Ultra Wideband Communications Lab

The Ultra Wideband Communications Lab has been recently set up in Virginia Tech. The aim of this laboratory is to conduct measurements and promote research in the field of UWB. A major thrust to the lab has been the DARPA - NETEX project awarded to Virginia Tech.

Ultra Wideband (UWB) is a relatively new technology in the field of communications. By definition , any transmission in which the occupied bandwidth is 25% of the carrier frequency is termed as Ultra Wideband. Ultra wideband has also been referred to as a "carrier free" or "baseband" technology as the pulses are sent withouht any modulation to a carrier frequency.

Ultra Wideband has some unique advantages as compared to the traditional narrowband systems.

Due to the short duration of the pulses, UWB can be used for precise positioning and tracking of devices.
The received pulses are relatively immune to the multipath effects that narrowband systems suffer from.
The signals are extremely covert and this technology can be used in battle field communication.

We, at Virginia Tech. are currently conducting measurements for ultra wideband systems and are also involved in various simulations on Ultra Wideband dealing with issues in antenna characterization, improvement of range of UWB systems, modulation and coding techniques, improvement of spectral efficiency of UWB systems, MAC layer protocols over a UWB system.