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Ambient Backscatter Communications to Energize

IoT Devices

Mudasar Latif Memon, Navrati Saxena, Abhishek Roy, Sukhdeep Singh &
Dong Ryeol Shin

To cite this article: Mudasar Latif Memon, Navrati Saxena, Abhishek Roy, Sukhdeep Singh &
Dong Ryeol Shin (2019): Ambient Backscatter Communications to Energize IoT Devices, IETE
Technical Review, DOI: 10.1080/02564602.2019.1592717

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02564602.2019.1592717

Published online: 31 Mar 2019.

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IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW
https://doi.org/10.1080/02564602.2019.1592717

Ambient Backscatter Communications to Energize IoT Devices

Mudasar Latif Memon 1 , Navrati Saxena 1 , Abhishek Roy2 , Sukhdeep Singh3 and Dong Ryeol Shin1
1 Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea; 2 MediaTek USA Inc., San Jose, California, USA; 3 Network Team, Samsung R&D
India-Bangalore, Bangalore India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The expected rise of small devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) require these devices to oper- Received 23 October 2017
ate without any power interruption. The replacement and recharging of batteries in these widely Accepted 4 March 2019
deployed small IoT devices is a challenging task. Recently, Ambient Backscatter Communications KEYWORDS
(AmB-Com) is introduced, which enables passive IoT devices to harvest power from nearby Radio Ambient backscatter
Frequency (RF) signals. AmB-Com allows the passive devices to harvest energy and simultaneously communications; Energy
transmit their information using the reflection of incident RF signals. This survey paper covers various harvesting; IoT; Passive
types of ambient RF signals as the source of energy to energize passive IoT devices. Then, we show device communications;
the utilization of multiple frequency bands to power up passive devices. In order to keep the balance Wireless communications
between energy harvesting and information transfer, we discuss efficient power transfer schemes
for AmB-Com in addition to energy management, resource allocation, and optimization techniques.
Finally, we cover the performance of AmB-Com systems and highlight the research challenges in
AmB-Com.

1. INTRODUCTION
Internet of things aim to provide internet connectivity
to billions of small computing devices [1]. These small
devices can sense, process, and transmit data wirelessly.
IoT devices can be deployed at far and wide locations
and can be remotely accessed from any place round the
clock. These tiny devices consume very less power but
energizing these small powered devices periodically, after
their deployment is one of the significant challenges, in
addition to other challenges like security, privacy, inter-
operability, and management of these devices [2].
It is very expensive and unrealistic to replace the bat-
teries for a large number of small devices deployed in
remote areas. Hence, several Energy Harvesting (EH)
techniques are suggested to energize the tiny powered IoT
devices [2–5]. The main feature of EH devices is their
ability to harvest sufficient energy for their operation,
from nearby Radio Frequency (RF) signals. There are
mainly three types of EH devices. The first type includes
the devices, which can harvest energy from RF signals
only to charge their batteries [6]. The second type allows
small devices to harvest sufficient energy and then trans-
mit data actively using the harvested energy [7]. The third
type includes the devices having advantages of both the
schemes i.e., the devices can either choose to harvest
energy or to decode information from RF signals [8].
However, the problem with all of these EH techniques
is that the devices have to wait for a certain time period
to collect sufficient harvested energy for their operation.
Moreover, EH devices use active components (like oscil-
lators and converters) for the generation of signals, which
in turn increase the energy consumption of EH devices
and make them power hungry.
Recently, Ambient Backscatter Communications (AmB-
Com) has emerged as an interesting solution that can
fulfill the energy requirement of the low powered devices
[9–11]. AmB-Com works on the principle of RFID tech-
nology that enables a device to use passive components
for signal transmission instead of active components [12].
AmB-Com enabled passive devices (also known as tags)
do not require any analog to digital conversion of sig-
nals. Hence, these devices harvest energy from near-by
RF signals and can simultaneously reflect the incident
signals to modulate their information. The AmB-Com
enables researchers to develop battery-free devices that
can communicate using nearby RF signals [12].
AmB-Com utilizes various types of RF energy sources
that can be used to energize IoT devices. These power
sources include WiFi signals, television (TV) signals,
radio station signals (AM/FM), and cellular signals etc.
In this review article, we discuss AmB-Com to energize
the passive IoT devices. Our main contributions in this
review are as follows:

