JP4821788B2 - Reader device, method of transmitting the device, and tag - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transmission method for improving power supply efficiency from a reader to an RF tag in order to enhance frequency utilization efficiency and to prolong a communication distance from the RF tag to the reader without increasing bandwidth as wireless communication from the reader to the RF tag. <P>SOLUTION: A reader apparatus for wirelessly communicating with an RF tag includes a sending means for fixing a peak of each symbol of a signal on which N-value (N is 4 or more) Manchester coding modulation has been performed to send the signal in which amplitude values of symbols are made different partially, and a means for receiving and demodulating signals from the RF tag. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a reader / writer (R / W) device, a communication method for the device, and an RF tag, for example, a reader / writer (R) in an RFID system that performs ASK modulation using multilevel coding. / W) The present invention relates to a device, a transmission method of the device, and a tag.

  Conventionally, RFID communication between a reader / writer device (hereinafter referred to as a reader) and an RF tag is performed by signals such as amplitude modulation. An example of a conventional reader and RF tag will be described.

  FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a conventional reader. FIG. 2 shows a conventional command format.

  FIG. 3 shows the waveform of a conventional binary Manchester encoded ASK signal.

  In FIG. 1, the reader 10 receives information signals or transmits timing information via the processor 30 with the LAN 21. The processor 30 processes the command generated by itself and the information signal received from the LAN 21 into data shown in the command format shown in FIG. The detailed configuration of the processor 30 will be described later.

  The filter 11 outputs the signal from the processor 30 to the ASK modulator 12 as a limited signal. The ASK modulator 12 ASK (amplitude modulates) the carrier signal from the oscillator 14 with the signal from the filter 11. The waveform of the amplitude-modulated signal (hereinafter referred to as ASK signal) is shown in FIG. Also, using the A and B levels in the waveform of the ASK signal, the degree of modulation is obtained by (A−B) / (A + B). In ISO / IEC 18000 Part6 type B, it is stated that the modulation factor is 18% or 100%.

  The ASK signal is amplified by the amplifier 13 and transmitted to the RF tag via the duplexer 15 and the antenna 16.

  Next, the reception operation of the modulated backscatter signal (indicating a signal modulated by changing the reflectance of the antenna) from the RF tag in the reader will be described with reference to FIG. The antenna 16 amplifies the received modulated backscatter signal (hereinafter referred to as a modulated signal) by the amplifier 20 via the duplexer 15 and outputs the amplified backscatter signal to the orthogonal mixer 19. The quadrature mixer 19 demodulates the amplified modulation signal into an IF signal by the output of the oscillator 14. The filter 18 is an LPF, and is used to suppress interference between adjacent channels of IF signals by removing high frequency components. The demodulator 17 demodulates the signal from the filter 18 into data and outputs it to the processor 30. The processor 30 processes the demodulated data, or the processor 30 outputs data read from the tag to the LAN 21.

  FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the processor section of a conventional reader.

  In FIG. 4, the control unit 31 performs frame assembly of control data (indicating information written in the Delimiter area) indicating whether or not the uplink transmission rate from the RF tag should be quadrupled under control from the upper layer. To the unit 34. The CRC adding unit 32 adds 16 bits for CRC to transmission data including a command (Command), a parameter (Parameter), and data (Data) from the LAN 21 and outputs the transmission data to the binary Manchester encoding unit 33. The binary Manchester encoding unit 33 assigns one symbol code “10” to one symbol code “1” of transmission data to which 16 bits for CRC are added, and assigns one symbol code “0” to one symbol Manchester. Binary Manchester encoding assigned to the code “01” is performed and output to the frame assembling unit 34 as a binary Manchester encoded signal. The preamble set in the frame assembling unit 34 includes, for example, a fixed pattern of 16-bit ALL “0” as a preamble detect and a 9-bit Manchester code 0 as a preamble. The preamble detect area is necessary for supplying power to each part of the RF tag before data demodulation. By doing so, each part of the RF tag can perform a receiving operation at any time before receiving data that needs to be demodulated. In the preamble, a fixed pattern for synchronization on the receiving side, that is, the RF tag is stored.

