LeakyScatter: A Frequency-Agile Directional Backscatter Network Above 100 GHz

Atsutse Kludze, Yasaman Ghasempour

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Wireless backscattering has been deemed suitable for various emerging energy-constrained applications given its low-power architectures. Although existing backscatter nodes often operate at sub-6 GHz frequency bands, moving to the sub-THz bands offers significant advantages in scaling low-power connectivity to dense user populations; as concurrent transmissions can be separated in both spectral and spatial domains given the large swath of available bandwidth and laser-shaped beam directionality in this frequency regime. However, the power consumption and complexity of wireless devices increase significantly with frequency. In this paper, we present LeakyScatter, the first backscatter system that enables directional, low-power, and frequency-agile wireless links above 100 GHz. LeakyScatter departs from conventional backscatter designs and introduces a novel architecture that relies on aperture reciprocity in leaky-wave devices. We have fabricated LeakyScatter and evaluated its performance through extensive simulations and over-the-air experiments. Our results demonstrate a scalable wireless link above 100 GHz that is retrodirective and operates at a large bandwidth (tens of GHz) and ultra-low-power (zero power consumed for directional steering and ≤ 1 mW for data modulation).

Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023
PublisherUSENIX Association
Pages375-388
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781939133335
StatePublished - 2023
Event20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023 - Boston, United States
Duration: Apr 17 2023Apr 19 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023

Conference

Conference20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period4/17/234/19/23

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Control and Systems Engineering

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