See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/224695227

ALOHA-Based Anti-Collision Algorithms Used in RFID System

Conference Paper · October 2006

DOI: 10.1109/WiCOM.2006.342 · Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS READS

49 413

2 authors, including:

Leian Liu
Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
23 PUBLICATIONS   137 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

teaching reform View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Leian Liu on 21 March 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 ALOHA-based Anti-collision Algorithms Used in
RFID System

Leian Liu, Shengli Lai

School of Electronic and Information Engineering
South China University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
Email: gudu420@163.com

Abstract—Collision is a familiar problem and one of the largest
disadvantages in RFID system. There are always two methods to
deal with the collision problems. One is the deterministic collision
resolution and the other is the stochastic collision resolution. The
ALOHA-based anti-collision algorithms belong to the latter. In
this paper, the ALOHA-based anti-collision algorithms are
introduced and summarized. The most important is that two Tag
estimation methods which are necessary to the DFSA algorithm
(Dynamic framed slotted ALOHA algorithm) are investigated
using the conventional ternary feedback model. How to use these
two Tag estimation methods is also analyzed.
Keywords-RFID; ALOHA; anti-collision algorithm; multiple
access
I. INTRODUCTION
RFID which means “Radio Frequency Identification” is
developed very fast in recent few years. The history of RFID
technology can backwards to the early days of twenty century.
In 1948, the first paper focused on the RFID technology-
“Communication by Means of Reflected Power” [1] appeared
and it can be regarded as a milestone of the RFID technology.
RFID technology is one of the branches of automatic
identification technology. Compared with other automatic
identification technology, RFID technology has lots of merits,
e.g., it does not require the direct contact and line-of-sight, it
can work effectively under extremely bad condition, tags can
be used repeatedly and the information stored in them is much
larger and can be reprogrammed easily, tags can be recognized
by the reader at the same time, etc. Because of merits
mentioned above, RFID technology is used in many areas
today. Identity identification and assets management are two
areas in which RFID techniques are used widely and maturely.
Commercial supply chain is one of the most widely area in
which RFID techniques are used. Preventing from fakes is
another use of RFID techniques. Besides its merits, there are
still some problems and disadvantages that should be deal with.
Collision is a familiar problem and one of the largest
disadvantages in RFID system. Only the collision problem is
solved, can RFID system work effectively. Typically, there are
two kinds of methods used to solve this problem. One is the
deterministic collision resolution and the other is the stochastic
collision resolution. The ALOHA algorithm and some methods
based on it, such as the Slotted ALOHA algorithm, the Framed
slotted ALOHA algorithm and the Dynamic framed slotted
ALOHA algorithm, belong to the stochastic collision
resolution. Binary search algorithm and Dynamic binary search
algorithm and tree-based algorithms belong to the deterministic
resolution. In this paper, focus is given on the ALOHA-based
algorithms. The ALOHA-based algorithms in RFID systems
are described and the most important is the method to estimate
the number of tags in the interrogation zone of the reader is
discussed and analyzed.
II. ALOHA-BASED ALGORITHMS
ALOHA-based algorithms are an important part of the
anti-collision algorithms in RFID systems and are being used
in many practical RFID systems. In this section, the ALOHA-
based algorithms are summarized and analyzed.
A. ALOHA and Slotted ALOHA algorithm
The introduction of the ALOHA algorithm which is used
to solve the bursty traffic in packet communication networks
was firstly appeared in the paper [2]. In RFID system, the
ALOHA algorithm is used exclusively with read-only
transponders (tags) [3]. The ALOHA algorithm is a
transponder-driven stochastic TDMA procedure which means
once a transponder enters the interrogation zone of an
interrogator (reader), it will send its data packet to the
interrogator. In such a RFID system, the amount of the data
transmitted between the reader and the tag are small, typically
only the identification codes of tags in the interrogation zone
of the reader. In the ALOHA algorithm, tags transmit the data
in a cyclical sequence. The time in which the data are
transmitted to the reader is only a fraction of the repetition
time. After the first transmission, the tag will wait for a
relatively longer time to transmit its data again. The difference
of waiting time between each tag is small. By this way, not
until all the tags finish the transmission of their data to the
reader successfully, can the repeating process stop.
Considering the scheme of the ALOHA algorithm, there is a
certain probability that a collision will happen which means
two or more tags will transmit their data at the same time or
although they do not transmit their data at the same time, they
may also collide with each other, e.g., when one tag is in the
process of transmitting its data to the reader, there is another
tag which begin to transmit its data to the reader too. When the
number of tags in the interrogation zone of the reader becomes