© 2019 IETE
2 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
(1) We explore the energy requirements of AmB-Com
devices.
(2) We discuss various types of RF power sources in
AmB-Com to energize passive devices.
(3) We highlight technology conversion techniques to
energize the AmB-Com devices, using the frequency
band of two different technologies.
(4) We elaborate different channel estimation tech-
niques and schemes for extension of transmission
range in AmB-Com.
(5) We discuss efficient power transfer methods and
different energy management techniques for AmB-
Com.
(6) We review scheduling and resource allocation tech-
niques for AmB-Com.
(7) We show the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of
different AmB-Com systems.
(8) We suggest open research issues for AmB-Com.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 highlights
the energy requirement of passive IoT devices and shows
the required power need of these devices can be fulfilled
by omni-present ambient RF signals. Section 3 covers
the frequency shifting techniques to power-up passive
devices. Section 4 discusses channel estimation tech-
niques for AmB-Com and describes various schemes for
extending the transmission range of AmB-Com devices.
Section 5 covers efficient power and information man-
agement techniques for AmB-Com. Section 6 elaborates
scheduling and resource allocation schemes for AmB-
Com. Performance analysis of AmB-Com systems is dis-
cussed in Section 7. Section 8 highlights the challenges
faced by AmB-Com. Finally, the paper is concluded in
Section 9.
2. ENERGY SOURCES FOR AMB-COM DEVICES
The small IoT devices usually require less power for their
operation. This section covers the energy requirement
of tiny-powered IoT devices and show how their energy
need can be fulfilled by ambient RF sources. We also
describe different types of RF power sources available in
our vicinity.
2.1 Energy Requirement of AmB-Devices
IoT devices consist of wireless transceivers to receive and
transmit the signals. These transceivers contain some
active components (like oscillators, analog to digital con-
verters etc.) to generate and convert RF signals. These
active components in transceivers make tiny IoT devices
power hungry. Hence, the energy consumption of IoT
devices with active components is in hundreds of milli-
watts [12]. Liu et al. introduce AmB-Com to power up
passive devices [13]. The passive devices in AmB-Com
do not generate own RF signals, hence do not require
any active component. Instead, these devices reflect the
incident RF signals. AmB-Com allows passive devices to
harvest power from surrounding RF waves and enable
them to modulate their information on backscattered
(reflected) signals. Excluding the use of power-hungry
components in AmB-Com devices, reduce their energy
consumption from milli-watts to micro-watts [12, 14].
Hence, there is no need for dedicated power sources, the
micro-watts power requirement can be fulfilled by ambi-
ent RF signals that are available in the vicinity. Moreover,
the utilization of additional peripheral components (like
boost converters) can overcome the need for a battery in
passive devices [15].
2.2 Energy Sources in AmB-Com
AmB-Com utilizes various types of RF signals to ener-
gize passive devices. These energy sources include signals
generated by TV broadcasting towers, Bluetooth signal
generators, WiFi transmitters, cellular base stations, and
FM/AM radio transceivers etc. Let us discuss these types
below.
2.2.1 AmB-Com with Cellular Signals
Figure 1 shows the concept of AmB-Com using nearby
cellular signals (RF carrier signals). Cellular signals ener-
gize the passive IoT devices (tag and reader) to modu-
late their information on reflected signals (data uplink
and data downlink). Parks et al. use the mobile Base
Transceiver Station (BTS) as a power source to ener-
gize passive devices in urban areas [16]. They prefer
BTS in urban areas due to its easy accessibility and
Figure 1: Cellular signals as energy source in AmB-Com
 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
higher transmit power. Moreover, the authors also sug-
gest energy harvesting topology with two ambient RF
sources for sensor nodes in a realistic scenario [16]. The
proposed topology achieves the least available input RF
power levels and also improves the operational capa-
bilities of the harvester in urban and semi-urban envi-
ronments. Furthermore, their work also shows that the
15.8 µW energy requirement of a sensor node can be ful-
filled by a cellular BTS, located at a distance of 200 m.
Similarly, Pinuela et al. suggest the efficiency of har-
vesters up to 40% in urban and semi-urban areas when
cellular BTS operates on a single frequency band of
GSM−900/GSM−1800 [17].
2.2.2 TV broadcasting Signals for AmB-Com
Parks et al. utilize the TV (RF) signals as a power source
to energize the AmB-Com devices [16]. Their work
shows that 15.8 µW energy need of a sensor node, can
be fulfilled by 10.4 km distant 1 MW UHF TV transmit-
ter, having 6 dBi antenna. Figure 2 shows the concept of
AmB-Com using TV (RF) signals, that allows a sender to
communicate by backscattering the incident TV signals.
Similarly, authors design a hardware prototype for AmB-
Com devices [14], that can draw the required power for
its hardware through energy harvesting from TV signals
and solar energy. The proposed design also enables pas-
sive devices to communicate through walls at a distance
of tens of meters.
2.2.3 WiFi as Energy Source for AmB-Com
Kellogg et al. suggest a hardware model consisting of
a WiFi source to energize RF-powered devices [18].
The proposed WiFi model connects RF powered devices
to the internet. Moreover, the suggested model can
establish a communication link between WiFi devices
and RF powered tags [18]. Similarly, the authors in
[19] and [20] suggest a passive WiFi chipset that can
work on AmB-Com and consumes 3 to 4 times less
Figure 2: TV signals as Energy Source in AmB-Com
3
Figure 3: WiFi signals as Energy Source in AmB-Com
power compared to commonly available WiFi (generat-
ing 802.11b transmissions).
Talla et al. propose PoWiFi that utilizes existing WiFi
chipsets to energize passive tags [21]. The multi-channel
harvester in PoWiFi can harvest energy from various 2.4
GHz WiFi channels. Moreover, proposed work suggests
the designs for WiFi chipset powered camera sensors
and temperature sensors. Authors also demonstrate the
recharging utility of batteries, made up of NiMH, Li−ion,
coin-cell materials that can be charged by WiFi signals.
Similarly, HitchHike a low power AmB-Com system is
suggested by Zhang et al. [22]. HitchHike can harvest
power from ambient WiFi signals to energize passive
tags. Figure 3 shows the concept of a WiFi-powered tag
used in HitchHike. HitchHike enables the low-powered
tag to reflect the received signals of commodity WiFi
transmitter that works on existing IEEE 802.11b stan-
dard. Thus, 802.11b commodity receiver can decode the
backscattered signals, as a standard WiFi packet. Like-
wise, Ishizaki et al. suggest a battery-free BER modulated
data transmission technology [23], that enables passive
devices to work on ambient WiFi signals.
2.3 Discussion
Table 1 shows a summary of various types of RF energy
sources used in AmB-Com. It is observed that AmB-Com
has the potential to supply sufficient energy to energize
the passive IoT devices. Amb-BackCom can address the
problems of battery replacement, battery charging, and
battery drainage in small widespread IoT devices. The
power consumption of a tiny AmB-Com device is in
micro-watts that can be fulfilled by ambient RF sources.
The cellular BTS can be preferred energy source for
AmB-Com devices in densely populated urban or sub-
urban areas. Whereas, the WiFi signals are suggested
for indoor IoT devices. However, the TV (RF) signals
can be a preferred solution to energize the IoT devices
deployed in rural areas, due to their long range up to a
few kilometers.
4 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
Table 1: Energy sources for AmB-Com devices
Sources of Energy in AmB-Com References
Power consumption of AmB-Com devices [12, 14]
Power requirement fulfilled [13]
WiFi as an energy source [18]
TV signals and solar energy [14]
WiFi as an energy source [22]
WiFi as an energy source [19]
AmB-Com for wireless energy transfer [4]
AmB-Com for wireless communications [5]
BTS and TV signals as energy source [16]
BTS and TV signals as energy source [17]
Multiple antennas design for AmB-Com [24]
WiFi as an energy source [21]
AmB-Com with wireless power transfer [25]
3. ENERGIZING BY CONVERTING OPERATING
FREQUENCY BAND
AmB-Com devices can leverage the frequency bands of
two different technologies. AmB-Com enables devices
to harvest energy from one frequency band and trans-