  The frame assembling unit 34 generates encoded data by adding control data and a binary Manchester encoded signal in order from the preamble. The format of the encoded data is shown in FIG. Also, the decoding unit 35 decodes the FM0 encoded signal demodulated from the demodulator 17 of FIG. 1 and outputs the decoded signal to the error detection unit 36. The error detection unit 36 detects the error of the decoded data, and processes the received data obtained by correcting the error of the data by the processor 30 in FIG. The processor 30 confirms the content of the received data (for example, the RF tag memory information that is the RF tag response signal, the write processing completion notification, etc.). Further, the processor 30 transmits the data read from the tag to the LAN 21 in FIG.

  FIG. 5 shows the configuration of a conventional RF tag.

  In FIG. 5, the RF tag 40 receives an ASK signal from the reader 10 of FIG. The power generation unit 46 rectifies the ASK signal supplied from the antenna 41 and converts it to a DC voltage, and supplies the DC voltage to each unit (not shown). The ASK demodulator 42 demodulates the ASK signal received by the antenna 41 and outputs the demodulated Manchester encoded signal to the logic unit 44. The logic unit 44 decodes the Manchester encoded signal, confirms the content of the command in the decoded data, and writes the data in the decoded data to the memory 45 if the command indicates writing. When the writing is completed, the logic unit 44 encodes information such as ACKNOLEGE OK into FM0, further converts the information into a modulation signal by the modulator 43, and transmits the modulated signal to the reader 10.

  In addition, the logic unit 44 confirms the content of the command in the demodulated data, and if the command indicates data reading, the ID in the Parameter following the command is compared with the ID in the memory 45 so as to match. If so, the information stored in the memory 45 corresponding to the Address in the Parameter is read out. Further, the logic unit 44 FM0-encodes a signal obtained by adding the preamble and CRC bits to the read information, converts the signal into a modulated signal by the modulator 43, and transmits the modulated signal to the reader 10.

The matters relating to the configuration of the reader and the RF tag described above are disclosed in, for example, the following Patent Documents 1 and 2 and Non-Patent Document 1.
JP 2003-158470 A JP 2002-525932 A ISO / IEC18000 Part6

  As described in the background art, ASK modulation is often used as a modulation method for transmitting information from a reader to an RF tag because of the ease of demodulation in the tag. In the RFID system currently in practical use, for example, transmission using a binary Manchester-encoded ASK modulation method as shown in FIG. 2 is employed, but there is a problem that frequency utilization efficiency is low.

  Also, as the current RFID system, unlike the United States, the frequency band assigned to the UHF band RFID tag system is narrow in Japan and Europe. When using multiple readers in close proximity, it is necessary to use different frequencies for each reader in order to avoid the influence of mutual interference. However, if a usable frequency band is narrow, a large number of frequency channels should be secured. However, there is a problem that the number of readers that can be used is limited. As a result, the RFID system has a poor frequency utilization efficiency. In the future, cases where a plurality of readers are used in close proximity are expected to increase, and it is desired to establish an RFID system that improves frequency utilization efficiency without increasing the bandwidth as soon as possible.

  Further, in the binary Manchester encoded ASK modulation shown in FIG. 2, one symbol data code “1” is replaced with one symbol Manchester code “10”, and one symbol data code “0” is replaced with one symbol Manchester code “01”. Therefore, when the Manchester code “1001” is obtained as a result, the time period for taking the peak voltage is shortened. As a result, a low level amplitude period occurs over one symbol. Therefore, in the conventional RFID system using binary Manchester encoded ASK modulation, there is a problem in that the communication distance from the RF tag to the reader is limited because the power supply from the reader to the RF tag is not sufficient. .

