Impact Of Ultra Wideband (Uwb) Radio Range On Wireless Sensor Networks

An important application of wireless sensor networks is monitoring factory systems and devices. Typical narrowband radios may be forced to increase their radiated power to maintain network connectivity in the harsh radio environment of a factory. I-UWB radios have many advantages over narrowband radios in a sensor network. However, the radiated power of I-UWB radios is severely limited by regulations, so they must extend radio range through other means. We derive the limits of I-UWB radio range through link budget calculations based on the Friis equation in free space for a realistic I-UWB system that includes the effects of data rate, signal-to-noise ratio, antenna gains at the transmitter and the receiver, and the path loss exponent. From the calculations, we obtain some practical relationships between I-UWB system parameters and network connectivity.