidth
of 10 kHz, the reciprocal of its bit period. The spectrum of
the perfect pulse waveform has two behaviors of importance.
First, two distinct peaks are visible representing the domi-
nant frequency present in either of the two perfect pulse wave-
forms, the higher frequency representing a logic one and vise
versa. Confirming intuition, the power of the higher frequency
peak is larger than its neighbor because more logic ones appear
in the intended message. When using the P-FSK scheme it is
Comparator
0 1
Bit Period
Fig. 6: Illustration of a simple ReMoRa receiver that counts
important to choose waveforms of a sufficiently differing order.
Because the ambient signal has a non-negligible bandwidth,
modulation of the perfect pulse waveform will cause spectral
6 7 8 smearing, making it more difficult to distinguish the two
-4 chosen waveforms as their individual spectra invade that of
10
their neighbor. Second, an appreciable DC-null is visible,
keeping the message’s spectral content out of bandwidth
where the non-scattered ambient signal will overpower. It is
important to note that the null trough is not perfectly flat
because the the transitions will not occur perfectly with their
theoretical, asynchronous times.The same phenomenon would
be witnessed in a physically prototyped system but could be
mitigated using asynchronous triggers to control the RF switch
on the backscatter tag [9].
In real-world conditions, where an ambient source’s band-
width is larger than the backscatter tag’s clock can account for,
where neighboring intereferers are too close to properly filter
out, or where channel noise is appreciable, it is likely that the
spectral content of the modulated backscatter will be located
in a bandwidth that is already occupied to some extent. While
this increases the complexity of the system and demands more
optimization, it does not exclude the ability to communicate.
PFSK
Ambient
B. Receiver System
A robust and easily implemented demodulation system,
1 1.5 cesfully decipher the intended message, is depicted in Figure 6.
105 The general methodology for determining the message lies in
the counting of transitions per bit period.
After the reflected, ambient modulated signal is received,
it and the higher powered, non-scattered ambient signal are
amplified and down-converted to either an IF or base-band
frequency. Once at the desired operational frequency, the
demodulation process starts with a bandpass filter. The filter
serves two purposes, first to remove as much of the ambient
carrier from the intended message as possible and second to
remove high frequency artifacts from the mixing stage, should
I/Q mixing not be employed. Next, the signal is passed through
a differentiating circuit, which will output positive and negative
impulses at transition times and near zero values elsewhere.
The impulses are then put through a rectifier to assure that
they all have the same sign. Once a positive impulse train
is created, where the impulses are indicative of the perfect
pulse transition locations, the process of counting them is two-
fold. A comparator is implemented to eliminate noise and low
 2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

magnitude pseudo-impulses, as well as normalizing the size

of the impulses to a constant value. Next, an integrator sums
the impulses over each bit period, effectively counting the
transitions. The sums are compared and used to determine 200
the bit sequence. The demodulation process is simple and

Amplitude
suitable as a either a post-processing method for software
defined radio implementation or for analog processing using 0
low-cost, low-power RF circuit components. While the sys-
tem does require some calibration (filter cut-off frequencies,
comparator thresholds, etc.), it is robust after those values -200
are determined. Subsequent generation systems could perform 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time [sec] -4
automatic tuning of these parameters. 10
(a) The down converted signal at the receiver input
C. Simulation Results
Using the generated signal and demodulation scheme 20

Amplitude
Rx Signal
discussed in previous sections, a breakdown of the signal Window
processing is depicted in Figure 7. In Figure 7.b, filtering is
applied using an ideal BPF. The harsh cutoff serves well for 10
this proof of concept but more realistic windowing methods,
Hanning, Blackman, e.g., also result successful bit retrieval 0
despite magnitude and phase variations in the filter’s pass and -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Frequency [Hz] 5
transition bands. The post filter time domain signal is depicted 10
in Figure 7.c. (b) Incoming signal spectrum and windowing profile
The effects of the differentiation and rectification circuity
200
are depicted in Figure 7.d, creating impulses at the zero transi-
Amplitude

tion locations. By this stage, the naked-eye can distinguish the

difference between logic ones and zeros with relative ease. It 0
is also worth noting that the incoming waves do not represent
the exact pattern of the original perfect pulses. However, that
does not restrict the performance of this demodulation process. -200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
These impulses are put through a comparator to normalize -4
Time [sec] 10
their amplitudes and remove noise before being integrated. One
variation of the systems step is to integrate the comparator (c) Post-windowing received signal
signal over the packet size, removing the need to release the
integrator over each bit period, and examine the slope of 40
Amplitude

the output via differentiation. The output of such a method,

Figure 7.e, gives a quick visual check of the recovered mes-
sage, determined via threshold. It is important to note that 20
due to filtering and spectral smearing, the total number of
transitions will rarely be totally preserved. Still, the sums fall
0
distinguishably between two camps. 19 of the 32 transitions 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
representing a logic one and 8 of the 16 transitions representing Time [sec] -4
a logic zero are recovered. 10
(d) Received signal post differentiation and rectification
Beyond simply being able to retrieve the intended mes-
sage, this demodulation process gains its robust quality from 1
Amplitude

