From the title, I was not sure what this short book was going to be about. Fortunately, the first chapter accurately dispels all doubts: the book is about increasing the efficiency of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems in large-scale deployment where tagged items are counted in thousands. RFID uses wireless transmission to identify and track objects. It is commercially available, although large-scale deployments involve significant problems. Those problems are identified and solved in this book.

The authors composed this book almost exclusively from their own previously published scientific papers. Although parts of the book are available separately, having them together proves valuable because a complete solution is described.

The book comprises four chapters in about 80 pages. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the topic. If a reader is not familiar with RFID technology, such as myself, the introduction is a bare minimum to understand the rest of the text. The authors describe the main problems that current systems face. They also briefly present state-of-the-art development. Chapters 2 to 4 each answer a particular problem. Chapter 2 proposes a method to quickly and efficiently estimate the number of active devices equipped with RFID tags, for example, in a large warehouse. Chapters 3 and 4 describe methods to collect information from sensors via RFID technology. The first method focuses on gathering data from all the active tags, while the second one polls only a subset of all the tags. Despite the obvious similarity, the approaches differ significantly.

I was struck by the fact that the problems are concise yet well presented and analyzed. The chapters start with a problem statement, followed by mathematical analysis and a simulative comparison. The mathematical models are well described and easy to understand, while the simulative analyses are convincing. This is not surprising given the fact that these results have been published in top journals. Moreover, the authors use mostly short and precise sections, which helps to convey their messages clearly.

This is not a textbook. People eager to learn how RFID systems work will be disappointed. The authors show how the efficiency of such systems can be improved. Apart from that, the reader will not find much useful information on RFID. The book is, therefore, aimed toward manufacturers who wish to develop new RFID systems or increase the efficiency of existing systems. People interested in the general development of RFID might also want to read this book, but they are likely to already be familiar with the concepts from the original papers.

I do have a comment about the language. I have already noted how well written and easy to understand the book is, and that is true. However, there are language-related mistakes--mostly errors in grammar, capitalization, and the proper use of spaces. These mistakes are not prevalent, and they do not impact the book’s message or the understanding of it. However, they do make one long for the times when book editors put more time into controlling the language aspects of a publication.