CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Infrastructure plays a critical role in our current society. They are essential for the smooth
working of our modern world. These infrastructures include power plants and distribution
centers that supply electricity to our homes, control centers that monitor and control traffic
flow and other important structures. As these buildings provide an essential function, they have
to be constantly monitored to ensure its smooth functioning. This monitoring can be achieved
with the usage of Radio Frequency Identification Systems (RFID).

Radio Frequency Identification Systems use electromagnetic waves to identify and track
objects. The information is stored in the tags that are attached to the objects being tracked. The
RFID system consists of a RFID reader and RFID tag as shown in Fig 1.1. The tag contains
the information about the objects and environment being monitored. The reader receives the
data transmitted by the tag and passes it on for further processing.

Fig 1.1: Components of RFID system

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The tags can be of two types: active and passive tags. Active tags have their own energy source
and transmits the data using its own power. Since it is hooked up to a power source, it can
transmit at a longer range. But this has the disadvantage of being bulky as the power source
consumes space and once the power source dies, the tag ceases to function.

Passive tags do not have an attached power source but instead draw power from the radio
waves transmitted by the interrogating reader. These are compact in size and can be used for a
wide variety of applications. Their compact size is due to the absence of an attached power
source. They have a limited range and must be placed close to the reader.

RFID is similar to barcodes where data is read using an optical scanner by reading the barcode
and the pertinent information is extracted from a system. Barcodes must have a line of sight
with the object being tracked or else it ceases to operate. RFID do not suffer from this drawback
as the data is sent through electromagnetic waves.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERARATURE
2.1 Security Monitoring

With the advent of new technologies, individual automated parts can be replaced by fully
integrated automated installations that communicate with each other and central controllers.

A paper by S. Amendola, C. Occhiuzzi and G. Marrocco proposes a system that is capable of

monitoring events that occur at a power distribution facility. Radio Frequency Identification
technology offers a viable technological solution for the implementation of low-level
environmental monitoring of connected critical infrastructures which have to be protected from
threats that have the potential to disrupt its operation. The hierarchical system is able to the
detect complex, potentially dangerous, events such as the un-authorized access to a restricted
area, abnormalities in the functioning of the electrical equipment, or unusual variation of
environmental parameters. This work focuses on the Environmental Security monitoring, i.e.
a core component of the lowest monitoring layer.

To cover huge areas and very heterogeneous environments, it necessary to adopt innovative
sensing technologies which are pervasive and massively distributed, easily deployable without
the need of power plugs or frequent maintenance, ultra-low cost, and flexibly adaptable to the
different deployment scenarios. The Radio-Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) in the
UHF band is nowadays mature enough to meet all the previous requirements by combining the
advantages of a well–assessed standardized wireless communication protocol with the
augmented sensing capabilities of recently developed sensor-oriented tags. [1]

The RFID Sensor Network is organized in an hierarchical architecture. The space under
observation is associated to a multichannel interrogation module, i.e. the RFID reader, which
is connected via coaxial cables to multiple transmitting/receiving antennas. The
electromagnetic coverage of each reader antenna defines the relevant areas of the whole space
to be monitored. Within each zone, target things - namely equipment, objects or human
subjects - are identified by dedicated transponders (or tag) that reply to the reader queries via
backscattering modulation.

Page 3
The set of the collected signals define the multi-parametric fingerprint of the environment,
whose measurable perturbation with respect to a reference condition can be processed and
analyzed from the system to retrieve high-level discrete events.

Thanks to its adaptive and scalable structure the described wireless sensing network is
definitely suitable to be deployed in any industrial scenarios with different purposes, ranging
from the control of manufacturing process to cyber security applications. The potential of the
proposed RFID platform was demonstrated through a real-world case study which is located
inside a distribution secondary substation of a Smart Grid.

Indeed, smart grid security issues must be addressed with high priority to protect this critical
power system infrastructure and avoid failures of any function of the grids, from energy
distribution to consumption counting, thus ensuring a reliable and an uninterrupted power
supply to the end users.

