Revisiting Smart Dust With RFID Sensor Networks

The author argues that sensing and computation platforms that leverage RFID technology can realize "Smart-dust" applications that have eluded the sensor network community. RFID Sensor Networks (RSNs), which consist of RFID readers and RFID sensor nodes (WISPs), extend RFID to include sensing and bring the advantages of small, inexpensive and long-lived RFID tags to wireless sensor networks. The paper describes sample applications suited to the space between existing sensor networks and RFID. The paper highlights the research challenges in realizing RSNs such as the use of intermittent power and RFID protocols suited to sensor queries.