  As a result, the RFID system has no choice but to construct a system that limits the communication distance.

  In the future, in the RFID system, a technique for extending the communication distance from the RF tag to the reader as compared with the conventional technology is required.

  An object of the present invention is to improve frequency utilization efficiency without increasing the bandwidth in wireless communication from a reader to a tag.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a transmission method for increasing the power supply efficiency from the reader to the tag in order to extend the communication distance from the tag to the reader.

  It is to be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described object, and is an effect derived from each configuration shown in the best mode for carrying out the invention described later, and has an effect that cannot be obtained by the conventional technique. Can be positioned as one.

(1) In the present invention, in a reader device that wirelessly communicates with the tag, means for transmitting to the tag as a wireless signal including information indicating the multi-value number of the code, and means for receiving and demodulating the wireless signal from the tag Use a reader device. (2) Also, in the present invention, in a reader device that communicates wirelessly with a tag, transmission is performed as a signal in which the peak of each symbol of a signal subjected to multilevel code modulation is constant and the amplitude value of each symbol is partially different A reader device having means and means for receiving and demodulating a signal from the tag is used. (3) In the present invention, the multi-level encoding described in (2) uses N-value (N is 4 or more) Manchester encoding. (4) Further, in the present invention, in the reader device that communicates wirelessly with the tag, means for generating a synchronization pattern signal, means for generating a signal indicating a threshold for data identification, and adding data to these signals Thus, a reader device characterized by having means for outputting as transmission data is used. (5) Further, in the present invention, in the reader device that communicates wirelessly with the tag, a plurality of multi-level code encoding means, a control means for controlling the multi-level of the encoding means, and the encoding means An adjusting means for making the peak of the encoded signal constant and reducing the amplitude of some symbols in the plurality of symbols, a modulating means for modulating the offset code, a means for transmitting the modulated signal, and a received signal A reader device characterized by having a demodulating means for demodulating and sending to the control means is used. (6) Further, in the present invention, in a transmission method of a reader device that transmits a radio signal to a tag, transmission of a reader device that generates a signal including information indicating a multi-value number of a code and modulates the generated signal is amplitude. Use the method. (7) Moreover, in this invention, in the transmission method of the reader apparatus which transmits a radio signal to a tag, the step which produces | generates a synchronous pattern signal, The step which produces | generates the signal which shows the threshold value of the data identification of an encoding signal, And a method of adding data to a signal indicating a synchronization pattern and a threshold value and transmitting the signal. (8) Further, in the present invention, means for receiving and demodulating a modulation signal added with information for identifying the multi-level number of the Manchester code before modulation in a tag that receives the modulation signal including the tag ID; A tag having decoding means for detecting information for identifying the multi-value number, switching the decoding process according to the multi-value of the information, and decoding the information is used. (9) Further, in the present invention, the reader apparatus that transmits a signal using coded modulation has a means for transmitting the signal by offsetting the peak value of each multilevel symbol in the signal to be constant. (10) In the present invention, Manchester encoded amplitude modulation is used for the encoded modulation described in (9).

  According to the reader device, the communication method, and the tag according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the frequency utilization efficiency without increasing the bandwidth, and it is possible to extend the communication distance from the tag to the reader.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[A] Description of Embodiments According to the Present Invention FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a reader according to the present invention. FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the first command format according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 6, the LAN 21 transmits a command for instructing the processor 50 of the reader 100, an information signal to be written to the tag, or the like, or receives timing information from the processor 50 of the reader 100. Before starting communication with the RF tag, the processor 50 sets the multi-value (for example, four values) of Manchester encoding that can be handled by the RF tag of the other party by the protocol processing in the upper layer in the processor 50, the ID of the RF tag, etc. Confirm by acquiring. The processor 50 processes the command generated by itself and the information signal received from the LAN 21 into data shown in the command format shown in FIG. The detailed configuration of the processor 50 will be described later.