Ensuring a secure smart grid requires to implement protocols for early detecting and even
preventing the occurrence of potentially dangerous situations such as accidental/intentional
equipment malfunction and power grid collapses. The relevant events to be identified to prompt
for anomalies are the authorized/unauthorized accesses to the cabin, the abnormal variation of
ambient parameters (humidity and temperatures as first), the possible tampering of the
machineries, the transformer power overload and the flooding of sensitive areas, which is
particularly relevant in case of under-grounded cabins.

2.2 Environmental Monitoring

A paper titled ‘A Flooding Warning System based on RFID Tag Array for Energy Facility’ by
Chang-He Li,Kam-Weng Tam,Keng-Weng Lao proposes a flood detection mechanism using
RFID systems buried in the ground. Whenever the tags are buried under different levels of
materials the signal received by the reader varies. By monitoring these signal strengths, we can
create early warnings about floods.

Flooding can cause severe damage to a power facility and thus these facilities must be
protected. A power facility has several equipment that can be easily damaged by water. During
floods, the protection of these equipment is essential. Whenever water level increases in the

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area where the sensor array is buried, the signal received by the RFID reader varies. By
monitoring the received signal strength, we can issue an alert so that steps can be taken to
protect the equipment.

An array of passive RFID tags is placed underground. These tags do not require an internal
power source and thus can be operated 24/7. A RFID reader is placed on top of the ground
where the tags are buried. [2]

In order to understand more about the performance of RFID tag array when buried, in this
paper, seven different common materials are used for burying and blocking the passive RFID
tags. They are air, plastic foam, sand, saw dust, stone, fresh leaves, and water.

The devices that are placed in electrical substations are usually not designed to be operated
during flooding conditions. Thus, when flooding occurs, they may cause system breakdown or
power failure of the corresponding power area. This can lead to severe economic and
development losses. Possible actions should be taken to avoid disasters.

One solution is installation of these devices on higher floors. However, this solution may only
be suitable for new constructed stations, where novel design is applicable. For devices in old
stations, they still suffer from flooding threats. Another possible solution is the installation of
a flooding alarm system. When the water level gets up to a certain level, the alarm system will
trigger a signal so that further actions can be taken, such as raising the gate of the entrance.
The system is easier to be implemented and can also be applied to old stations. It is thus more
feasible to employ the flooding alarm system.

2.3 Mobile RFID reader

Most mobile RFID systems consist of transponders or tags, readers or interrogators, and back-
end host systems. Many studies have been carried out to secure the security of the wireless
channel between the reader and the tag. Nevertheless, the RFID tag uses a hash-based XOR
function in communication to enable simple and cost-effective security control. This is because
most RFID tags are passive and resource for processing is limited.

The mobile RFID network is constructed by connecting an existing mobile communication

network and an RFID network. Previously, RFID network was used to manage the distributed

Page 5
or moving items, but recently it has focused on providing various application services to
individual or dedicated users. This is because it is possible to provide various independent
services using a personal terminal such as a smart phone or a tablet. Also, in providing mobile
RFID service, a mobile device having an RFID reader function can access tags and retrieve
information, so that security of a wireless signal channel in an RFID section can’t guarantee
service stability. Based on the above discussions, this paper proposes a small RFID reader for
mobile RFID service and an example of application service using it.

The tags carry the function of transmitting the stored EPC information when the signal is
recognized. The reader is embedded in the smart phone and stores and processes the
information received from the tag and the function of requesting information from the tag. In
addition, the RFID middleware implemented in the reader or terminal performs a role of
retrieving information on the EPC read from the tag by accessing the OIS and the ONS through
the communication module of the terminal. [3]

The mobile RFID network service is equipped with an RFID reader function in a terminal
capable of accessing a mobile communication network, and delivers EPC information acquired
from a tag to a remote server to provide an application service. Fig. 2 shows the overview of
mobile RFID network architecture.

In the present scenario, attendance techniques are usually supplemented manually, because the
number of university students is increasing within training institutes, the problem with getting
hold of a hand requires human effort to report and maintain student attendance. Consequently,
human errors are common in this process. In recent years, there has been an increase in the
number of applications based on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems.

