Enabling Software-defined PHY for Backscatter Networks

Abstract

Backscatter networks enable ultra-low-power wireless communication by reflecting ambient RF signals rather than generating them. However, the physical layer (PHY) of backscatter systems is typically fixed at design time, making it impossible to adapt modulation, coding, or protocol parameters after deployment.

This work introduces the first software-defined PHY for backscatter networks, enabling agile reprogrammability of the PHY layer at runtime. Operators can tune modulation schemes, error correction, and channel parameters without hardware changes — dramatically increasing the flexibility and longevity of deployed backscatter infrastructure.

Key Contributions

• First software-defined PHY architecture for backscatter wireless networks.
• Runtime reprogrammability of modulation and coding without hardware changes.
• Enables protocol-agile backscatter — adaptable to diverse IoT deployment scenarios.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{zhu2022backscatter,
  title     = {Enabling Software-defined PHY for Backscatter Networks},
  author    = {Zhu, Fengyuan and Ouyang, Mingwei and Feng, Luwei and Liu, Yaoyu and Tian, Xiaohua and Jin, Meng and Chen, Dongyao and Wang, Xinbing},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys)},
  year      = {2022},
  publisher = {ACM}
}