  The filter 11 outputs the data band from the processor 50 to the ASK modulator 60 as a limited signal. The ASK modulator 60 ASK modulates the carrier signal from the oscillator 14 based on the data from the filter 11. The ASK modulator 60 performs ASK modulation on the data consisting of the preamble detect, preamble, delimiter, command, parameter, data, and CRC-16 from the head shown in FIG. 7 from the filter 11 and outputs the data to the amplifier 13 as a modulation signal. The amplifier 13 amplifies the modulation signal from the ASK modulator 60 and transmits it to the RF tag as a radio signal via the duplexer 15 and the antenna 16.

  The reader 100 receives a radio signal from the RF tag through the antenna 16. The received radio signal is amplified by the amplifier 20 via the duplexer 15 and output to the orthogonal mixer 19. The quadrature mixer 19 mixes the amplified signal with the carrier signal from the oscillator 14 and outputs both an I (in-phase) signal and a Q (quadrature) signal, which are demodulation signals, to the filter 18. The filter 18 is an LPF, and outputs a signal from which high frequency components have been removed to the demodulator 17. The demodulator 17 demodulates the signal from the filter 18 into data and outputs it to the processor 50.

  Here, the operation of the processor 50 will be described as follows using the diagram showing the configuration of the processor 50 of FIG.

  In FIG. 8, the control unit 51 outputs a control signal based on an upper layer instruction from the processor 50 to the frame assembly unit 56. The CRC adding unit 52 receives the command generated by itself and transmission data that is an information signal from the LAN 21, adds 16 bits for CRC, and outputs the result to the binary / quaternary Manchester encoding unit 54. The binary / quaternary Manchester encoding unit 54 performs encoding processing by switching between quaternary Manchester encoding processing and binary Manchester encoding processing according to the enable and disable signals from the processor 50, and performs frame processing. Output to the assembly unit 56. The frame assembling unit 56 starts from the preamble detect and preamble, which are preambles, from the control unit 51 to the uplink transmission rate information, the Delimitter indicating the multi-level number of Manchester encoding, and the binary / quaternary Manchester encoding unit 54. The encoded data in the format shown in FIG. 7 is obtained by adding the data encoded by Manchester.

  The demodulated data is input to the decoding unit 55. Decoding section 55 decodes FM0 encoded data that is demodulated data from demodulator 17 and outputs the decoded data to error detection section 53. The error detection unit 53 performs error detection and error correction using the CRC bits of the decoded data, and outputs the received data.

  FIG. 9 shows the waveform of the quaternary Manchester encoded modulation signal of the present invention. The waveform signal in this figure corresponds to the signal output from the ASK modulator 60 in FIG. In the figure, the waveform signal of each of the four values is shown, and the amplitude value is graduated on the vertical axis. In this waveform, the peak value is constant regardless of the symbol of any value, and the amplitude of the waveform signal of a certain value (for example, Manchester encoding “11”, “00”) is changed to another value (for example, Manchester encoding “10”). , “01”) is different from the amplitude of the waveform signal. This signal is transmitted from the reader to the RF tag, and the amplitude component of this signal is used for power supply by the RF tag. The larger the amplitude value of this signal, the greater the power supply at the RF tag. As a result, the RF tag can extend the transmission distance to the reader as compared with the conventional case. When attention is paid to the four values “10”, the power ratio is 1.5 times that of the conventional binary “1” in FIG. 3 in the same one symbol period, and the communication distance in the comparison is the power ratio. It is approximately 1.2 times the conventional value.