1-4244-0517-3/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE

1
larger, the situation becomes even worse. So researchers begin
to find new ways to solve the unstable performance of the
ALOHA algorithm and variety of schemes have been
proposed. The Slotted ALOHA algorithm is the first
improvement to the ALOHA algorithm and it doubles the
throughput of the system [4]. In this algorithm, transponders
can only begin to transmit their data packets at the beginning
of a slot. How many slots there are is controlled by the reader.
Not until the slots are distributed by the reader in certain
command, can transponders begin to transmit their data
packets in these slots. So, different from the pure ALOHA
algorithm, the Slotted ALOHA algorithm is a stochastic,
interrogator-driven TDMA anti-collision algorithm. Because
transponders can only transmit their data packets in certain
slots, the collision interval in this algorithm is only half as
great as is the case for the pure ALOHA algorithm and the
total throughput in such a system is doubled. In TABLEⅠ, the
principle of the Slotted ALOHA algorithm is illustrated.
TABLE I. PRINCIPLE OF THE SLOTTED ALOHA ALGORITHM
In TABLE Ⅰ above, “Downlink” means communication
from the reader to the tag; “Uplink” means communication
from the tag to the reader. From TABLEⅠ, we can find that
Tag 1 transmits its data packet in both slot 1 and slot 2. In slot
3, Tag 5 transmits its data packet successfully. The process will
continue until all the tags transmit their data packets
successfully.
B. Framed slotted ALOHA algorithm
Although the Slotted ALOHA algorithm doubles the total
throughput of the system, it can not work effectively when the
number of transponders in the system is large. So the Framed
slotted ALOHA algorithm is proposed. The major difference
between the Framed slotted ALOHA algorithm and the pure
Slotted ALOHA algorithm is that a transponder is only
permitted to transmit its data packet in one of the slots of a
frame which means the transponder can only transmit its data
packet in a frame at most once [5]. In the paper [6], the
reasons for considering the Framed slotted ALOHA algorithm
instead of the Slotted ALOHA algorithm are introduced. In the
following TABLE Ⅱ , the principle of the Framed slotted
ALOHA algorithm is illustrated.
1-4244-0517-3/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE
TABLE II. PRINCIPLE OF THE FRAMED SLOTTED ALOHA ALGORITHM
In TABLE Ⅱ above, “Frame i” means one of the frames
during the process of the Framed slotted ALOHA algorithm.
Similar to the Slotted ALOHA algorithm, the process will
continue until all the tags transmit their data packets
successfully.
C. Dynamic framed slotted ALOHA algorithm
During the whole process of the Framed slotted ALOHA
algorithm, all of the frames have the same length which means
the number of slots in each frame is fixed. It is a fatal weak
point of the Framed slotted ALOHA algorithm. Because the
number of tags is always unknown to the reader, two
conditions will arise. The first one is the condition that the
number of tags is far more than that of the slots of a frame and
the second one is the condition that the number of tags is far
less than that of the slots of a frame. In the first condition,
because there are too many tags and too few slots, there may be
collisions in all of the slots of a frame and tags can not be
recognized by the reader for a long time. In the second
condition, similarly, there will be lots of redundant slots which
will waste lots of time to recognize all the tags. The Dynamic
framed slotted ALOHA algorithm is proposed to solve the
weak point of the Framed slotted ALOHA algorithm. In the
Dynamic framed slotted ALOHA algorithm, the frame length
changes according to the number of tags. So how to estimate
the number of tags is very important to the Dynamic framed
slotted ALOHA algorithm. In the document [7] [8], the
Dynamic framed slotted ALOHA algorithm is used, but how to
estimate the number of tags is not given in detail.
III. TAG ESTIMATION METHOD
In order to estimate the number of tags in a RFID system,
the famous conventional ternary feedback model (empty,
success, collision) in multi-access communication systems is
used. Let S denotes the number of slots in each one of which
only one tag that transmits its data packet successfully;
E denotes the number of slots in each one of which no tag
transmits its data packet; C denotes the number of slots in each
one of which more than one tag transmitting their data packet.
In all conditions, we do not consider capture effect and noise
effect. In the paper [9] [10], methods to estimate the number of
tags are proposed. But in those two papers, it assumes that all
2
the tags will resend their data packets on a second request,
regardless of whether they were previously successful in
sending their data packets or if they collided with others.
Contrarily, in many practical RFID systems, tags which have
been recognized in the last request do not answer to the
following requests. In this paper, we assume that tags which
have answered the reader on the last request do not answer to
the reader on the following requests.
A. Tag estimation method Ⅰ
In the paper [11], Schoute presented a method to estimate
the number of backlog in the multi-access communication
systems assuming that the number of transponders that choose
timeslot i of a frame to transmit their data packets is Poisson
distributed with mean 1 and that transponders which have
been recognized on the last request do not answer to the
following requests. The situation in that paper is the same to
that of this paper, so we can use the method here too. Using
the method in the paper [11], the estimation of the number of
tags ( n ' ) which have not been recognized by the reader after
the current frame is given by:
n ' = 2.39C (1)
Where C is the number of slots in which collisions arise.
dT n 1 n 1 1
= − 2 (1 − )n −1 + (n −1)(1 − )n−2 2 = 0 (8)
dN N N N N N
Depending on the equation (8), we get the following result:
N =n (9)
This means when the number of the slots in a frame is the
same to the number of tags in the interrogation zone of the
reader, the maximal throughput will be obtained and so the
total time to recognize all the tags will be minimal in the
nature of things. Depending on the equation (7), we can get
the relationship between the number of slots and the system
throughput when the number of tags is a constant as is shown
in Fig. 1. Depending on Fig. 1, the same conclusion can be
drawn that when the number of slots is the same to that of the
slots, the maximal throughput is achieved.

