Section 10.4. Summary

10.4. Summary

This chapter has reviewed a number of the first-generation of UWB products. UWB has several unique properties and it promises many new and exciting applications with its high data rate, low power, low-cost, and precision radar capabilities. Implementations of UWB systems can be broken down into three broad categories: communications, radar, and location-aware communications. In the communications category, several companies have chosen to use UWB to implement Wireless Personal Area Networks. In other cases, the precision radar and ranging capabilities of UWB provide high-precision position location, collision avoidance, and through-walls imaging. Location-aware communications systems combine both UWB communications and radar into a system that allows a wireless network to benefit from knowing the position of nodes. Additionally, this chapter discussed the ability of UWB to provide a physical layer for the IEEE 802.15.3a high-speed Personal Area Network and the 802.15.4a low power distributed network.

Currently, UWB products provide an enhanced version of Bluetoothoffering data rates akin to USB over a 10 meter wireless link. It is expected that as UWB communications devices diminish in size and cost they will become commonplace in both consumer electronics as well as industrial communication systems. Future UWB devices will likely achieve more integration, with the ultimate goal of implementing a communications system on a single chip. Additionally, future systems are likely to employ more sophisticated customized MAC layers, which will use the location information provided by UWB.