Ultra-wideband (UWB) has been a kind of “Cinderella” technology for some time—attractive in many ways, but not fully invited to the technological party. Or, perhaps it’s thought of in some circles as the classic “solution in search of a problem.” This article will look at UWB technology, what it’s been used for, why it hasn’t really become mainstream yet, and why this might change soon.
As the name suggests, ultra-wideband is a transmission method that involves transmitting over a rather large bandwidth. In quantitative terms, the currently accepted definition by the FCC and ITU is a bandwidth of 500 MHz or at least 20% of the center carrier frequency, whichever of these is smaller.