Skip to content
Search

Ultra-wideband

lastmod 2026-03-25created 2026-03-253 edits

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a wireless communication technology that transmits large amounts of information at low power across a band that is very wide compared to conventional spectrum.

It can transfer large data from a PC to a printer at high speed and print it, and transfer and store HDTV video on a PC. It can also send still images taken with a digital camera to a printer. It uses the 3.1∼10.6GHz frequency band and guarantees a transmission range of 10m∼1km. UWB was used for about 40 years by the U.S. Department of Defense as a military wireless communication technology, and drew attention when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S. agency in charge of communication frequencies, recently opened it to civilian use. Until the 1990s, UWB was applied to the U.S. Department of Defense's 'black project' radar technology. As a wireless communication technology that uses a GHz-wide frequency band and can transmit at 100~500M per second, it can transmit large videos perfectly without jitter or loss, and its transmission range reaches 1km, 10 times longer than Bluetooth's 100m, making it possible to build a complete home networking system and to eliminate the cables of all digital appliances. In America it can be used without a special license.

Information

  • Frequency: 3.1~10.6GHz
  • Transmission rate: 480Mbps

Definition

Ultra-wideband radio in the broad sense

  • Wireless communication using a bandwidth of 500MHz or more
  • Fractional bandwidth (bandwidth relative to the center frequency) of 20% or more (sometimes 25% or more.)

Refers to wireless technology capable of short-range high-speed communication, regardless of whether a carrier or modulation is used.

Ultra-wideband radio in the narrow sense

Refers to the Impulse Radio method, a communication method that wirelessly transmits and receives very short impulse-type simple pulse signals of a few hundred picoseconds (ps), under 1 nanosecond (ns), without modulation.

Ultra-wideband radio in general

Refers to wireless technology capable of short-range high-speed communication using a carrier and wideband modulation. It also has positioning and radar functions. It often refers to IEEE 802.15.3a. It is the base technology of Wireless USB. However, the IEEE 802.15.3a working group gave up on setting the standard at its January 2006 meeting without reaching agreement between the camp supporting MB-OFDM (described below) and the camp supporting DS-UWB[1], so the camps of each method are now competing to become the de facto standard.

Features

  • Low power consumption.
  • Resistant to interference.
  • Capable of high-speed communication. However, speed drops drastically as distance increases.
  • High positioning accuracy, with an error within a few cm,
  • Communication is spread across a wider frequency range than before.
  • Intended for short-range use within a radius of about 10m.

Bands and bandwidth used (basic)

Microwave band:

  • In the U.S., 3.1GHz～10.6GHz is available.
  • In Japan, 3.4～4.8GHz and 7.25～10.25GHz are available.
    • For use of 3.4～4.8GHz, band competition with fourth-generation mobile phones, WiMAX, and others is expected, so a detect-and-avoid technology (DAA) for avoiding interference with other communication methods is mandatory. (At the end of 2008, the 4.2～4.8GHz band alone can be used without DAA)
  • Output level per unit frequency (radiated electromagnetic noise limit) - -41.3 dBm/MHz

Quasi-millimeter wave band:

  • 22GHz～29GHz
  • However, 23.6～24GHz is a band used for radio astronomy, earth exploration satellites, and so on, so use is conditional on not interfering with this band.[4].

Communication speed

  • Actual (experimental stage, 2004) - 320Mbps
  • Target - 480Mbps or more (same as the communication speed of USB 2.0)

Modulation methods

  • MB-OFDM (MultiBand Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) - promoted by the Multiband-OFDM Alliance (MBOA)
    • An application of OFDM. Divides the 3.1GHz～10.6GHz band into 14 bands and groups them into 5 logical channels.
  • DS-UWB (Direct Sequence UWB) - promoted by the Motorola camp.
    • A hybrid of the Impulse Radio method and the DS spread spectrum method.

The following method is a compromise between the methods described above.

  • CSM (Common Signaling Mode) method
    • A compromise between the MB-OFDM and DS-UWB methods. It accepts both physical layers and performs the work needed for coexistence in the MAC protocol. It defines a 500MHz-wide common band (Common Signaling Mode Band) centered at 3960MHz and achieves communication of up to about 10Mbps.

Issues

  • Overlaps with the bands used by satellite communication and IEEE 802.11a
  • Allocation problems under each country's frequency laws.
  • Very short communication range

Communication standards that adopt ultra-wideband radio

  • IEEE 802.15.4a
  • Wireless USB

Documentations

See also

Favorite site

author Zer0 sitemap