mit information to the nearby frequency of other tech-
nology. The frequency band conversion techniques for
AmB-Com are discussed below.
3.1 Technology Conversion Scheme for AmB-Com
Technology conversion technique allows AmB-Com
devices to use the frequency spectrum of two different
technologies. This technique enables devices to change
signals frequency from one wireless technology band to
another [26]. Figure 4 shows the concept of technology
conversion technique, that utilizes Bluetooth frequency
signals for energy harvesting and simultaneously reflects
data on the frequency band of the WiFi technology. Iyar
et al. show WiFi devices can be used for the creation of
Bluetooth and ZigBee-compatible wireless signals using
AmB-Com [26]. Authors also suggest a single side-band
backscatter design, that can make the frequency shift
on one side of the carrier. Furthermore, the proposed
work uses AmB-Com to enable the communication of the
contact lens with smartphones and smart-watches [26].
Ensworth et al. propose a smartphone Bluetooth 4.0 Low
Energy (BLE) design [27], that enables low cost, com-
monly available smartphones, and other handy devices
Figure 4: Technology Conversion in AmB-Com
Key points
• AmB-Com devices consume power in µW.
• Amb-Com can draw sufficient power to energize passive devices.
• Wifi device is used as energy source in AmB-Com.
• Suggest a prototype that can harvest complete energy from ambient RF signals.
• HitchHike enables devices to harvest power from ambient WiFi signals.
• Introduced WiFi chipsets for AmB-Com powered passive devices.
• Overview of RF based wireless energy transfer technologies.
• Overview of wireless powered communications network.
• Energy sources are cellphone BTS and TV broadcasting tower.
• Attain least attainable input RF power levels.
• Focuses transfer of energy with beam forming.
• PoWiFi, utilizes existing WiFi chipsets for power delivery.
• Mixture of backscatter modulation and wireless power transfer scheme using diode.
to work as ready-made infrastructure for IoT devices.
They utilize the ultra-low power Modulated BackCom
Scheme (MBS) that is commonly used in UHF RFID
systems. Moreover, MBS is compatible with BLE soft-
ware and hardware. Similarly, authors in [28] propose
a BLE compatible full-duplex AmB-Com system model
for mobile devices, that uses mono-static full-duplex
AmB-Com. The proposed model considers the carrier
source co-located with Bluetooth chipset and enables
specially designed BLE based backscatter tags to transmit
information via Bluetooth chipset without any software
modifications.
3.2 Frequency Shifting Technique
Frequency shifting technique allows backscatter tags to
shift the carrier frequency to the nearby spectrum [29].
Zhang et al. design a frequency shifted backscatter sys-
tem to enable communications between body sensors
and Bluetooth/WiFi enabled radios [29]. Their scheme
demonstrates a 20 MHz frequency shift, that is enough to
make a frequency shift backscatter tag to communicate
with commercial WiFi and Bluetooth radios. The sug-
gested technique enables a tag to achieve the data rate up
to 50 kbps with a maximum range of 4.8 m. Moreover, the
power consumption of a tag using the frequency shifting
technique is up to 45 µW, due to the utilization of low
power ring oscillator circuit.
Similarly, Ensworth et al. use frequency shifting tech-
nique to shift carrier signals of one frequency band to
a nearby non-overlapping band of another frequency
(using Bluetooth and WiFi technology) [28]. The pro-
posed scheme has the capability to separate the frequency
range of backscattered signals from the primary (signals)
band to make decoding more strong. The suggested work
utilizes the BLE with 1 Mbps Gaussian shaped Binary
Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) modulation technique.
Authors show a negative frequency deviation of more
than 185 kHz below the channel’s center frequency as “0”
 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
Table 2: Technology conversion and frequency shifting tech-
nique
References Key points
Technology Conversion
[26] • Converts Bluetooth to WiFi and ZigBee signals, single side
band backscatter design suggested.
[27] • Uses low cost smart phones to work as ready made
infrastructure for IoT devices.
[28] • Enables backscatter tags to transmit data via Bluetooth
chipset.
Frequency Shifting Technique
[29] • Enables the backscatter tag to shift the carrier signals into
nearby frequency band.
bit, for each of 40 BLE channels. Whereas, “1” bit is shown
by a positive frequency deviation of more than 185 kHz
above the center frequency of a channel. The BLE tag
reflects a carrier signal in such a way that the resulting
sub-carriers contain frequency components within a pre-
ferred choice of channels. The aforementioned work uses
the carrier frequency of 2414 MHz [28].
3.3 Discussion
Table 2 shows the key points of technology conversion
and frequency shifting techniques. AmB-Com has the
potential to harvest the energy from one frequency band
and to reflect the data on the nearby technology fre-
quency band. This technique in AmB-Com enables pas-
sive IoT devices to communicate over different bands of
frequencies. Moreover, extending the frequency bands
can accommodate more IoT devices to communicate in
the vicinity while reducing the chances of interference
between devices.
4. CHANNEL ESTIMATION AND TRANSMISSION
DISTANCE
The channel estimation by passive devices is a challeng-
ing task. It is difficult due to the availability of noise and
other high power signals, that makes the channel esti-
mation process more challenging for passive low power
IoT devices. This section describes the channel estima-
tion techniques in AmB-Com and various ways to extend
the communication range for passive devices working on
AmB-Com.
4.1 Channel Estimation in AmB-Com
Channel estimation in AmB-Com is different from that
of traditional wireless communications. The traditional
approach requires the estimator to send training (pilot)
symbols for channel estimation [30, 31]. Whereas, it is
not the case with the AmB-Com due to the unavailability
of own energy source. The recent work on AmB-Com
5
considers the availability of perfect Channel State Infor-
mation (CSI) for channel estimation [32]. However,
Wang et al. have not considered the CSI and use a dif-
ferential encoding technique for the estimation of the
channel [33]. Similarly, Parks et al. propose a multi-
antennas decoding scheme for AmB-Com [14] that does
not require any channel estimation and can be imple-
mented by using standard analog components.
Ma et al. are the first to investigate the channel estimation
problem in AmB-Com and they propose a blind chan-
nel estimator [34]. The proposed estimator is based on
the expectation maximization algorithm that can obtain
the modulus values of the AmB-Com channel parame-
ters. Moreover, the authors also suggest the initial value
ranges for blind channel estimator along with the modi-
fied Bayesian Cramer-Rao lower bounds.
4.2 Transmission Distance for AmB-Com
AmB-Com enables passive devices to reflect the nearby
radio signals by consuming a few micro-watts of power.
The reflected signals modulate the information of tags
using ON-OFF keying technique. The interference and
attenuation of the low power reflected signals limit the
communication range of AmB-Com devices up to a
few centimeters. Furthermore, the sensitivity of passive
devices is also a bottleneck towards the improvement of
the communication range.
Parks et al. suggest two hardware prototypes to improve
the communication range of AmB-Com devices, these
are known as micro-code and micro-mo [14]. The sug-
gested prototypes can draw complete power for hardware
circuitry through energy harvesting using TV signals
and solar energy. Micro-code design enables the tags
to communicate through walls at a distance of tens of
meters. Whereas, the power consumption of micro-code
is 8.9 µW. The micro-code improves the communication
range up to 80 feet through coding gain. Similarly, micro-
mo uses a multiple-antennas cancelation technique to
increase the communication range while consuming
422 µW of power. Micro-mo also increases the data rate
from 1 kbps to 10 kbps.
Similarly, long range dependent backscatter (LoRa-
backscatter) extends the communication range to include
the wide area network [20]. The LoRa-backscatter
exploits the Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) modulation
technique of LoRa, where “0” bit is shown by con-
tinuous chirp that increases linearly with frequency.
Whereas, “1” bit is represented by chirp that is cycli-
cally shifted in time [20]. The CSS design can successfully
6 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES

backscatter at a distance of 475 m by consuming 9.25 µW
of power. The LoRa-backscatter design has the advantage
of improved sensitivity. The sensitivity level of LoRa-
backscatter increases to −149 dBm than −85 dBm sen-
sitivity of RFID. However, there is a trade-off in data
rate, the LoRa-backscatter can support data rates from
18 kbps to 37.5 kbps, which are less than the data rates
of RFID (40–640 kbps). Authors also suggest a single
side band backscatter design that uses the backscat-
ter harmonic cancelation technique to cancel the third
and fifth harmonic in adjacent frequency bands [20].
The variation in data rate is caused by the switch-
ing mechanism (the reflection of signals or absorption
of signals). Furthermore, the authors propose a link-
layer protocol design that allows various long-range
backscatter devices to communicate by sharing the spec-
trum. The LoRa-backscatter requires a dedicated power
source to produce sinusoidal tone as an excitation sig-
nal, that makes LoRa-backscatter less viable for outdoor
applications.
Peng et al. propose a Passive Long Range (PLoRa), an
extended range data network for Amb-BackCom LoRa
transmissions [35]. PLoRa scheme does not need any
dedicated source for signal excitation, rather it uses
nearby LoRa transmissions to convey the information.
In PLoRa, the data is modulated on excitation signal and
results a new standard of LoRa chirp signal. The result-
ing signal gets shifted to a distinct LoRa channel that can
be received at the receiver. Similarly, authors combine
a low power detection circuit with blind chirp modu-
lation and harmonic cancelation techniques to extend
the transmission range [35]. The proposed work also
suggests a lightweight decoding algorithm with MAC-
layer protocol for backscatter signals. The suggested
algorithm enables LoRa-backscatter tags to communi-
cate in the presence of active LoRa devices. The com-
munication range of PLoRa is 600 meters in an outdoor
scenario. Whereas, in an indoor location, the communi-
cation range of PLoRa is 1.1 km. Moreover, the data rate
achieved with PLoRa is 284 bytes for every 24 minutes in
indoor (or for every 17 minutes in outdoor) scenario.
Authors in [36] suggest a LoRea architecture consist-
ing of a tag, a reader and numerous carrier generators,
to increase the communication range of passive devices.
It is observed that LoRea’s range improves with carrier
strength and proximity. The maximum range achieved
with LoRea is 3.4 km while consuming only 70 µW of
power. Similarly, the quantum tunneling based AmB-
Com improves the range of passive devices by consider-
ing a highly sensitive tag that can backscatter in free space
up to 1.2 km while the power consumption remains as
low as 20.4 µW [37–39]. Likewise, Bacha et al. suggest
a stochastic geometry approach in passive IoT networks
to enhance the field of powered communications [40].
Their study demonstrates that the communication range
of AmB-Com can become equal to the range of tra-
ditional wireless communications if power beacons are
densely deployed.