its indifference to the fidelity of the original perfect pulse

waveforms. If pulse shapes are strategically chosen for a given 0.8
environment and general carrier behavior and demodulation
circuitry tuned for the anticipated received signal, it can 0.6
retrieve the original message with ease. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time [Sec] -4
IV. M EASUREMENTS AND VALIDATION 10
(e) Post-integrator bit decision signal
A. Experimental Setup
Fig. 7: Demodulation results. Depicting different stages of
In addition to developing the simulation capacity above, signal processing for successful message retrieval.
a proof-of-concept hardware platform was created to conduct
an experiment that modulates real-world ambient waveforms
with perfect pulses. A software-defined radio (SDR) system
was used with the Ettus Research USRP B210 radio hard-
ware. Signal processing was done with a commodity laptop
 2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

running a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS operating system and the popular easily implemented via circuit components, offline software
GNURadio SDR toolkit. The radio was tuned to a frequency post-processing, or in real-time software processing, and robust
of 91.1 MHz, which is the frequency of the nearby official once calibrated for the particular RF environment.
Georgia Tech college radio station, WREK. This incoming
This is an inaugural exploration of the possibilities of
FM radio signal was downconverted to DC and sampled
RF communications via ambient modulated carriers and how
at 1 megasample per second by the USRP hardware. This
perfect pulse waveforms can be used to address this non-
corresponds to sampling 1 MHz of RF bandwidth around 91.1
trivial task. Further optimization of the demodulation sys-
MHz, and no other FM radio carriers in the band of experi-
tem is underway to increase data throughput via noisy and
mentation were present. These samples could be processed in
interference laden communication channels. Experimentation
real time and multiplied with a perfect-pulse modulated data
with perfect pulse waveform modulation in various RF bands
stream, and then retransmitted out of the transmit port of the
will illuminate optimal methods for ambient carrier commu-
B210, simulating the waveform of a low-power backscatter
nications. Finally, the implementation PP-enabled tags will
tag. Code was created to perform this function; however, the
facilitate the creation of a new generation of robust and low
PP-modulated FM carrier was not actually retransmitted in
power consumption RF backscatter systems.
the experiment for fear of violating FCC regulations. A real
tag (even a semi-passive one) using PP modulation could
be designed carefully to be within FCC guidelines. In the A PPENDIX
experiment, the FM carrier samples were recorded to a file, To calculate the balance order of a symbol defined by a
and further PP mixing, non-linear demodulation, and decoding sequence of intrasymbol transitions as in Equation (1), first
were all done in a software environment. calculate the power spectral density of the phase-modulated
symbols:
B. Experimental Results
1 
An analysis using the experimental FM radio data produces Sx (f ) =  exp (jπf Ts ) + (−1)n+1 exp (−jπf Ts ) +
4π 2 f 2
the bit error rate results depicted in Figure 8. For each data n 2
point, fifty sets of 970 randomly generated bits are demod- X
2 (−1)k exp (−j2πf τk Ts )  (7)

ulated after having been mixed on the ambient FM carrier.
k=1
An active threshold is implemented in the bit decision step,
observing batches of 10 bits at a time. The value α, which Using Taylor series expansions for the exponential functions
represents the ratio of signal strengths of the perfect pulse in Equation (7), the order-l component in frequency for the
modulated signal versus the unscattered ambient signal, is symbol Fourier transform – O{f m } – vanishes if the following
function of tag gain and the antenna’s scattering cross section. polynomial equation is satisfied:
The initial results show promise, producing a BER of around n
five percent when the magnitude of the unscattered signal 1 + (−1)n+m+1 X
+ (−1)k+m (2τk )m = 0 (8)
is as much as ten times that of the backscattered signal. 2
k=1
With proper tag design and implementation of semi-passive
reflection amplifiers as in [3], upwards of 30 dB in backscatter The balance order Q of a symbol is the highest possible integer
gain can be achieved to make larger α values more realizable. value for which Equation (8) holds for all 0 ≤ m ≤ Q.
The transitions 0 through n + 1 of an nth-order perfect
Balanced Codes Waveform pulse are defined by
0.6
Bit Error Rate

1 kπ
0.4 τk = − cos
2 n+1
0.2 which means that the following condition must hold for all
m ≤ n:
0 n
1 − (−1)n+m X
 
k m kπ
-40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 + (−1) cos =0
[dB] 2 n+1
k=1

Fig. 8: Experimental Bit Error Rate versus α, the ratio in Applying the identity
magnitude between the perfect pulse modulated signal and the m
1 X m!
unscattered ambient signal. cosm x = cos([2l − m]x)
2m l!(m − l)!
l=0

produces
V. C ONCLUSIONS A ND F UTURE W ORK 1 − (−1)n+m 1 X
m
m!
n
X 
k[2l − m]π

k
+ m (−1) cos =0
This paper provides simulation data depicting the trans- 2 2 l!(m − l)! n+1
l=0 k=1
mission of RF data via generated pseudo-random and exper-
imentally obtained, modulated ambient carriers exploiting the Applying the following summation relationship
unique spectral characteristics of perfect pulse waveforms. Bit n  
X
k k[2l − m]π 1
error rates are observed for varying ratios of signal intensity = − 1 − (−1)n+m

(−1) cos
at the receiver input. The demodulation system described is n+1 2
k=1
 2017 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

(provided that m ≤ n) produces the following simplified set

of terms:
2m
z }| {
m
1 − (−1)n+m 1 − (−1)n+m X m!
− =0
2 2m+1 l!(m − l)!
l=0

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