RFID technology facilitates automatic wave identification using passive and active passive
electronic labels with convenient readers. In this paper, an attempt has been made to address
the problem of continuous attendance of lectures in developing countries and to find the
location of special students using RFID technology. The implementation of RFID for attending
student attendance as developed and deployed in this study is capable of eliminating lost time
during manual attendance gathering and an opportunity for education administrators to capture
classroom statistics for sharing appropriate outcomes Attendance and for further managerial
decisions. [4]

Page 6
With RFID applying in library, this paper develops an Internet of Things System for Library
Materials Management using Android based UHF mobile reader (Android mobile reader) as
its entry to increase the efficiency of library materials management.

The functions of the Internet of Things System for Library Materials Management include user
identification, inventorying, adding, refreshing, searching, and self-help borrowing &
returning library materials. Considering to lower cost and smaller size, it is more practical and
common to apply passive tags to IOT System for Library Materials Management. The passive
tags only store the unique seral numbers as keys into the IOT System for Library Materials
Management to identify different books. Compared with LF/HF band RFID system, UHF band
RFID system has wider reading range and larger multi reading capacity which can be
introduced into IOT System for Library Materials Management with higher efficiency and
convenience.[5]

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Access Control and Monitoring

The access to the infrastructure must be closely controlled and monitored so as to prevent any
unauthorized access. This can be achieved by following a hierarchical monitoring framework.
This framework can be broken down into four individual layers. The first is the monitoring
layer that keeps track of any changes. This layer integrates various sensing devices and
technologies.

The second layer is the control and coordination layer which orchestrates the remote probes/
sensors and provides a unified representation of encrypted data. The third is the decision and
analysis layer that processes the received data and finds any relation between the data and
detect any behavioral changes that occurs in the system as a whole. Based on this information
and data processing it can also take various actions to mitigate any incidents that may occur.

The final layer is the human-machine interface layer (HMI) devised to present aggregate high-
level information to the human end-users in a simple and usable manner.

This work focuses on the Environmental Security monitoring, i.e. a core component of the
lowest monitoring layer. To cover huge areas and very heterogeneous environments, it
necessary to adopt innovative sensing technologies which are pervasive and massively
distributed, easily deployable without the need of power plugs or frequent maintenance, ultra-
low cost, and flexibly adaptable to the different deployment scenarios. The Radio-Frequency
Identification Technology (RFID) in the UHF band is nowadays mature enough to meet all the
previous requirements by combining the advantages of a well–assessed standardized wireless
communication protocol with the augmented sensing capabilities of recently developed sensor-
oriented tags.

Page 8
The RFID Sensor Network is organized according to a hierarchical architecture. The space
under observation is associated to a multichannel interrogation module, i.e. the RFID reader,
which is connected via coaxial cables to multiple transmitting/receiving antennas. The
electromagnetic coverage of each reader antenna defines the relevant areas of the whole space
to be monitored. Within each zone, target things - namely equipment, objects or human
subjects - are identified by dedicated transponders (or tag) that reply to the reader queries via
backscattering modulation. The set of the collected signals define the multi-parametric
fingerprint of the environment, whose measurable perturbation with the respect to a reference
condition can be processed and analyzed from the system to retrieve high-level discrete events.
Two families of tag are distributed within the environment:

1) analog tag with standard IC where the antenna itself plays as electromagnetic transducer of
the physical/chemical phenomenon under observation

2) digital tag with sensor-oriented chip (SL9000A by AMS) that encode the sensed data at the
chip level and transmit them in a digital form.

While the former tags are mostly used as threshold sensors to detect on/off events determining
a strong “electromagnetic” contrast between normal and anomalous conditions (e.g. the
opening/closing of doors and cabinets windows and shadowing/ scattering caused by human
presence), the latter produce quantitative data about specific physical parameters (light,
humidity, temperature, deformations). To cope with the wide range of functionalities this new-
type of ICs is provided with as well as with various sensor placements in harsh environments
(metals, polymeric compounds, concrete, liquids) and the worldwide UHF frequency bands, a
custom transponder was engineered by the authors to make the same core layout operating in
several radiation and sensing modalities.

