1.

What is UWB communications?

Ultra-wideband communications is fundamentally different from all other communication techniques due to employing extremely short-time pulses (sub-nanosecond) to communicate between transmitters and receivers. The short duration of UWB pulses instantaneously generates very wide bandwidth (GHz) in frequency domain.
2. Is UWB a new technology?

UWB is not a new technology. In fact it was first used by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901 for transmitting the Morse code sequences across the Atlantic ocean using spark gap radio transmitters. However, the benefit of a large bandwidth and the capability of implementing multi-user systems provided by electromagnetic pulses were never considered at that time. 3.
How is UWB communications different from narrowband communications?

Narrowband communication systems modulate continuous wave RF signals with a specific carrier frequency to transmit and receive information. A continuous waveform has a well-defined signal energy in a narrow frequency band (KHz) that makes it vulnerable to intercept and detect. However, UWB systems use carrierless, short duration pulses with very low duty cycle (<0.5%) for transmission and reception of the information. The energy of such signals is spread over a very wide range of frequencies (GHz); therefore, each frequency has very low power which makes UWB signals very difficult to detect and intercept.
4. What is the definition of a UWB signal?

As defined by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) First Report and Order, UWB signals must have bandwidths of greater than 500 MHz or a fractional bandwidth larger than 20% at all times of transmission. Fractional bandwidth is the ratio of a signal's actual bandwidth to its center frequency. Return to top
5. Is UWB concept the same as spread spectrum technology?

Although UWB and spread spectrum techniques share the same advantage of the expansion in bandwidth, the method of achieving the large bandwidth is the main distinction between the two technologies. In conventional spread spectrum techniques, information bits are broken into "smaller bits" or chips and the chips are modulated with either a fixed carrier frequency or for frequency-hopping spread spectrum, a set of carrier frequencies. While in UWB communications, there is no carrier frequency and the short duration of the pulses directly generates the extremely wide bandwidth. Spread spectrum techniques can offer MHz of bandwidth, while UWB pulses provide several GHz of bandwidth. Return to top
6. How are the RF signals classified based on their fractional bandwidth?

The classification of signals based on their fractional bandwidth is as follows:

Narrowband signal Wideband signal Ultra-wideband signal 7. What are the advantages of UWB communications? Bf<1% 1%<Bf<20% Bf>20%

The main advantages and benefits of UWB systems over narrowband wireless technologies are summarized in the following table.
Advantage Co-existence with current narrowband and wideband radio services High channel capacity Ability to work with low signal-to-noise-ratios Low transmit power Resistance to jamming Benefit Avoids expensive licensing fees High bandwidth can support real-time HD video streaming Offers high performance in noisy environments Provides low probability of detection and intercept Reliable in hostile environments

High performance in multipath channels Simple transceiver architecture 8.

Delivers higher signal strengths in adverse conditions Enables ultra-low power, smaller form factor at a reduced cost

How can UWB signals share the frequency spectrum with legacy radio services?

Since UWB signals energy is spread over a very wide range of frequencies, it has very low power spectral density, meaning that each frequency has a very low power. The PSD of a UWB signal is below the noise floor of a typical narrowband receiver, therefore UWB signals look like noise to coexisting radio services. Return to top
9. Can narrowband signals cause harmful interference to UWB systems?

Because of their very large bandwidth, UWB signals have a certain level of resistance to interference and jamming. However, depending on the strength of the narrowband interferer, UWB pulses can be degraded severely. Therefore, interference mitigation techniques are crucial to successful UWB receiver design.Return to top
10. Why UWB communications systems have high data rates?

According to Shannon's capacity formula C=B log2(1+SNR); where C the channel capacity (bits per second) increases linearly with bandwidth, B. Therefore, having several GHz of bandwidth available for UWB signals, a data rate of Gbps can be expected. Return to top
11. What is the typical range for UWB communications?

Due to the FCC's current power limitation on UWB transmissions, the high data rate is only available for short ranges up to 10 meters. This makes UWB systems perfect candidates for short range, high data rate wireless applications such as wireless personal area networks (WPAN). Return to top
12. Are UWB signals immune to multipath phenomenon?

The short duration of UWB pulses makes them less sensitive to multipath effect compared to narrowband signals. This is because with transmission of pulses shorter than a nanosecond in duration, the reflected pulse has an extremely short window of opportunity to collide with the line of sight (LOS) pulse to cause signal degradation. However, this relative immunity to multipath is only in comparison with narrowband signals and dense indoor channels can certainly degrade UWB communications too. Return to top
13. Why UWB transceivers have simpler architecture compared to narrowband transceivers?

