RFID Systems Dependability Enhancement – SAFERFID

Many observations, previously described, drive us to investigate the dependability of the RFID systems. To deal with this objective, we have defined the 4 following axis:
1. RFID system modelling
2. Fault modelling and simulation
3. On-line test and diagnostic
4. System fault tolerance improvement

1. RFID system modelling
2. Fault modelling and simulation
3. On-line test and diagnostic
4. System fault tolerance improvement

To develop a middleware and a tag integrating the new test methods and the countermeasure against attacks

G. Fritz, V. Beroulle, O. Aktouf, M. D. Nguyen, D. Hély, “RFID System On-line Testing Based on the Evaluation of the Tags Read-Error-Rate”, Journal of Electronic Testing: Volume 27, Issue 3 (2011), Page 267-276, (DOI: 10.1007/s10836-010-5191-6).

Gilles Fritz, Vincent Beroulle, Oum-El-Kheir Aktouf, David Hély
“Evaluation of a new RFID system performance monitoring approach”
Design, Automation & Test in Europe, (DATE 2012), interactive presentation, Dresden, Gremany, 12-16 march 2012

Gilles Fritz, Boutheina Maaloul, Vincent Beroulle, Oum-El-Kheir Aktouf, David Hély
“Read rate profile monitoring for defect detection in RFID Systems”
IEEE International Conference on RFID-Technologies and Applications (RFID-TA 2011), , pp. 89-94, Sitges, Barcelona, Spain, on September 15-16, 2011
IEEE catalog number: CFP11RFT-CDR ; ISBN: 978-1-4577-0026-2

Minh-Duc Nguyen, Gilles Fritz, Oum-El-Kheir Aktouf, Vincent Beroulle, David Hély,
“Towards middleware-based fault tolerance in RFID systems”,
Proc. Of the 13th European Workshop on Dependable Computing, EWDC 2011, pp 49-52, Pisa, Italy, 11-12 May 2011


G. Fritz, V. Beroulle, M.D Nguyen, O. Aktouf, I. Parissis,
“Read-Error-Rate evaluation for RFID system on-line testing”
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2010 IEEE 16th International Mixed-Signals, Sensors and Systems Test Workshop (IMS3TW); Montpellier – La Grande Motte, France, June 7-9, 2010; IEEE Catalog Number: CFP10MST-USB ISBN: 978-1-4244-7791-3

« An extended LLRP model for RFID system test and diagnosis », R. Kheddam, O. Aktouf, I. Parissis, 8th Workshop on Advances in Model-Based Testing, Co-located with IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST), Québec, 17 avril 2012.

The project SAFERFID concerns the improvement of RFID systems dependability. Our main goal is to propose methods to detect and diagnose defects and methods to improve the fault tolerance of RFID systems. Defects can come from hardware failures (aging effects are particularly sensitive in harsh environments), medium perturbations (for example, electromagnetic bursts), and software bugs.

The researchers involved in this project are members of the Grenoble INP LCIS laboratory located in Valence (FRANCE). They work in the CTSYS group (http://lcis.grenoble-inp.fr/37927437/0/fiche___pagelibre/);a group already specialized into the quality improvement of the embedded systems. The skills of these members cover numerous aspects from integrated circuits manufacturing test to software test and diagnostic.

Valence area has a strong and old implication into RFID. Our main scientific local partner for this project is the RFTLab. RFTLab is a Grenoble INP “platform of technology” involved into numerous industrial collaborations in RFID field. RFTlab is also an important French and European actor for RFID standardization. RFTLab is located in Valence and will be described in the following. At Valence, the Traceability center (www.polenationaldetracabilite.com) is also an important partner for the information dissemination towards industrial firms. This center is closely associated to the CNRFID (www.centrenational-rfid.com) located near Aix-en-Provence.

Since its creation in 2003, RFTLab, as Grenoble INP “platform of technology”, supports companies in their RFID projects to deploy solutions tailored to different contexts. The platform was able to acquire considerable experience through its various activities: training, expertise and testing. Its knowledge of markets and of their many different environments will guide us to propose adapted solutions enhancing RFID system robustness. RFTLab will help us to develop the RFID system demonstrator.

From a national point of view, RFID is clearly involved into 2 competitive clusters located in the south-east of France:
• In the PACA area, the competitive cluster SCS for “Security Communicating Solutions” (www.pole-scs.org)
• In the Rhône-Alpes area, the competitive cluster Minalogic (www.minalogic.com)

In the literature, the RFID systems dependability has not been directly studied. Only few works concern the manufacturing test of chips for tags, or the Failure Mode Analysis of tags… At the opposite, a lot of French (CEA-Leti) and international laboratories (Auto-ID Labs www.autoidlabs.org, or the center for Advanced RFID research rfid.cs.umass.edu) study the security issues in the RFID systems (security means here data confidentiality and integrity only).

The SAFERFID project is:
- a new and federative axis for the LCIS (“a complementary skill for the LCIS”);
- an innovative axis compliant with local (Valence and Rhône-Alpes areas), national and international industrial and academic trends;

Many observations, previously described, drive us to investigate the dependability of the RFID systems. To deal with this objective, we have defined the 4 following axis:
1. RFID system modelling
2. Fault modelling and simulation
3. On-line test and diagnostic
4. System fault tolerance improvement

Even if a lot of works, in the LCIS, have already been done concerning RFID, these works mainly concern the design of tag antennas: no work has been done on the RFID circuits (tag or reader) or on the RFID systems (middleware). So, this project intends to initiate in our laboratory a new and complementary research axis compliant with CTSYS skills and industrial local and national industrial trends.