Ambient Backscatter Communications: A Contemporary Survey

By Nguyen Van Huynh, Dinh Thai Hoang, Xiao Lu, Dusist Niyato, Ping Wang, Dong In Kim. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, 2017

838 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recently, ambient backscatter communication has been introduced as a cutting-edge technology which enables smart devices to communicate by utilizing ambient radio frequency (RF) signals without requiring active RF transmission. This technology is especially effective in addressing communication and energy efficiency problems for low-power communications systems such as sensor networks, and thus it is expected to realize numerous Internet-of-Things applications. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a contemporary and comprehensive literature review on fundamentals, applications, challenges, and research efforts/progress of ambient backscatter communications. In particular, we first present fundamentals of backscatter communications and briefly review bistatic backscatter communications systems. Then, the general architecture, advantages, and solutions to address existing issues and limitations of ambient backscatter communications systems are discussed. Additionally, emerging applications of ambient backscatter communications are highlighted. Finally, we outline some open issues and future research directions.

Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aac20d40899cd03763e6a7bdde6a6ade7444f513

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Citations in the corpus

6G: The Next Frontier: From Holographic Messaging to Artificial Intelligence Using Subterahertz and Visible Light Communication (2019, background): “• An even more drastic approach will rely on the exploitation of ambient backscattering, which enables tiny devices to operate with no battery by redirecting ambient radio-frequency (RF) signals (for example, using on/off encoding) without requiring active RF transmission [14].”
6G Wireless Systems: Vision, Requirements, Challenges, Insights, and Opportunities (2020, background): “” Here, related ideas from molecular communications may prove to be useful [74] and the use of passive backscatter communication [75], which helps in improving the energy efficiency of devices.”
Large Intelligent Surface/Antennas (LISA): Making Reflective Radios Smart (2019, background): “To overcome this challenging issue, AmBC has been proposed recently, which exploits the RF signals from a primary communication system in the ambient environment [4]–[6].”
Toward Smart Wireless Communications via Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces: A Contemporary Survey (2019, methodology): “It also differs from the conventional backscatter communications, where the backscatter transmitter communicates with its receiver by modulating and reﬂecting the ambient RF signals [27].”
6G and Beyond: The Future of Wireless Communications Systems (2020, background): “In fact, the ambient backscatter transceivers can operate in the wide range of super high frequency (SHF) bands, covering Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other bands [138].”