UWB Potpourri

Since the FCC opened the frequency spectrum from 3-to-10GHz allowing ultra-wide- band (UWB) operation, two main flavors have been proposed, namely multi-band OFDM UWB and impulse-radio (IR) UWB. WiMedia has embraced multi-band OFDM UWB as the communication protocol to achieve robust high data rates up to 48Mb/s over moderate distances. This protocol targets applications like wireless US. On the other hand IEEE 802.15.4a has specified a UWB PHY for low-data-rate communication with ranging capabilities, based on IR UWB. Applications are in wireless personal area (WPAN) and sensor networks, where battery longevity is of critical importance but the distances are short.