What is UWB?

What Does UWB Stand For?

UWB stands for Ultra-Wideband. UWB is a wireless communication technology that offers high bandwidth, low power consumption. and the ability to operate effectively in congested environments. UWB is suitable for a variety of applications in both consumer and industrial settings. Ultra-wideband (UWB) is designed for applications requiring accurate, precise and high update rate real-time location. UWB uses patented UWB techniques to provide these unique RTLS benefits with tags that feature exceedingly long battery life.

How Does Ultra-wideband Technology Work?

UWB uses patented UWB techniques to provide RTLS benefits with tags that feature exceedingly long battery life. UWB Sensors are placed throughout the coverage area and they can be daisy chained to one another, providing a simple and cost-effective installation.

A UWB system helps provide the lowest cost-of-ownership in industry by improving installation ease, visibility, scalability, performance, asset tracking and tag management.

Additionally, the normal range of a UWB device can depend on the device itself. Some devices have a range of up to 150m (UWB Wand) and some have a longer range of up to 200m (UWB Hub). It is also worth noting that a frequency range for a UWB is 6.35 to 6.75 GHz.

UWB uses patented UWB techniques to provide unique RTLS benefits with tags that feature exceedingly long battery life. Its benefits are: 200m range, highly accurate, hard to deploy, long battery life and high bandwidth.

What Is an Ultra-wideband Tag?

UWB Tags are small, active, general-purpose tags used in asset and personnel visibility applications. The tags emit short Ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses that are detected by UWB Sensors. They are often used to track high-value assets or simply assets whose real-time location is critical to your business operation. The tag is easily mounted on an asset using straps, ties, or with an optional strap-on mounting ring. You can think of an ultra-wideband (UWB) tag as a small device that utilizes UWB technology for precise location tracking. It sends out a signal that can be picked up and interpreted by UWB-enabled devices, such as dedicated receivers. UWB tags are often used in asset tracking systems where high precision is required like in warehouses.

UWB Tag transmissions are extremely short in duration, providing excellent real-time location accuracy and permitting thousands of tags to be simultaneously located. The short-duration UWB pulses also result in exceptionally long battery life. For example, the UWB (programmed at 1 Hz blink rate) can be used to continuously track an asset for over seven years. UWB Tags are battery-operated devices that are affixed to assets or personnel. The UWB Tag features a small circular form factor and is generally used on assets.

What Is the Bandwidth of UWB Transmission?

In order to coexist with these other radio systems, the power from a UWB transmissions is constrained by regulations to be extremely low and distributed across this very large portion of bandwidth. Therefore, virtually all the other users of these bands do not even recognize that there is a UWB radio transmitting across their frequencies. However, licensed users have still resisted allowing UWB systems in their band and this has caused regulatory bodies to push these systems into less crowded areas of the radio spectrum. As a result, 6-8 GHz is the most common UWB band across the globe. These are very high frequencies.

What Is the Location Accuracy of UWB?

The standard location accuracy of a UWB System is between 5- 10cm. But did you know that a Zebra UWB System can provide up to 30cm of accuracy?

What Is an UWB Signal?

Ultra-Wideband technology utilizes a transmission signal that is spread across a very large swath of frequencies; typically, more than 500 MHz wide. In fact, these signals coexist with other narrower licensed frequencies that are used for many different purposes including radar, radio astronomy and a variety of other applications. 

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