The transmission of low powered pulses eliminates the need for a power amplifier (PA) in UWB transmitters. Also, since UWB transmission is carrierless, there is no need for mixers and local oscillators to translate the carrier frequency to the required frequency band and consequently there is no need for carrier recovery stage at the receiver end. In general, the analog front end of a UWB transceiver is noticeably less complicated and cheaper to build than a narrowband transceiver.Return to top
14. Why is it difficult to detect UWB signals?

Because of the low duty cycle, UWB signals have very low transmission average power, therefore an eavesdropper has to be very close to the transmitter (about 1 meter) to be able to detect the transmitted information. In addition, UWB pulses are time modulated with codes unique to the transmitter/receiver pairs. This time modulation adds more security to UWB transmission, since detecting picosecond pulses without the prior knowledge of their time of arrival information is next to impossible. Return to top
15. Is UWB communications possible in low signal-to-noise-ratio environments?

The Shannon's theory for maximum capacity (refer to Q.10) also indicates that the channel capacity is only logarithmically dependent on SNR. Therefore, UWB communication systems are capable of working in harsh communication channels with low signal-to-noise ratio and still offer a large channel capacity due to their large bandwidth. Return to top
16. How can UWB signals penetrate through walls?

Unlike narrowband technology, UWB systems can penetrate effectively through different materials. The reason is that the low frequencies covered in the broad range of UWB frequency spectrum have long wavelengths and allow UWB signals to penetrate through different materials including walls

17. What are the main applications of UWB communications?

The trade off between data rate and range in UWB systems holds great promise for a wide variety of applications both in military, civilian, and commercial sectors. The following table summarizes the UWB applications in data communications, radar, and localization.
Applications UWB Technology Category

Military & Government

Commercial 1. Local and personal area networks 2. Wireless streaming video distribution (home networking) 3. Wireless sensor networks (health and habitat monitoring, home automation) 1. Medical imaging (remote heart monitoring) 2. Ground penetration radars (detection of electrical wiring, studs, etc. in construction sites) 3. Automotive industry (collision avoidance, roadside assistance) 4. Home security (proximity detectors) 1. Inventory tracking 2. Tagging and identification 3. Asset management

Data 1. Secure Communications communications 2. Wireless sensor networks (battlefield operations

Radar

1. Through-wall imaging (law enforcement, firefighters) 2. Ground penetrating radars (rescue operations) 3. Surveillance and monitoring

Localization

1. Personnel identification 2. Situational awareness for soldiers 3. Prisoner tracking

18. What are the FCC regulations on UWB emissions?

In order to protect the existing radio services from UWB interference, the FCC has assigned conservative emission masks between 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz for commercial UWB devices. The maximum allowed power spectral density for these devices is -41.3 dBm/MHz equal to 75 nW/MHz that places them at the same level as unintentional radiators (FCC part 15 class) such as TV and computer monitors. In general the FCC ruling per application with part 15 classification of -41.3 dBm for both outdoor and indoor operations can be summarized as shown in the following table.
Operation Band (GHz) Application Indoor 0.96 to 1.61 -75.3 1.61 to 1.99 -53.3 -63.3 -51.3 -63.3 1.99 to 3.1 -51.3 -61.3 -41.3 -63.3 3.1 to 10.6 -41.3 -41.3 -41.3 -63.3 10.6 to 22.0 -51.3 -61.3 -41.3 -41.3 22.0 to 29.0 -51.3 -61.3 -51.3 -41.3

Communications EIRP (dBm) Imaging Vehicular radar

Outdoor -75.3 -53.3 -75.3

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19. How is UWB communications compared to Bluetooth and WLAN technologies?

The following table compares the UWB technology to the other currently available data communication standards.
IEEE Standard WLAN 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g Bluetooth 802.15.1 WPAN 802.15.3 UWB 802.15.3a Zigbee 802.15.4

Operational Frequency Maximum Data Rate Maximum Range

5 GHz 54 Mbps 100 meters

2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 11 Mbps 100 meters 54 Mbps 100 meters

2.4 GHz 1 Mbps 10 meters

2.4 GHz 55 Mbps 10 meters

3.1-10.6 GHz >100 Mbps 10 meters

2.4 GHz 250 Kbps 50 meters

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20. What are the challenges of UWB communications?

There are many challenges involved in using nanosecond duration pulses for communications. Some of the main difficulties of UWB communications are discussed in the following table.
Challenge Pulse shape distortion Channel estimation High frequency synchronization Multiple access interference Low transmission power Problem Low performance using conventional pulse detection technique (i.e., classical matched filter receivers) Difficulty in predicting the template signals Very fast ADCs required Detecting the desired user's information is more challenging than in narrowband communication Information can only travel to short distances

21. Why is pulse shape distortion a problem in UWB communications?

The shape of the signal at the receiver is distorted by multipath, diffraction, and other scattering effects. This limits the performance of UWB receivers that correlate the received pulses with a pre-defined template such as classical matched filters. Return to top
22. Why is time synchronization a challenge in UWB communications?

