Backscatter radios encode data in reflected signals to offer wireless communications that consume as little energy as possible—but they can be limited by poor data rates. Now scientists at Nokia Bell Labs and their colleagues have developed backscatter radios capable of gigabit speeds, for potential use in the emerging Internet of Things and other devices, a new study finds.

Whereas conventional radios generate their own signals, backscatter radios transmit data by making tiny changes to reflected signals. This approach requires a minimal number of active components, promising simple low-cost battery-free operations.

However, the low frequencies that backscatter radios often employ and the strategies they use to encode data in reflected signals typically limit their data rates. For example, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, which often employ backscatter radios at sub-gigahertz frequencies, transmit data at only kilobits per second rates. At the 2.4 gigahertz frequency often used by WiFi and Bluetooth, backscatter is generally limited to hundreds of megabits per second.