Table 3: AmB-Com channel estimation 4.3 Discussion

References Key points Channel estimation is a very crucial problem in AmB-
Channel Estimation Com. Some of the researchers address this issue by con-
[14] • Do not require channel estimation.
[32] • Considers the availability of perfect Channel State sidering perfect CSI while others do not consider channel
Information (CSI) for channel estimation. information in the estimation process. A blind channel
[33] • Do not consider the CSI and use differential encoding
technique for channel estimation. estimator scheme can estimate the channel, based on
[34] • Proposes a blind channel estimator based on the the expectation maximization algorithm. Table 3 high-
expectation maximization algorithm.
lights the key points for channel estimation. Similarly,

Table 4: Range extension in AmB-Com devices

Communication Power Con-
Ref. Scheme Name Range Data Rate sumption Technique Used Remarks
[14] Micro-code and 80 feet. 10 Kbps to 1 Kbps. 8.9 micro watts and Uses coding gain and Provides benefits of
Micro-mo 422 micro watts. multiple antennas. CDMA.
[20] LoRa-backscatter 475 m. 18 Kbps to 9.25 micro watts. Uses chirp spread spectrum Requires dedicated
37.5 Kbps. modulation. excitation.
[35] PLoRa 600 m (Outdoor) and 284 bytes (for every 220 micro watts. Uses blind chirp modu- Do not require
1.1 Km (indoor). 24/17 minutes in lation and harmonic dedicated
indoor/outdoor). cancelation technique. excitation signal.
[36] LoRea 3.4 Km. 2.9 Kbit/s. 70 micro watts. Uses various carrier Range improves with
generator. carrier strength
and proximity.
[37] Quantum Tunneling 1.2 Km. N/A 20.4 micro watts. Uses low powered Improves sensitivity
based BackCom quantum tunneling tags. up to −84 dBm.
 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
Table 4 shows a comparison between various range exten-
sion techniques in AmB-Com devices. It is observed that
LoRa-backscatter can be a suitable option for indoor
devices, due to the availability of dedicated excitation sig-
nals. However, for outdoor applications, PLoRa can be a
better choice due to the use of non-dedicated excitation
signals and its improved range up to 600 m.
5. POWER TRANSFER MANAGEMENT
It is necessary to keep a balance between power harvest-
ing and the data transfer rate. Power transfer schemes
in AmB-Com allow passive devices to harvest power
efficiently and to transmit their data without any inter-
ruption. This section discusses efficient power trans-
fer schemes and energy management techniques in
AmB-Com.
5.1 Efficient Power Transfer
Efficient power transfer techniques enhance the life of
passive tags. Liu et al. discuss an efficient power transfer
scheme for AmB-Com [13]. Similarly, an RF-based effi-
cient power transfer scheme with energy beam-forming
is suggested by Yang et al. [24]. Their technique consid-
ers power transmitter (reader) with multiple antennas to
send data and energy towards various power receivers.
Figure 5 demonstrates multi-antenna RFID reader with
the M number of transmitting antennas and the R num-
ber of receiving antennas. Each of the K numbers of RFID
tags is equipped with a single antenna. The reader in
the suggested scenario can perform channel estimation,
energy beam-forming, and other signal processing oper-
ations. Whereas, each tag have an RF-energy harvesting
Figure 5: Efficient power transfer in AmB-Com
7
Table 5: Efficient power transfer and energy management in
AmB-Com
References Key points
Efficient Power Transfer
[24] • RF based energy transfer via energy beam forming from
multiple antennas.
[41] • Harvest energy to powered up WSN by using two different
frequencies.
Energy Management
[42] • Propose the policies for the management of harvested
energy.
module for its operation. The notation hMk represents
the forward channel between the m-th transmit antenna.
Whereas, the gkR shows the backward channels between
the k-th tag and R-th reader. Likewise, a rectifier design
is suggested for the efficient energy harvesting to ener-
gize Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) [41]. The proposed
technique works on dual load conditions by utilizing two
distinct frequencies.
5.2 Energy Management in AmB-Com
Energy management in passive device communications
allows inactive tags to receive continuous energy using
AmB-Com. In order to maintain a balance between
energy harvesting rate and information transfer in pas-
sive devices, the optimal policies need to be defined.
Iannello et al. suggest the optimal policies for balancing
the energy harvesting rate with information transfer [42].
Moreover, they propose an optimal stationary policy that
can maximize the long-term average read probability of
tags. They also use energy scheduler and power amplifier
to control the probability of successful transmissions by
varying the drawn energy from the storage device.
5.3 Discussion
Table 5 highlights different techniques for energy man-
agement and efficient power transfer in AmB-Com. It
is observed that beam-forming from different RF anten-
nas in AmB-Com allows passive devices to harvest more
energy than that of the traditional approach. Similarly,
energy management techniques allow passive devices to
efficiently manage the harvested power for information
transfer.
6. SCHEDULING AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Proper allocation of resources in AmB-Com, enable
resource allocation schemes to assure efficient communi-
cations. This section covers energy scheduling and data
scheduling to ensure effective communications. More-
over, we also describe the optimization techniques in
8 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
AmB-Com, which can optimize the resources appropri-
ately.
6.1 Energy and Data Scheduling
AmB-Com enables the tags to communicate through the
reflection of incident signals. This simultaneous reflec-
tion by each tag causes data collisions [43, 44]. In order
to avoid data collisions by tags, the priorities and proce-
dures for data transmissions are needed. The principles
for RFID data management are highlighted in [45], in
order to understand the essential features of AmB-Com.
Similarly, Hoang et al. consider data scheduling for the
backscatter sensor network to prevent collisions [46].
They suggest a data sending technique through the gate-
way. The suggested technique changes the impedance
of the antenna while backscattering received RF signals.
Moreover, the proposed scheme also reduces complexity
and power consumption. Likewise, authors address data
collection and data scheduling problem in AmB-Com
[46]. They suggest a data scheduling algorithm for AmB-
Com sensors as shown in Figure 6. Lyu et al. propose a
scheme for Backscatter Assisted Wireless Power Com-
munication Networks (BAWPCNs) for efficient energy
and data management [47]. BAWPCNs based model
considers energy scheduling using TDMA [27]. More-
over, the suggested energy scheduling scheme has the
Figure 6: Data scheduling for backscatter WSN
Table 6: Summary of AmB-Com scheduling and resource allocation
Main Area References
Energy and Data Scheduling [47]
[27]
[46]
Resource Allocation [48]
[51]
[57]
Optimization [47]
[54]
[48]
[24]
[46]
[58]
trade-off between successful transmission probability
and the energy harvesting rate.
6.2 Resource Allocation
Proper allocation of the resources in AmB-Com improves
the life of passive devices. The algorithms for allocation