Sampling and synchronization of nanosecond pulses pose a major limitation in the design of UWB systems. In order to sample these narrow pulses, very fast (on the order of GHz) analog to digital converters (ADCs) are needed. Moreover, the strict power limitations and short pulse duration make the performance of UWB systems highly sensitive to timing errors such as jitter and drift. This can become a major issue in the success of pulse position modulation (PPM) receivers that rely on detecting the exact position of the received signal. Return to top
23. What are the common UWB modulation techniques?

Some of the common UWB modulation techniques with their advantages and disadvantages are summarized in the following table:
UWB Modulation On Off Keying (OOK) Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

Encoding Method Presence and absence of a pulse represents digital bits "1" and "0" respectively. A pulse with higher amplitude represents a data bit "1" and a pulse with lower amplitude represents a data bit "0". Signals are pseudo randomly encoded based on the position of the transmitted pulse trains by shifting the pulses in a predefined window in time. Polarity of the pulse changes to represent digital data bits.

Advantages Simple and low power transmitter. Simple transmitter, since pulses with only one polarity are needed to represent data.

Disadvantages Highly susceptible to noise. UWB synchronization becomes even more challenging if a stream of zeros is transmitted.

Attenuation in wireless channel can convert them to OOK case.

Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) Bi-Phase Modulation

Less vulnerable to false detection due Requires very strict timing synchronization. Time to noise compared to uncertainties such as drift and jitter cause OOK and PAM unreliable detection. pulses. Less susceptible to distortion since the More complexity in physical design of the transmitter to generate two polarities.

difference between the two pulse levels is twice the pulse amplitude.

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24. What is the common detection technique for UWB pulses?

All aforementioned UWB modulation techniques share the same conventional detection method called matched filter receivers. In order to detect the data, matched filters correlate the received pulse with a predefined template locally generated at the receiver. Return to top
25. What are the challenges of traditional pulse detection techniques?

The main problem with matched filters is that the received UWB pulse is significantly distorted by the wireless channel and does not resemble the locally generated template. In order to achieve high performance, matched filters need to estimate the wireless channel very accurately and generate a template pulse that shows the same type of distortion that the received pulse has experienced. However, channel estimation is a very challenging task for UWB pulses. Therefore, lack of similarity between the pulses and high frequency synchronization are the main drawbacks of conventional detection technique. Return to top
26. How long has LLNL been active in the field of UWB?

LLNL has been active in UWB research and development for many years, and in "micropower" UWB for 15 years. Return to top
27. What is the transmitted-reference methods (TR) and what are the advantages of the TR method? TR modulation technique has the advantage of sending the same pulse twice through an unknown channel where both pulses experience the same type of channel distortion and detection becomes easier with a correlation receiver. Therefore, instead of correlating the distorted received pulse with a "clean" template pulse as in PPM, both the data pulse and so called template ("reference pulse") are distorted and show high correlation at the TR receiver. Therefore, there is no need for channel estimation in TR receivers. Furthermore, a TR receiver is self-synchronized and eliminates the need for individual pulse synchronization with locally generated templates that exists in PPM scheme. The reason is that each "reference pulse" acts as a preamble for its "data pulse" and has the advantage of providing rapid synchronization. Moreover, synchronization in TR receivers occurs after correlation between the "data pulses" and "reference pulses," thus the sampling requirements are relaxed to baseband signals. This way, the need for synchronization of the received short duration RF pulses and very fast ADCs are eliminated. Another advantage of TR modulation to the other UWB modulation schemes is its high performance in multipath environments. TR receivers exploit multipath phenomenon to improve their performance in dense multipath and indoor channels. This is because the reference and data pulses are correlated with each other, and the multipath channel introduces a longer duration in the signal component of the received signal, thus increasing the overall signal energy at detection stage. Return to top 28. At what stage is LLNL's UWB communications system?

LLNL's UWB communications system is at prototype stage. This prototype has been extensively evaluated in harsh propagation channels such as heavy concrete and heavy metallic environments through real field experiments conducted in collaboration with Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Return to top
29. What is the communications range and power consumption of LLNL's current UWB prototype communications system?

In a heavy concrete environment, with 200 mwatts of power, LLNL's UWB communications prototype is capable of providing successful real time video communications through 3 to 4, 12" concrete walls and 400 ft range. Return to top
30. What are the capabilities of future generations of LLNL's UWB communications systems?

LLNL engineers are working on a UWB system that can work in the presence of multiuser interference, as well as improving their communications range