B. Tag estimation method Ⅱ

Given the number of slots in a frame is N and the number
of tags is n , the number of tags, t , in one of the slots is
binomially distributed as follows:

 n 1 1
P( X = t ) =   ( )t (1 − ) n −t (2)
t  N N
Figure 1. Relationship between Number of slots and Throughput
So the expected number of slots ( m ) each one of which
having t tags allocated to them can be received by: After each request, the number of E , S and C can be
received and N in the current frame is already known, so
n 1 1 according to equation (4), (5) and (6), we can get the number
m = N   ( )t (1 − )n −t (3)
of tags ( n " ) which have not been recognized by the reader
t  N N
after the current frame as follows:
By equation (3), we can get:
n" = n − S (10)
1
E = N (1 − )n (4) C. Comparison between two Tag estimation methods
N
By equation (1), we can see that Tag estimation methodⅠ
1 is simple and easy to be implemented. Tag estimation method
S = n(1 − )n −1 (5)
N Ⅱis more complicated when compared with Tag estimation
methodⅠ, but it is more accurate.
C = N −E−S (6) We define the estimation accuracy as follows:
E , S and C are defined at the beginning of this section. We n' n'
define the throughput T as follows: estimation accuracy = = (11)
n" n − S
S n 1 Given some values of N and n , we can get Fig. 2 depending
T= = (1 − )n −1 (7)
N N N on the equation (11) as follows:
We differentiate equation (7) and get the result:

1-4244-0517-3/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE 3


Figure 2. Relationship between Number of slots and Estimation accuracy
In Fig. 2, the estimation accuracy is much closer to 1
(above 1 or below 1), the better result will be achieved. We
can also find that when the number of slots is almost the same
to that of the tags, the two Tag estimation methods get almost
the same result. In this condition, the estimation accuracy in
Fig. 2 is almost equal to 1. So if the two tag estimation
methods are used in the Dynamic framed ALOHA algorithm,
the following sequence will be implemented:
• Firstly, choose a suitable frame length N. Here,
“suitable” means N should not too small or too large
according to the applications in practice.
• Secondly, after the first request, using Tag estimation
methodⅡto estimate the number of tags, because it
will give us a good estimation result.
• From now on, after the second request and so on, we
can use Tag estimation methodⅠat ease and it will
also give us a good estimation result.
Keep on sending the request, until all the tags are
recognized and there is no reply from the tags any longer.
1-4244-0517-3/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE
View publication stats
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the ALOHA-based anti-collision algorithms
are introduced. It shows that when the number of the slots is
the same to that of tags, the maximal throughput is achieved.
So how to estimate the number of tags is very important to the
anti-collision algorithms used in RFID system. In order to
estimate the number of tags, the two Tag estimation methods
are presented. Using the DFSA algorithm with the two Tag
estimation methods, tags can be identified by the reader
quickly and effectively.
REFERENCES
[1] H. Stockman, “Communication by Means of Reflected Power”,
Proceedings of the IRE, Oct., 1948, pp. 1196-1204.
[2] N. Abramson, “The ALOHA System-Another Alternative for Computer
Communications”, Fall Joint Computer Conference, AFIPS Conference
Proceedings, 1970, Vol. 37, pp. 281-285.
[3] Klaus Finkenzeller, RFID Handbook: Fundamentals and Applications in
Contactless Smart Cards and Identification, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons
Ltd, 2003.
[4] L. G. Roberts, “Extensions of Packet Communication Technology to a
Hand Held Personal Terminal”, AFIPS Conf. Proc., Spring Joint
Computer Conf., 1972, vol. 40, pp. 295-298.
[5] J. E. Wieselthier, A. Ephremides, and L. A. Michaels, “An Exact
Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Framed ALOHA with
Capture”, IEEE Transactions on Communications, 1989, vol. 37, pp.
125-137.
[6] R. Du, H. Okada, H. Nakanishi, H. Sanada, and Y. Tezuka,
“Performance Evaluation and Optimization of ALOHA Scheme with
Capture Effect”, Conf. Rec. GLOBECOM’87, Nov., 1987, pp. 555-560.
[7] EPCglobal, Class 1 Generation 2 UHF Air Interface Protocol Standard
Version 1.0.9, 2005.
[8] International Organization for Standardization, ISO/IEC 14443-3:
Identification Cards-Contactless Integrated Circuit(s) cards-Proximity
cards-Part3: Initialization and anti-collision, 2000.
[9] H. Vogt, “Multiple Object Identification with Passive RIFD Tags”, 2002
IEEE International Conf. on Systems, man and Cybernetics, Oct., 2002,
vol.3, pp.6-9.
[10] Jia Zhai and Gi-Nam Wang, “An Anti-collision Algorithm Using Two-
Functioned Estimation for RFID Tags”, International Conference on
Computational Science and its Applications, 2005, pp. 702-711.
[11] F. C. Schoute, “Dynamic Frame Length ALOHA”, IEEE Transactions
on Communications, Apr., 1983, vol. 31, pp. 565-568.
4