of resources are proposed to maximize energy effi-
ciency while considering data transmissions in AmB-
Com [48–50]. Kalamkar et al. [51] suggest three resource
allocation schemes: based on (a) equal time allocation;
(b) minimum throughput maximization; and (c) pro-
portional time allocation to enhance the fairness in the
wireless powered cooperative cognitive radio network.
Similarly, Lyu et al. optimize three resources together
[52]: (a) transmission power of reader; (b) reflection
ratio; and (c) time allocation for semi-passive and passive
tags. Likewise, Wang et al. consider the optimal allocation
of time and energy to maximize sum throughput [53].
The proposed allocation scheme also saves the energy of
tags for upcoming data blocks.
6.3 Optimization of Resources for AmB-Com
Optimal time and energy allocation techniques are found
to enhance the sum throughput in AmB-Com [54]. Opti-
mal time allocation is achieved for full-duplex and half-
duplex BAWPCN that maximizes the system throughput
while considering Hybrid Access Point (H-AP) [47]. Sim-
ilarly, a model based on time block bifurcates a time block
into two pieces: (a) data backscattering in AmB-Com;
and (b) data transmission in harvest then transmit pro-
tocol [48]. Moreover, suggested work shows optimal time
allocation policies to improve the system throughput.
Authors also consider optimization techniques to max-
imize the performance of AmB-Com in addition to the
time allocation policies, for energy harvesting and data
backscattering while transmitting data [48].
Research work in [55], proposes the design for two opti-
mal transmission strategies for buffer aided AmB-Com
Contribution
• Energy scheduling based on time division multiple access.
• Trade-off between successful transmission probability and energy harvesting rate.
• Data can be sent to gateways by changing impedance of antenna.
• Resource allocation algorithm for energy efficiency maximization while data transmission.
• Investigate three schemes for resource allocation based on time, throughput and fairness.
• Energy efficient resource allocation discussed.
• Optimal time allocation for full and half-duplex backscatter assisted WPCN.
• Optimal time and energy allocation to enhance sum throughput.
• Optimal time allocation for full and half-duplex backscatter assisted WPCN.
• Optimization of channel training energy and energy allocation weights for energy beams.
• State Action Reward State Action (SARSA) algorithm is discussed to get optimal policy.
• Performance optimization issue for cognitive radio network with RF energy harvesting.
 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
system. The proposed system design can minimize
energy consumption while sending data. Moreover, the
throughput can be maximized with an increase in energy
consumption. Likewise, Zheng et al. propose an efficient
method to get an optimal solution for the maximum
common throughput optimization problem [56].
6.4 Discussion
Table 6 demonstrates the summary of scheduling and
resource allocation schemes. There are two types of
scheduling in AmB-Com: (i) energy scheduling; and (ii)
data scheduling. The suggested scheduling techniques
are application specific and can optimize the resources
depending on various parameters like time, throughput,
and energy. Moreover, the optimal resource allocation
polices can be used for better utilization of resources.
7. PERFORMANCE OF AMB-COM SYSTEMS
This section covers the performance of AmB-Com sys-
tems in terms of outage probability, capacity, and signal
detection schemes.
7.1 Outage Performance and Signal Detection
The outage performance and capacity of AmB-Com
needs to be known for efficient communications over a
communication channel. Zhao et al. examine the outage
performance and capacity of AmB-Com systems [59].
They suggest a procedure to analyze the capacity of AmB-
Com channel. Furthermore, the authors show that the
channel capacity of AmB-Com channel can be attained
if radio signals are not equiprobably backscattered by
RF tags. The proposed work also shows that the capac-
ity of complex Gaussian signals is not exactly double to
the capacity real Gaussian signals. Moreover, they suggest
that BPSK/MPSK RF signals can attain a larger chan-
nel capacity in comparison to the real/complex Gaussian
channels. Similarly, the outage probability of the AmB-
Com channel is shown in the closed form [59]. Authors
obtain asymptotic outage in case of high SNR and suggest
a truncation error bound. The proposed work also shows
that the asymptotic outage probability can approach the
accurate value and the truncation error bound can pro-
vide a reasonable estimation for the number of the trun-
cation terms.
Chen et al. suggest a theoretical system model for AmB-
Com systems and proposed a Maximum Likelihood
(ML) detector for the legacy receiver [60]. They also
derive BER expressions and show the performance based
9
on the derived BER expressions. Moreover, authors eval-
uate the effect of various factors (like the change in
distance and angles) on BER performance.
The work in [61] examine the outage performance and
analyze the outage probability of AmB-Com system over
real Gaussian channels. Authors derive the exact expres-
sions for effective channel distribution and outage prob-
ability. They also provide a tight truncation error bound
to the outage expression.
Similarly, signal detection is one of the crucial prob-
lems to improve the performance of AmB-Com devices.
Chen et al. investigate the issue of signal detection while
considering the availability of channel estimation error
for full duplex AmB-Com [60]. Authors also propose
two ML detectors with their theoretical and practical
thresholds. Likewise, the energy detection method for
AmB-Com with real ambient sources (BPSK and PAM)
are suggested by Zhang et al. [63]. The proposed work
shows that when the source is restricted to real, the outage
probability can be derived in closed form.
Ma et al. explore the signal detection problem with multi-
ple antennas [68] and suggest a ratio detector that can use
the ratio of signal strengths, received by each antenna. As
it is very difficult to derive a closed-form expression for
an optimal detection threshold, hence authors suggest an
approximated expression [68]. Moreover, their work sug-
gests a selection scheme for antennas to improve system
performance.
The work in [64] investigates the signal detection in
AmB-Com having multiple antenna tags. Authors sug-
gest an optimal antenna selection algorithm and propose
a blind detector for the reader to recover the received
signals without any CSI. Moreover, authors propose a
Bartlett-based detector, that can avoid the estimation of
multiple power consuming channel parameters, to trans-
mit training symbols [64]. It is shown that the suggested
detector acquire reasonable performance.
7.2 Theoretical Analysis with BER Performance
Qian et al. discuss various aspects of the non-coherent
AmB-Com system consisting of an ambient RF source,
a reader and a tag [32]. They suggest Joint Energy (JE)
detector having the least complexity and derive the opti-
mal detection threshold. The BER observed by their pro-
posed scheme is 10−3 given the transmit Signal to Noise
Ratio (SNR) of 15 dB. Under similar conditions, JE detec-
tor has better BER performance than that of minimum
BER detector in [65], which works on the differential
10 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES

