Ultra-wideband radio technology: overview and future research

The emergence of commercial wireless devices based on ultra-wideband radio technology (UWB-RT) is widely awaited and anticipated. UWB-RT is not only applicable to communications, imaging and ranging, it also promises to alleviate the problem of increasingly scarce spectrum resources while enabling new wireless applications and business opportunities. These prospects have caught the early attention of the technology-providing wireless industry and, more recently, that of the radio regulatory authorities. Moreover, the technical challenges and problems to be solved when conceiving and deploying UWB radio systems have spurred a growing interest within the wireless research community. This paper discusses the key characteristics and capabilities of UWB-RT and indicates where one expects to exploit them in applications. A brief overview of the current status of UWB-RT is provided and directions for future research are discussed. It is proposed to explore and develop this new technology in the context of ‘wireless systems beyond 3G’ and within a forum of sufficient international breadth to facilitate regulatory and standardization frameworks with global support. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.