Ultra Wideband (UWB) - Wireless Technologies
Ultra Wideband
Ultra Wideband (UWB) is a radio technology that can be used at very low energy levels for high bandwidth communications in a short range. Technically speaking, it is a technology for transmitting information over a large bandwidth and this allows it to carry data rates of Gigabytes per second. It is feared that the the Ultra Wideband transmission may cause interference because it has such a wide bandwidth.
UWB Technologies
There are two Ultra Wideband technologies:
- Direct sequence ultra wideband technology(DS UWB)
- Multiband OFDM UWB
Direct sequence ultra wideband technology(DS UWB)
It is often referred to as an impulse, baseband or zero carrier technology. It sends Gaussian shaped pulses which are low-powered ones and are coherently received at the receiver end.
Multiband OFDM UWB
It is a form of UWB technology that is different in approach to DS UWB. It transmits data over multiple carriers spaced apart at precise frequencies, simultaneously. Fast Fourier Transform algorithms are used for capturing energy in a multi-path environment and this provide 100 percent efficiency.
Applications
UWB allows people go wireless in their lives in many ways like:
- Videos recorded on digital camcorder can be played on HDTV without connecting wires.
- Digital pictures can be transferred to photo printers without using the cables.
- Similarly, speakers can be connected to the portable MP3 players without having to deal with wires.
In future, this technology is going to free many people from wires. Points given above are just a few examples of how it will allow us to remove wires in a short range and UWB will be adding much more functionality in future.
Technical Details & Stats
Frequency: Ultra Wideband transmissions can legally operate at a range of 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz
Range: About 10 meters
Power Consumption: Very low, less than 0.5 milliwatts
Data Transfer: Very high data rate
(This information may vary as UWB technology is not formally launched for public till now.)