The entire RFID-SN is governed by a control software handling the network configuration in
terms of sampling rate, number of interrogating antennas, the corresponding emitted power,
and the list of the enabled sensors. The topology of the network can be dynamically updated
at runtime, to properly shape the extension of the zones and focus the available resources on
the most critical areas in case abnormal events are suspected (for example triggering a reduced
set of reader antennas to control a subregion of the environment with a higher data-rate).

Page 9
Thanks to its adaptive and scalable structure the described wireless sensing network is
definitely suitable to be deployed in any industrial scenarios with different purposes, ranging
from the control of manufacturing process to cyber security applications.

Fig 3.1: Components of the monitoring system

Page 10
Ensuring a secure smart grid requires to implement protocols for early detecting and even
preventing the occurrence of potentially dangerous situations such as accidental/intentional
equipment malfunction and power grid collapses. The relevant events to be identified to prompt
for anomalies are the authorized/unauthorized accesses to the cabin, the abnormal variation of
ambient parameters (humidity and temperatures as first), the possible tampering of the
machineries, the transformer power overload and the flooding of sensitive areas, which is
particularly relevant in case of under-grounded cabins. These events, which are listed in Table
I, can be derived through the processing of the multi-channel signals backscattered from a
multitude of transponders properly dispersed into the environment.

The environment to be monitored is divided into a number of zones and each individual zone
is monitored independently. The configuration of the RFID-SN is sketched in Fig. 3.2

Fig 3.2: Architecture of the RFID-SN

Page 11
A set of radio-board embedding heterogeneous sensors that can measure humidity (HCZ-D5
sensor), light (S133-14 photo diode), and high-temperature (PT1000) were distributed over the
sensitive things of the cabin. Each device was wirelessly configured such to set the IC front-
end for the specific type of connected sensor. The prototyped radio-board (Fig.3.3) worked in
both fully-passive mode and semi-passive mode, in case the transponder is provided with a
local battery or a small solar power harvester to improve the read range or enable an
autonomous local storage of the data (logging mode).

In addition to these sensor-oriented digital tag, conventional analog tags were placed over
entrance door, the cabinet windows and the ground to catch the user’s interaction with the
surrounding objects and control flooding events. Finally, technicians authorized to access the
cabin for ordinary maintenance provided with a wearable badge for the purpose of their
automatic identification. The RFID reader was connected via USB port to a system running
the Control and Coordination software.

Overall, 26 channels, namely independent electromagnetic signals, were continuously

collected and real-time streamed over TCP-IP connection to be remotely processed by the
upper Decision layer that implements detection algorithms to alert operators of unusual
situations and possibly take corrective actions automatically. The connectivity towards the
Smart Grid Headquarter was provided by a roof-top antenna.

The sensors placed in the room are capable of detecting any unauthorized user that enters
without a valid ID card and alerts the end-user. It also monitors the temperature and can issue
warnings in case of fire, measure the humidity levels and issue early warnings.

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 Table 3.1: Events to be detected and attributes to be measured

3.2 Flood Monitoring

Protection of the customer transformer and related power facilities against flooding is indeed
a critical issue for electricity companies. The power station contains important devices such as
ring main unit (RMU), transformer (TRF). These devices are usually not designed to be
operated during flooding conditions. Thus, when flooding occurs, they may cause system
breakdown or power failure of the corresponding power area. This can lead to severe economic
and development losses. Possible actions should be taken to avoid disasters. One solution is
installation of these devices on higher floors. However, this solution may only be suitable for
new constructed stations, where novel design is applicable. For devices in old stations, they
still suffer from flooding threats. Another possible solution is the installation of a flooding
alarm system. When the water level gets up to a certain level, the alarm system will trigger a
signal so that further actions can be taken, such as raising the gate of the entrance. The system
is easier to be implemented and can also be applied to old stations. It is thus more feasible to
employ the flooding alarm system.