  FIG. 10 shows the waveform of the 8-level Manchester encoded modulation signal of the present invention. The waveform signal in this figure corresponds to the signal output from the ASK modulator 60 in FIG. In the figure, the waveform signal of each of the eight values is shown, and the vertical axis indicates the amplitude value. The waveform has a fixed peak value regardless of the symbol of any value, and the amplitude of the waveform signal of the first value (eg, Manchester encoding “000”, “100”) and the second value (eg, Manchester encoding). The amplitude of the waveform signal of “001”, “101”), the amplitude of the waveform signal of the third value (eg, Manchester encoding “010”, “110”) and the fourth value (eg, Manchester encoding “011”) “,“ 111 ”) are different in amplitude. This signal is transmitted from the reader to the RF tag, and the amplitude component of this signal is converted into a direct current by the RF tag and used for power supply. The larger the amplitude value of this signal, the greater the power supply at the RF tag. As a result, the RF tag can extend the transmission distance to the reader as compared with the conventional case.

  FIG. 11 shows the configuration of the RF tag of the present invention. FIG. 12 shows the configuration of the logic part of the RF tag of the present invention.

  The RF tag 400 receives a radio signal from the reader 100 of FIG. The antenna 41 outputs the received signal to the ASK demodulator 401 and the power generation 46. Although not shown, the power generation 46 is rectified by a rectifier or the like to generate a DC voltage and supplies it to the circuits of each part. The ASK modulator 401 demodulates the received signal and sends the demodulated data to the logic unit 44.

  The operation of the logic unit 44 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  The identification unit 447 in the logic unit 44 synchronizes with the preamble of the format shown in FIG. 7 which is demodulated data, and the multi-level number of Manchester encoding is four-valued or two-valued with a delimiter (identification information), or the uplink transmission rate If the multi-value number of Manchester encoding is four-valued, identification information indicating that it is four-valued is sent to the decoding unit 446. If the instruction information is to quadruple the transmission rate, the command information 441 is sent to the command processing unit 441. Further, the identification unit 447 outputs only the information of Command, Parameter, Data, and CRC-15, which is subsequent data other than the header up to the Delimiter, which is the demodulated data, to the decoding unit 446. . The decoding unit 446 decodes the information of Command, Parameter, Data, and CRC-15 based on the result of identifying the contents of the Delimiter by the identification unit 447, that is, based on identification information indicating information such as the multi-value number of encoding. The data is output to the error detection unit 445. Specifically, when the identification information indicates quaternary Manchester encoding, it can be confirmed that the subsequent data is quaternary Manchester encoded, and the decoding unit 446 performs a decoding process as a quaternary Manchester encoded signal. Do. If the information does not indicate quaternary Manchester encoding, the decoding 446 performs decoding processing as a binary Manchester encoded signal. The error detection unit 445 uses the CRC bits in the decoded data to detect and correct the error of the data.

  Further, the error detection unit 445 outputs the received data subjected to the correction process to the command processing unit 441. If the command processing unit 441 recognizes the content of the command and indicates a command indicating data reading, the ID in the parameter following the command is compared with the ID in the memory 45, and if they match, the address in the parameter is matched. The information stored in the memory 45 corresponding to is read. Further, when the command processing unit 441 receives the instruction information for quadrupling the uplink transmission rate from the identification unit 447, the clock speed is increased to increase the transmission rate by quadrupling the rate used by the modulator 43. To send.

  Next, the RF tag transmission process will be described as follows.

  The CRC adding unit 442 outputs a signal obtained by adding a CRC bit to the transmission data read from the command processing unit 441 to the FM0 encoding unit 443. The FM 0 encoding unit 443 performs FM0 encoding on the signal to which the CRC bits are added, adds a preamble (preamble) by the frame assembling unit, and outputs the result to the modulator 43 as encoded data. The modulator 43 modulates the encoded data and transmits it to the reader 10.

  In addition, the command processing unit 441 recognizes the command content in the received data that has been error-detected and corrected using the CRC 16 bits of CRC-16 for the data decoded by the error detection unit 445, and the RF tag If the command indicates writing data into the memory 45, the ID in the parameter following the command is compared with the ID in the memory 45, and if they match, the data following the parameter is stored in the address in the parameter. Write to.

