Study into the potential of UWB applications in the process industry

The advances in mobile technology, such as ultra wideband (UWB), enable the use of advanced applications in the process industry. The main challenge in the first phase of designing UWB networks and applications is getting to know what the process industry, i.e. the potential customer, wants. In this paper we present how we applied a user requirements elicitation process to get information about the expectation from the process industry regarding wireless networks and more specifically ultra wideband. We describe the design process of the balanced decisions that have to be made regarding these elements, i.e. applications as demanded by the process industry, the technology as offered by the ICT industry and the value network that has to guarantee benefits for all involved partners. The outcome of this feasibility study leads to the decision for going on with the next step, i.e. the design and building of an UWB testbed.