Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology, as we know it now, started in the late 1960’s. The original use cases were: radar detection, location application and communications. By the 1980’s the military (Department of Defense) was using UWB in pinning locations, warning against collisions, fluid level detection, intruder identification and more. Key technical pioneers for UWB include, H.F Harmuth (Catholic University), Ross and Robin (Sperry Rand Corporation), Paul Van Etten at USAF Rome labs and Russia. Several of these people and many others hold patents in their important contributions from antenna design concepts, to system design, to coding schemes and several application areas including radar, and communications technology.
15m, while UWB gives precise position accuracy in the 1 to 30cm granularity level!
2010 and beyond, brought a big shift to UWB application utility. UWB proliferation became stunted by a few factors including the expansion of WiFi integrated electronic devices, followed by the emergence of Google’s digital media player platform - Chromecast.
This write up highlights the emerging opportunity that UWB technology is expected to play in next generation communications.
In the same vein that one technology applications’ emergence (integrated WiFi) stunted the utility of UWB, another technology application emergence (IoT) is poised to expand it!
Internet of Things (IoT) is now giving UWB a new set of wide applicability. IoT, which is the ability to leverage internet enabled network connectivity and computing capability to sensors, objects and “dumb” everyday items, thereby converting them into a smart ecosystem of devices that generate, exchange and consume data that can be harnessed for useful purposes. IoT is already implemented in more than 15 billion devices and is expected to double in applications by 2020. By 2025, IoT is expected to have a global commercial impact of $11T through its 100B connected devices. IoT will touch every sector with applications that range from industrial automation to smart homes, grids, farming and cities to smart retail and supply chains to connected cars, healthcare, wearables and many applications in between.
So how does UWB technology come into the IoT world?
Take for starters, Apple’s recent release of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro/Pro Max which like many of the newer models of the iPhone, iPad and Mac platforms support the iOS/ macOS integrated AirDrop file sharing feature. The difference was that prior to the 11 release, AirDrop was implemented to transfer files over WiFi and Bluetooth. In the newly released iPhone 11 and iPhone 11Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, the AirDrop feature uses UWB technology. The Apple U1 chip with UWB location sensitive radio technology brings a robustness to the AirDrop feature by adding “spatial awareness” - making the iPhone all the more “smarter”. Spatial Awareness or directional awareness as it is also referenced, is experienced for example, by pointing your iPhone to another person’s iPhone. Your phone’s directional awareness feature is triggered, and it immediately knows exactly where (direction) you are looking and additionally who (position) specifically you might want to send information to. This is leaps and bounds more specific intelligence beyond the detection of all near by devices we get with Bluetooth! Apple calls this technology the “living room-scale GPS.”
With Apple now firmly on-board the UWB train, the vision to leverage UWB into IoT is further crystalized. UWB technology’s characteristics of high speed, low power, strong security and the ultra-wide band (that allows for multiple applications on the same spectrum without signal interference) is exactly what makes it an ideal solution for short range IoT applications. In addition, because of the low power feature, energy emitted is virtually undetectable, so UWB devices do not interfere with narrower band device signals and can operate harmoniously with WiFi integrated devices. In Wireless Personal Area Networks (W-PAN) applications, UWB signals in commercial applications per IEEE802.15.3 are specified to deliver up to 20Mbits/s or higher over a short range of 10M in the 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz band. Additionally, UWB technology’s ultra-wide spectrum allows it to share bandwidth with other short/long range wireless communication protocols; so basically you can create a large ecosystem of many connected devices without interference. The technology brings along key features that are strong positives for many IoT applications, they include large device count connectivity, low power, fast data rates, low latency and low cost.
However, its short nominal range relegates it to IoT solutions for Personal Area Network (or Wireless PAN) like within a living room environment. For longer range IoT solutions any of the options of cellular, WiFi and ethernet will continue to dominate.
All in all, UWB technology benefits are again on the forefront and making a strong resurgence with IoT as the right re-entry point.
Below is our UWB technology history and some lessons we learned along the
way:
By 2010, with several UWB chipsets on the market. I (Moses Asom) was involved in an early stage company in Shanghai/Beijing called Panovel. We set out to develop a gateway solution to provide seamless wireless connectivity between smartphones, computers, and TV screens. We were challenged to do this, with a budget that was 10% of our competitors’ budgets. Suffice it to say we achieved and exceeded the goal! We developed and deployed a high performance UWB chipset that launched our ViewSender/Receiver product line and further deployed a competitive market solution, no small feat at the time! Then “the market happened to us”. A combination of limited domestic commercial success, the emergence of Google Chromecast and the near ubiquitous integration of Wi-Fi into electronics devices delivered the triple knockout “market punches” that dashed any hope of commercial success.
You see, while we fully realized the tremendous potential that UWB technology product development offered, we simultaneously lacked the ecosystem and at that time what would have been considered the killer application.
In today’s time, Apple is an example of the game changer platform that makes that difference. With a robust global ecosystem and the new iPhone 11 as a continuum to Apple’s combo iPhone, iPad and Mac platforms that are conduits to rolling out tons of “killer apps”, Apple has the perfect stance to accelerate and exploit the UWB technology resurgence. Exactly what UWB technology needs now to make a full comeback and what we lacked then to make it grow!
So while I am proud of what our incredibly talented team accomplished with the support of strong investors like GSR Ventures and Zhongguancun, history has taught us all that the market can have an outsized impact on success and the ecosystem that interacts with the market is the critical glue that can make or break your success “gravy train”. Apple and companies like it, prove that to us over and over again. As for me, I am happy to see UWB take its rightful place in the history of connectivity. For now I’m off to discover more things!
References:
1. Ultra Wide-Band vs. Wi-Fi. A Study & Comparison of the two technologies (Progress Report) Wireless Communication, EEEN-5333 Majid Shaik K00287783. Department of Electrical and Computer ScienceEngineering, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, Texas
2. Dong-Seong Kim, Hoa TRan-Dang. "Ultra-Wideband Technology for Military Applications". 2018. "Industrial Sensors and Controls in Communication Networks. pp.197-204.
3. Panovel Technology Completes First Round of Funding By Zero2IPO Research Center Updated: 2008-03-25 21:22:53 link - http://en.pedaily.cn/Item.aspx?id=195213
4. Patents filed by Panel for UWB Method for demodulating dcm signals and apparatus thereof and other methods are available on (https://patents.google.com/?assignee=Panovel+Technology+Corporation
Moses Asom and Ngozi Bell are partners at Trans-Sahara Investment
Corporation and spent several years in telecommunication technology
development.
