  Scatter radio, i.e., communication by means of reflection, has been recently
proposed as a viable ultra-low power solution for wireless sensor networks
(WSNs). This work offers a detailed comparison between monostatic and
multistatic scatter radio architectures. In monostatic architecture, the reader
consists of both the illuminating transmitter and the receiver of signals
scattered back from the sensors. The multistatic architecture includes several
ultra-low cost illuminating carrier emitters and a single reader.
Maximum-likelihood coherent and noncoherent bit error rate (BER), diversity
order, average information and energy outage probability comparison is
performed, under dyadic Nakagami fading, filling a gap in the literature. It is
found that: (i) diversity order, BER, and tag location-independent performance
bounds of multistatic architecture outperform monostatic, (ii) energy outage
due to radio frequency (RF) harvesting for passive tags, is less frequent in
multistatic than monostatic architecture, and (iii) multistatic coverage is
higher than monostatic. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept {digital} multistatic,
scatter radio WSN with a single receiver, four low-cost emitters and multiple
ambiently-powered, low-bitrate tags, perhaps the first of its kind, is
experimentally demonstrated (at $13$ dBm transmission power), covering an area
of $3500$ m$^2$. Research findings are applicable in the industries of WSNs,
radio frequency identification (RFID), and emerging Internet-of-Things.
