International Technical and Regulatory Challenges of UWB technology

Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology uses pulsed emissions that are of very short duration which result in very wideband low power emission bandwidths that are in the order of GHz. This technology promises to be useful in many civil and military applications such as communication, construction, transportation, public protection and disaster relief. Indeed, the technology can be used to find the location of objects in the ground, through walls, measure levels in a container, or to transfer large amounts of data such as video very rapidly. A quick search on the internet will yield many descriptions of the technology, as well as good historical information on its development.

Industry Standards

The 802.15 group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is currently working on the development of an industry standard that would make use of UWB. Indeed, UWB is the leading technology contender for high-speed, short-range wireless networks in TG 3a, while TG 4a is looking at UWB as a candidate for a potential alternative physical layer to the 802.15.4 standard for low-power, low-data-rate wireless networks.

However, the IEEE standardization efforts have are plagued the inability of the two major competing industry camps, each supporting its own flavour of UWB. Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) and Direct Sequence UltraWideBand (DS-UWB) are both being considered. As regulators usually like to consider technology neutral approaches, the lack of technology standardization at the industry level, makes the regulatory standardization efforts more difficult.

Regulatory Problems

The very nature of UWB emissions, to spread over many frequency bands allocated to radiocommunications services, creates new technical and regulatory challenges when the possible introduction of devices using this technology are considered.

In order to solve this dilemma, Task Group 1/8 of the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) has been working to develop four recommendations in response to Question ITU R 226/1, “Spectrum management framework related to the introduction of ultra-wideband (UWB) devices,” and to Question ITU-R 227/1, “Compatibility between ultra-wideband (UWB) devices and radiocommunication services.”

These recommendations are needed to characterize UWB devices both technically and operationally, to study their compatibility with systems in the allocated services, to prepare a spectrum management framework for the introduction of UWB technologies, and to develop measurement techniques for these emissions. They have been identified as follows:

• ITU-R Recommendation on the characteristics of UWB (ITU-R SM.[UWB.CHAR])

• ITU-R Recommendation(s) addressing the compatibility of systems using UWB technology with systems operating within radiocommunication services (ITU-R SM.[UWB.COMP] and a separate Report on Compatibility Studies)

• ITU-R Recommendation providing guidance to administrations on a spectrum management framework for UWB (ITU-R SM.[UWB.FRAME])

• ITU-R Recommendation on measurement techniques for UWB (ITU-R SM.[UWB.MES])

Each of these five working documents appear on the ITU-R website as annexes to the Chairman’s report of the last meeting of TG 1/8. Tentatively, the work of TG 1/8 was to be completed by the end of 2004; however, due to the volume of contributions and the required work to process this material into quality ITU documents, TG 1/8 as agreed to extend its work into 2005.

The next meeting of TG 1/8 is scheduled for November 2004 in Geneva. In addition to the usual consideration of all input contributions, five correspondence groups tasked to work electronically between meetings will report on their progress. It is expected that this meeting will significantly move the work forward.

Given the importance of this work, the CITEL PCC-II Working Group on Terrestrial Fixed and Mobile Radiocommunication Services has decided to follow the work of TG 1/8 closely as it is relevant to its consideration of low-power devices.

Marc Girouard
Manager, Radio Equipment Standards
Spectrum Engineering Branch
Industry Canada