Ultra-wideband Wireless
Overview of ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless

Imagine the freedom of using a DVD player in one room to watch a movie in a different room. Imagine using one controller box to watch different programs on different televisions. Imagine connecting a digital camera to a television without wires and without line-of-sight (LOS). Thanks to the emerging wireless ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, consumers may soon be able to enjoy a wide range of applications, which can utilize very high data-transfer rates, as shown in Figure .

Marconi used spark-gap transmitters to send Morse-code pulse streams across a lab room without wires. In 1901, after boosting power and building much larger antennas, the radio pioneer used the device to transmit coded wireless signals across the Atlantic Ocean. A century later, researchers are once again beaming short electromagnetic pulses across their lab rooms. Over the years, the technology has changed. Bulky coils and capacitors have been replaced with tiny integrated circuits and tunnel diodes. Instead of ragged and erratic spark streams, there are precisely timed sequences of specially shaped pulses that each last only a few hundred trillionths of a second. And while Marconi's devices could convey the equivalent of about 10 bits of data per second, UWB can send more than 100 million bits of digital information in the same amount of time.

UWB technology is loosely defined as any wireless transmission scheme that occupies a bandwidth of more than 25 percent of a center frequency, or more than 1.5 GHz. The first consumer products using UWB chips are expected in late 2003.

The first UWB systems should be able to deliver bandwidth in the 40 to 60 Mbps range, with expectations of very high data transmission speeds, from 100 to 500 Mbps, across distances of 5 to 10 m (16.4 to 32.8 ft). Eventually, UWB could even hit data speeds in the 1-Gbps range, and reach distances of up to 2 km (1.2 miles). This technology will lead to wireless applications that are currently impossible. Engineers also expect UWB units to be cheaper, smaller, and less dependent on power than current radio devices.


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