Continuous Wave UWB -- The "Other" Ultra Wideband

Oyster Bay, NY -- The Multiband OFDM technology proposed by the MBOA Alliance and a host of industry heavyweights, and its rival DS-UWB technology proposed by Freescale and the UWB Forum, are well known. Lesser known is a UWB technology pioneered by Pulse-Link. Their Continuous Wave UWB uses no analog mixers or local oscillators, resulting in a less complex implementation (see related story). It employs variable spreading codes that can trade data-rate for range, and its spectral characteristics allow flexibility to satisfy different regulatory constraints. It has some unique benefits that could make it a serious contender for in-home multimedia.

"Do we really need another UWB technology?" asks ABI Research's principle analyst of semiconductor research, Alan Vargehese. "Well, it depends."

Any form of wireless communications can be described by its range and its data rate at that range. Through the evolution of wireless, today we have three well-defined ranges -- the wireless personal area network (WPAN) typically defined as within 10 meters, the local area (WLAN) defined at about 100 meters, and the wide area (WWAN), which can reach out to a few miles. There is a tradeoff between range and data rate; you get the highest data rates at the smallest range and vice-versa.

"What Continuous Wave UWB offers," says Vargehese, "is a blurring of the segmentation between the personal area and the local area: the high data rate of 1 Gbps which can typically only be offered at under three meters will be offered at 10 meters, and at 80 meters we can still experience up to a 10Mbps data rate. This lends itself nicely to bandwidth intensive applications such as distribution of in-home multimedia."

ABI Research's study, "Ultrawideband -- Standards, Technology, OEM Strategy, and Markets" discusses these issues in detail. It also analyzes the volumes and revenues from UWB electronics and chipsets, and the penetration of UWB technology across a variety of equipment and market segments.

Source: ABI Research