Ultra-wideband Wireless
UWB applications

With roots in military applications, such as airplane radar imaging through trees, UWB will most likely be used for short-distance wireless communications.

UWB devices send and receive relatively short-range, high-speed transmissions. UWB devices can be used to provide connectivity in home and office WLANs, and can provide short-distance connections among mobile devices such as cell phones, pagers, and handheld computers.

In addition to communications, UWB technology has other significant applications. It relies on razor-thin, precisely timed pulses similar to those used in radar applications. These pulses give UWB wireless the ability to detect buried objects or movement behind walls. As shown in Figure , these capabilities could be important for rescue and law-enforcement missions.

The UWB precision pulses can also be used to determine the position of emitters indoors. By operating like a local version of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a UWB wireless system can triangulate the location of goods tagged with transmitters, using multiple receivers placed in the vicinity. This ability might be very useful to department store personnel, to keep track of high-value products on the shelves or in the warehouse. This location-finding feature could also be used to enhance security. For example, UWB receivers installed in smart door locks or ATM machines could permit them to operate only when an authorized user is within a meter (3.3 ft) of the device. Authorized users could carry a UWB transmitter for identification.

UWB technology uses short-duration pulses that dart around other traffic traversing the same airwaves. As a result, UWB can operate across spectrum that is already occupied by other radio services. This technology works well in buildings and other dense environments because it uses signal reflections from walls and other solid objects to send data.