encoding technique. The minimum BER detector shows
the BER performance of 10−1 when the transmit SNR
value is 15 dB [65].
The authors in [66], utilize frequency shifted AmB-
Com scheme to transmit multiple bits per symbol. The
proposed multi-bit symbol technique improves the BER
performance to 10−3 given the value of Ec/No= 1. More-
over, multiple bits per symbol scheme has better BER
performance than that of micro-code in [14] with similar
experimental conditions. Whereas, micro-code achieves
BER of 10−2 given the value of Ec/No= 1.
Yang et al. propose a cooperative AmB-Com system
to recover signals from AmB-Com source and devices
[67]. They propose optimal ML detector, suboptimal
linear detectors and successive cancelation based detec-
tors for flat fading channels. Moreover, they suggest
low-complexity optimal ML detector for cooperative
AmB-Com over ambient OFDM carrier signals. The BER
performance is achieved to 10−3 , given the transmit SNR
of 15 dB.
Table 7: Outage performance and detection schemes for
AmB-Com
References Key points
[59] • Channel capacity can be achieved when the radio signals
are not equiprobably backscattered by RF tag, and
obtained asymptotic outage at high SNR.
[60] • Suggest theoretical system model. Evaluate the effect of
various factors (like varying distance and angle) on BER
performance.
[61] • Derived the exact expressions for effective channel
distribution and provided a tight truncation error bound
to the outage expression.
[62] • Proposed two ML detectors with their theoretical and
practical thresholds.
[63] • When the source is restricted to real, the outage
probability could be derived in closed form.
[64] • Signal detection with multiple antenna tags and a blind
detector acquire the reasonable performance.
Zhang et al. show the validated theoretical BER per-
formance with practical, while considering different
numbers of samples [63]. The BER value of 10−1 is
achieved with SNR of 15 dB, when the number of samples
remains 30.
7.3 Discussion
Table 7 shows the summary of performance analy-
sis including the outage performance, signal detection
schemes and BER performance. It is observed that the
performance of AmB-Com improves when backscattered
signals are not equiprobably backscattered by RF tag.
Table 8 highlights the BER performance of various AmB-
Com systems. The BER performance of the ML detectors
has better BER performance than differential encoding.
Similarly, the performance of multi-bit per symbol cod-
ing scheme is better than that of micro-code in AmB-
Com systems.
8. OPEN RESEARCH ISSUES FOR AMB-COM
Recently, AmB-Com has witnessed rapid development
in the field of wireless communications. However, some
areas still require more work. This section highlights
open issues in AmB-Com, which need more attention by
the research community.
8.1 Interference Management in AmB-Com
AmB-Com tags harvest energy from RF signals to trans-
mit their data on reflected signals, the reflected signals
have low energy levels in comparison to strong car-
rier signals. Moreover, the simultaneous transmissions
by various passive devices at the same time, create inter-
ference between them. The interference management
schemes like interference cancelation and interference
alignment are suggested to address interference problems

