WiFi Backscatter for Green Internet of Things: Concepts, Research Trends, and Practical Challenges

Abstract

WiFi backscatter has emerged as a promising technology for green Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity by enabling battery-free devices to communicate through widely available WiFi signals. Despite substantial progress in recent years, a considerable gap remains between research prototypes and practical deployment. This paper provides an overview of WiFi backscatter from the perspective of practical and green IoT systems. We first introduce the fundamentals and key enabling techniques, together with potential IoT applications. We then outline recent research trends toward higher throughput, concurrent communication, simplified deployment, commercial compatibility, and joint communication and sensing. Furthermore, we identify the key challenges that still hinder practical deployment, such as limited transmitter-to-tag operating range and packet loss in frequency-shifted backscatter. We believe that addressing these challenges will be critical to enabling WiFi backscatter to become a practical communication technology for future green IoT systems.