Time Parameterized Interval R-Tree for Tracing Tags in RFID Systems

For tracing tag locations, the trajectories should be modeled and indexed in a radio frequency identification (RFID) system. The trajectory of a tag is represented as a line that connects two spatiotemporal locations captured when the tag enters and leaves the vicinity of a reader. If a tag enters but does not leave a reader, its trajectory is represented only as a point captured at entry. Because the information that a tag stays in a reader is missing from the trajectory represented only as a point, it is impossible to find the tag that remains in a reader. To solve this problem we propose the data model in which trajectories are defined as time-parameterized intervals and new index scheme called the Time Parameterized Interval R-tree. We also propose new insert and split algorithms to enable efficient query processing. We evaluate the performance of the proposed index scheme and compare it with the R-tree and the R*-tree. Our experiments show that the new index scheme outperforms the other two in processing queries of tags on various datasets.