Recent Advances in Backscatter Communications

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, the Internet is moving towards the new paradigm of Internet of Things (IoT), where smart objects are able to sense the surrounding environment and communicate and interact with each other without the intervention of humans. A key issue of this technology is the energy problem: use of batteries for these devices entails problems in terms of weight, bulk, and maintenance costs for replacement and recharging, which become unsustainable at large scales. For this reason, scatter radio, i.e., communication through reflection, has been recently proposed as an effective enabling technology for IoT. The first well-known application of scatter radio was the RFID technology, but a novel communication mechanism has recently gained significant attention, called the ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) system, that enables devices to communicate by backscattering radio-frequency (RF) signals. This Special Issue “Recent Advances in Backscatter Communications” aims to present recent developments in backscatter communications. In light of the increasing interest in this topic, this Special Issue will focus on but will not be limited to the following topics of interest:

• RFID/ambient backscattering technologies and architecture;
• RF energy harvesting in backscattering networks;
• Detection and interference management in backscattering networks;
• Performance evaluation of backscattering networks;
• Experiments and prototypes;
• Applications of backscattering;
• Channel estimation in backscattering networks; 
• Multiple access for backscattering devices;
• Optimization of backscattering networks; 
• Learning data-driven strategies for backscattering networks.

Prof. Dr. Donatella Darsena
Guest Editor

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