Development of an Enhanced Scheduler Algorithm for Radio Frequency Identification in a Dense Reader Environment (RFID-DRE)

Abstract

This research work presents an enhanced Scheduler Algorithm using a Modified Searching of Time Slot and Frequency Assignment Approach for Radio Frequency Identification Dense Reader Environment (RFID-DRE). The problem of RFID in a Dense Reader Environment (DRE) is interference between readers as a result of collision between the frequencies of the different readers operating concurrently. This interference prevents the correct identification of tags, which causes degradation of the system performance. To resolve this impairment, a scheduler algorithm had been proposed in literature as an interference mitigation technique in RFID-DRE. This algorithm has a slow convergence problem because of the random search of time slot and frequency allocation processes. It takes a longer time to assign the network resources due to the random search of time slot and frequency allocation processes, which delay the overall system. This work used simulated annealing solver (SAS) which is expected to minimize the problem of the random search of time slot and frequency allocation processes with a view to improve the convergence time and increase network throughput. The enhanced scheduler algorithm was modified and computer simulations were carried out using MATLAB/SIMULINK R2017a, the performance of the enhanced scheduler algorithm was compared with that of the conventional scheduler algorithm using throughput and convergence time as performance metrics. The enhanced scheduler algorithm had a better throughput and decrease in convergence time compared to the conventional scheduler algorithm scheduler with the overall average percentage improvements of 6.58% and 33.86% respectively for number of tags ranging from 20-200 distributed to 12 readers for full mesh scenario.