Probabilistic modeling of harvested GSM energy and its application in extending UHF RFID tags reading range

Abstract

Newer silicon-based consumer electronics became very popular due to its reduction in size, price, and power consumption. One of its applications today is building low-power devices for ubiquitous sensing. Although sensors are low-power devices, they need some energy source to function properly. One of the major challenges today is to develop systems where sensors do not require external power sources, and could be powered using available ambient energy. To address this power issue one could use energy harvesting concepts. In this paper, we present our probabilistic approach used for modeling the possible amount of Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) energy that could be harvested, including a demonstration of what power levels could be harvested using GSM rectifying antenna (rectenna). In addition to harvesting approach, we propose an application of its usage in increasing the communication range between Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader and battery free passive RFID tags.