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[STDS-802-11] question re 802.11 with tiny antenna sizes



--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Reflector ---

Dear colleagues:

Suppose one wishes to implement a stripped-down version of 802.11 on a tiny device, with the following severely limited functionality:
a) the tiny device is passive (i.e., has no power source of its own);
b) the poking device (that triggers an information exchange with the tiny device) may be any ordinary 802.11-enabled device (including tablet, smart phone, etc.); c) the poking device executes a few information flows with the tiny device (a so-called challenge response protocol), typically consisting of 4 message flows (2x from tiny to poking device and back), each with less than 2048 bytes, and overall time latency less than 1s. d) the poking device is very close to the tiny device when executing #c) above -- say, roughly 5cm or less, but communicates wirelessly only.

Question:
a) is the expectation that one can implement this with an antenna *on the tiny device* that is tiny (say, 1mm or less)? Note: this assumes antennas in one dimension. Obviously, in reality, these may be put in loop form, rolled up, put in tree form, or whatever (I am a security guy, so do not know the level of creativity used here). In that case, it is interest how small one can make these on a chip. b) are there some graphics that explain the relationship between antenna size and maximum distance between devices (within the 10cm or less range)? Error probabilities do not have to be that low (e.g., p=5% seems okay, perhaps even 10% is okay), if that helps squeezing antenna sizes down.
c) can one make produce antennas using a chip production process only?

This question is triggered by some applications where one has many, many tiny devices with almost no communication gear on it, but which can communicate with regular off-the-shelf wifi-enabled devices. One may assume sufficient real-estate on board of the tiny device, so as to allow handling of 2048 byte messages (in context of challenge response protocol) and related functionality.

Apologies if these questions sound bizarre: I am working on cryptographic and security issues and do not know too much about physical layer aspects.

It is perfectly okay to send me some feedback in person, rather than as email flush to the mailing list.

--
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