Modern production environments are becoming more and more communicative: sensors integrated into machines and systems measure and collect data and forward it, either to other systems or to a central control unit. Without wireless radio technology, networked production environments such as these would be impossible. Nevertheless, the current industrial wireless standards (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee) still have one critical weakness: they are very energy-intensive. The radio interface of a wireless sensor, for example, has a 60 – 95 % share of the system’s overall energy consumption. With passive data transmission technology, which is based on what is known as load modulation, this share would be completely eliminated. However, this technology does not fulfill the requirements for robustness, real-time capability, and resistance to interception; furthermore, its wireless range is somewhat smaller.

Researchers at Fraunhofer IMS have now had the idea to use inband communication processes (which are also part of the future 5G cellular phone standard) with RFID transponders. Combining the inband method with the RFID communication approach based on load modulation results in a highly efficient wireless transmission process known as “inband RFID.” In addition to full-duplex transmission (simultaneous transmission and reception) and energy efficiency, inband RFID communication offers a high immanent resistance to interception compared to established wireless standards.

In addition to applications in “Industry 4.0,” inband communication with load modulation – due to its resistance to interception – offers interesting approaches to solutions for part of the current “Keyless-Go” and “Keyless-Entry” problems currently being discussed in the automobile sector. The properties of the new technology mean that potential attackers – in this case car thieves – perceive the carrier signal transmitted as interference when they attempt to listen in to the data connection. This means that intercepting the car key signal is not possible.