  FIG. 13 shows the configuration of the second command format.

  In FIG. 13, a different part from the structure of the 1st command format of FIG. 7 is demonstrated.

  This format is obtained by adding a data area called Multilevel after Delimiter.

  This Multilevel is information indicating a reference level for identifying data of each value in the four values of the four-value Manchester encoded modulation signal shown in FIG. For example, based on the waveform of FIG. 9, Manchester codes “00”, “01”, “10”, “11” are sequentially transmitted as information indicating individual data identification threshold values thereafter.

  Further, this Multilevel is information indicating a reference level for identifying data of each value in the eight values of the eight-value Manchester encoded modulation signal shown in FIG. For example, based on the waveform of FIG. 10, threshold values are sent only for the four values of eight-valued Manchester codes “000”, “001”, “010”, “011”, and the individual data identification threshold values thereafter. Is transmitted as information indicating. However, for “100”, “101”, “110”, and “111” other than the above, the same threshold value may be used in the order of “000”, “001”, “010”, and “011”. This is because “100”, “101”, “110”, and “111” have the same amplitude in the order of “000”, “001”, “010”, and “011”, respectively. There is no need to send a value. Of course, the threshold value may be sent in duplicate.

  In the above description, Manchester encoding has been described. However, if differential Manchester encoding is used in the encoding process, decoding can be performed even when the decoding timing is shifted.

  In the best mode for carrying out the invention described above, ASK modulation has been described. However, it can be used in other modulation schemes such as QPSK and QAM, and encoding is 16-value in addition to 4-value and 8-value Manchester coding. Even multi-values of 256 values can be applied.

It is a figure for showing the composition of the conventional leader. It is a figure for showing the structure of the conventional command format. It is a figure which shows the waveform of the conventional binary Manchester encoding ASK signal. It is a figure for showing the structure of the conventional processor. It is a figure for showing the structure of the conventional RF tag. It is a figure for showing the composition of the leader of the present invention. It is a figure for showing the structure of the 1st command format of this invention. It is a figure for showing the composition of the processor of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the waveform of the quaternary Manchester encoding ASK signal of this invention. It is a figure which shows the waveform of the 8-level Manchester encoding ASK signal of this invention. It is a figure for showing the composition of the RF tag of the present invention. It is a figure for showing the structure of the logic part of RF tag of this invention. It is a figure for showing the structure of the 2nd command format of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

10 Reader 11, 18 Filter 12 ASK Modulator 13, 20 Amplifier 14 Oscillator 15 Duplexer 16, 41 Antenna 17 Demodulator 19 Quadrature Mixer 21 LAN
30, 50 Processor 31, 51 Control unit 32, 52 CRC addition unit 33 Binary Manchester encoding unit 34, 56 Frame assembly unit 35, 55 Decoding unit 36, 53 Error detection unit 40, 400 RF tag 42, 401 ASK demodulator 43 Modulation Unit 44 logic unit 45 memory 46 power generation unit 441 command processing unit 442 CRC addition unit 443 FM0 encoding unit 444 frame assembly unit 445 error detection unit 446 decoding unit 447 identification unit

Claims (3)

  In a reader device that communicates wirelessly with a tag, a sending means for sending out a signal with a constant peak of each symbol of a signal that has been encoded and modulated with a different amplitude of each symbol, and means for receiving and demodulating a signal from the tag And a reader device. The reader apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the coded modulation is N-value (N is 4 or more) Manchester coding.
In a reader device that communicates wirelessly with a tag, encoding means for performing a plurality of multi-level codes, control means for controlling the multi-value of the encoding means, and the peak of the encoded signal from the encoding means are made constant, Also, adjusting means for reducing the amplitude of some symbols in the plurality of symbols, modulating means for modulating the offset code, means for transmitting the modulated signal, demodulating the received signal, and sending it to the control means And a demodulating means.