Table 8: BER performance AmB-Com

Experimental
Ref. Technique BER SNR/ Ec/No System Model conditions Remarks
[32] ML detector 10−3 SNR 15 dB Contains an AmB-Com Assumes 8-PSK Propose joint energy detector and
RF source, a reader AmB-Com RF signals. ML detector for non-coherent
and a tag. signal detectors.
[65] Differential encoding 10−1 SNR 15 dB Contains an AmB-Com Propose the upper and Propose minimum BER detector and
detector RF source, a reader lower bounds. ML detector for non-coherent
and a tag. AmB-Com.
[66] Micro-code 10−2 Ec/No= 1 Contains an AmB-Com Low power coding Micro-code increases range
RF source, a reader technique.
and a tag.
[14] Multiple bits per 10−3 Ec/No= 1 Contains an AmB-Com Multi-bit coding Uses freq shifted Amb-Com scheme.
symbol scheme RF source, a reader technique.
and a tag.
[67] Cooperative Receiver 10−3 SNR 15 dB Consists of cooperative For fading channels. Uses cooperative receiver (successive
receiver interference cancelation based
detectors and linear detectors).
 M. L. MEMON ET AL.: AMBIENT BACKSCATTER COMMUNICATIONS TO ENERGIZE IOT DEVICES
for certain channels [69]. Similarly, in order to address
deep fading in the AmB-Com channel [70], transmit
diversity with a single-tag antenna is proposed [71].
Zhang et al. propose a multi-tag selection combining
scheme to combat the double fading channel problem
[72]. They also correlate AmB-Com wireless channel
with Nakagami-fading channels. Likewise, Jiang et al.
propose a parallel approach to resolve single-source fad-
ing issues in wide-band Amb-BackCom [73]. The pro-
posed scheme enables a transmitter to backscatter energy
across an extremely wide bandwidth, allowing any signal
of the complete band to be a host for AmB-Com.
8.2 Limited Communication Range of AmB-Com
Due to attenuation, interference and high power carrier
signals, reflected signals in AmB-Com faces the lim-
ited range problem. Various steps are taken to improve
the communication range of AmB-Com devices, which
include coherent receivers for bistatic scatter [74], LoRa-
backscatter [20], AmB-Com quantum tunneling [37,
75], use of the power amplifier [42], multi-antenna and
MIMO systems [14, 76–81], relaying [82], and D2D
communication [69, 83]. But still there is a need for
the improvement in range extension, to meet the vision
of passive IoT devices. The vision of passive devices
include the improved communication range for battery-
less devices. Bacha et al. enable the long-range com-
munication among passive devices by deploying dense
power beacons [40]. AmB-Com has the goal to replace
battery powered wireless communications with passive
device communication, targeting similar communication
range. Hence, there is an immense need for improve-
ment in communication range, to enhance the coverage
of AmB-Com devices.
8.3 Networking between Devices using AmB-Com
AmB-Com devices reflect incident RF signals without
any coordination. The networking between these passive
devices is a challenging task. To address the networking
issues in BackCom tags, Wang et al. consider all Back-
Com nodes as one virtual sender, while dealing trans-
missions by tags as rateless code [43]. This networking
scheme deals with a large number of backscatter tags
(100’s or 1000’s). There are a number of research opportu-
nities to enable networking between AmB-Com devices
and to propose efficient networking protocols.
9. CONCLUSION
In this review paper, we discussed AmB-Com for ener-
gizing IoT devices. First, we showed various types of
11
ambient RF signals, as the source of energy for passive
IoT devices. Then, we covered efficient power transfer
techniques along with technology conversion schemes. In
order to optimize the resources in AmB-Com, we elabo-
rated energy scheduling, data scheduling, resource allo-
cation, and optimization techniques. Finally, we showed
the BER performance of different AmB-Com systems
and concluded the paper after highlighting open research
challenges.
FUNDING
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Pro-
gram through the National Research Foundation of Korea
(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF- 2016R1D1
A1B03935633).
ORCID
Mudasar Latif Memon http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0107-
0428
Navrati Saxena http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4875-0420
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Authors
Mudasar Latif Memon is currently
working towards his PhD degree as a
researcher with the Mobile Ubiquitous
System Information Center (MUSIC) in
Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea.
He is also a part of Sukkur IBA univeristy,
Sindh, Pakistan since 2014. Prior to this,
he served Pakistan’s largest telecommuni-
cation operator that is Pakistan Telecommunication Company
Limited (PTCL) for more than five years. He received his
Bachelors of Engineering degree in Electronics engineering
and Masters of Engineering degree in Telecommunication and
Control engineering from Mehran University of Engineering
and Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan. His research inter-
ests include energy efficiency and deep learning applications in
wireless mobile communications networks.
Email: memon@skku.edu
Navrati Saxena is an Associate Pro-
fessor and director of Mobile Ubiqui-
tous System Information Center (MUSIC)
in Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU),
Korea. Prior to joing SKKU, she was an
Assistant Professor in Amity University
India and a visiting researcher in Univer-
sity of Texas at Arlington, USA. She com-
pleted her PhD from University of Trento, Italy. Her research
interests involve 5G wireless, IoT and smart grids. She serves
in guest editorial and technical program committee of interna-
tional journals and conferences. She has co-authored one book
(Taylor & Francis) and published more than 60 international
journals.
Corresponding author. Email: navrati@skku.edu
Abhishek Roy is currently working as
a Senior Technical Manager in Wire-
less Standards Team of MediaTek USA
Inc. Prior to this he worked as Principal
Engineer in Network System Design Lab,
Samsung Electronics, Korea. He received
his PhD in 2010 from Sungkyunkwan
15
Trans. Wirel. Commun., Vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 1989–2001, 2013.
DOI:10.1109/TWC.2013.031813.120224
82. Munir D., Shah S. T., Lee W. J. and Chung M. Y., “Low-
power backscatter relay network.” Proceedings of the 11th
International Conference on Ubiquitous Information Man-
agement and Communication, ACM, 2017, p. 52.
83. Han K. and Huang K., “Wirelessly powered backscatter
communication networks: Modeling, coverage, and capac-
ity,” IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun., Vol. 16, no. 4, pp.
2548–2561, 2017. DOI:10.1109/TWC.2017.2665629
University, Korea and MS in 2002 from the University of Texas
at Arlington, USA. His research interests include resource and
energy management in 5G wireless, IoT, social networking
and smart grids. He serves in editorial boards and technical
program committee of many international journals and confer-
ences. He has co-authored one book and published more than
60 international journals.
Email: abhishek.roy@mediatek.com
Sukhdeep Singh is working as Cheif Engi-
neer at Samsung R&D India-Bangalore.
He received his PhD in Computer Engi-
neering from Sungkyunkwan University,
South Korea. His research interests are
SDN, NFV, Cloud Computing, MEC.
Email: sukh.sandhu@samsung.com
Dong Ryeol Shin is a professor in Col-
lege of Information and Communication
Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University,
South Korea. Presently, he is serving as
21st president of Sungkyunkwan Univer-
sity, South Korea. He was the Dean of the
College of Information and Communica-
tion Engineering and Sungkyun Conver-
gence Institute. He received his Ph.D. in 1992 from Georgia
Institute of Technology, USA. He completed his MS in 1982 and
BS in 1980 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South
Korea and Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea, respec-
tively. His research interests include wireless communications
and networks, Ubiquitous Computing and Networking, Sensor
Networks and Big Data. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, IEICE,
KIEE. He serves in editorial boards in Institute of Electronics
Engineers of Korea (IEEK) and Korea Information Processing
Society (KIPS).
Email: drshin@skku.edu