Page 13
Our proposed RFID tag array-based flooding warning detector include an RFID reader with
antenna, and economic passive RFID tags, as shown in Fig. 3.3. In the proposed system, RFID
tags are placed on the floor, while a RFID reader with antenna is placed on top of them to read
the signal strength. Under normal conditions (where no water blocks), the RFID reader is able
to read a high signal strength for all tags. As flooding occurs, and the RFID tag array is buried
by water, the signal strength received reduces or the tags cannot even be identified by the
reader. This difference can be used to develop the flooding alarm detector for the system. In
fact, for future Internet of Thing (IoT) application for power station, it is anticipated that UHF
RFID will be used to provide both sensing and identification of relevant components of these
power facilities. Thus, it is highly demanded to double said technology for flooding detection
as the welcoming tool for emerging IoT for smart power system.

Fig 3.3: Illustrative idea of RFID based flood alert system

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An important idea on the flooding alarm detector is that the signal strength received by the
RFID reader will be changed when the RFID tags are buried or blocked. It is found that when
the RFID array is blocked by materials other than air, the tags in the array cannot be detected
within a shorter distance. However, for some materials such as sand, although the tags cannot
be detected as long as air does, the RSSI level is actually higher than that of air within its
detectable distance. This may indicate that some materials may be able to strengthen the RFID
signal. Overall, with water as the filling material, the tag array cannot be detected when the
distance reaches around 30 cm, while the tags can still be detected for other materials. This
shows that the RFID tag array can be used to develop the flooding warning system for energy
facility.

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CHAPTER 4

APPLICATIONS

1. This system can be used in power plants that are located in low-lying areas which are more
prone to flooding in case of heavy rainfall. It can issue alerts to the concerned parties whenever
it detects any change in its environment so that any mitigation action that is needed can be
taken.

2. In rural areas, the personnel needed to operate a power plant might be situated in at a large
distance away from the plant. Our system enables the remote monitoring of these sites by a
limited number of personnel at a single central location.

3. Since the infrastructure plants have communication capabilities, they can be connected over
a single network to an operations center that monitors the health of the plants. This reduces the
maintenance cost associated with each of the station.

4. The data that is generated at each of the stations can be collected together and can be
analysed so that important insights can be extracted from the data. This can improve the overall
efficiency of the system.

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CHAPTER 5

PERFORMANCE MEASURES
The performance of the system is measured by its ability to detect the changes that occur in
the environment being monitored. The important measure being the Received Signal Strength
Indicator(RSSI).

Fig 5.1: The RSSI signal strength of 4 tags with different materials

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Fig 5.2: Signals measured by the RFID-SN in case of unauthorized access.

Page 18
CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

The presented system corroborates the feasibility of using RFID technology for multi-
parameters monitoring of critical infrastructures and, more in general, of industrial plants. The
network can be easily deployed inside the cabin and integrated with the existing diagnostic
network, with the ultimate goal of not replacing but empowering the traditional supervisory
control of industrial processes.

It presents a low-cost mechanism to ensure the continued operation and monitoring of the
critical infrastructure buildings and can thus guarantee the continued working of the plant.

As the sensing technologies advances along with the Internet of Things, several other
parameters can be monitored and combined with the existing network gain a much better
understanding of the workings of the structures.

Page 19
CHAPTER 7

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] S. Amendola, C. Occhiuzzi and G. Marrocco, “RFID Sensing Networks for Critical
Infrastructure Security: a real testbed in an Energy Smart Grid”, IEEE,2017

[2] Chang-He Li, Keng-Weng Lao, Kam-Weng Tam, “A Flooding Warning System based on
RFID Tag Array for Energy Facility”, IEEE, 2018

[3] SeongSoo PARK, “An IoT Application Service Using Mobile RFID Technology”,
International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication, 2018

[4] K.Kishore,T.Saimounika, “Real Time Locating System using RFID for Internet of
Things”,International Conference on Energy, Communication, Data Analytics and Soft
Computing,2017

[5] Dong-Ying Li ,Shun-Dao Xie, Rong-Jun Chen, HongZhou Taan,“Design of Internet of

Things System for Library Materials Management Using UHF RFID“,IEEE International
Conference on RFID Technology and Applications,2016

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