Systems and methods for sequential detection-based classifications of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in three-dimensional space are provided. The methods include modeling a response from RFID tags as a probabilistic macro-channel and interrogating an RFID tag by transmitting a series of packets. Each packet is a transmit symbol and a first series of packet is a transmitted codeword. The method includes receiving, from the RFID tag, a second series of packets that is a received codeword in response to the transmitted codeword and finding a jointly typical transmit and receive codeword across all classes of macro-channels. The method also includes declaring a class of the RFID tag based on a largest likelihood between the transmitted codeword and the received codeword.