Split-aloha algorithm for radio frequency identification system

Anti-Collision algorithm is one of the most important components of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which possesses a key position in the performance of the whole system. ALOHA algorithm is one of the most popular methods to solve the collision problem because of its efficiency and practicability. The grouping method has been developed for enhancing the performance of conventional ALOHA when there are thousands of tags. However, the existing grouping method has limitations in applications due to its rigorous requirements for the estimation of the number of backlog tags or the admirable characteristics of the tags' ID number. Working on the improvement of the grouping methods, we proposed an algorithm named split-ALOHA with a novel grouping method that split tags as a binary tree. The novel grouping method makes it more practicable than the existing grouping methods due to the simplified requirements for tags. Simulations of the proposed algorithm show the superior performance of a linearly increasing of the number of consumed time slots while the number of tags increases. The algorithm performance analysis between split-ALOHA and ALOHA algorithms with other grouping methods has been implemented in a proper way. © 2007 The Journal of China Universities of Posts and Telecommunications.