Joint communication, ranging, and positioning in low data-rate UWB networks

This work illustrates a possible solution for joint communication, ranging, and positioning for application in UWB sensor networks. The proposed system is based on the adoption of a specifically designed low data-rate (LDR) UWB-tailored MAC, named Uncoordinated, Wireless, Baseborn medium access for UWB communication networks (UWB)2, that performs ranging based on the exchange of control packets. The ranging information provided by the MAC is the input to a distributed positioning protocol. Performance of the proposed solution is evaluated by simulation and measured as the percentage of positioned terminals as well as the percentage of positioning error, for varying network connectivity and ranging accuracy. Results show that the excellent ranging accuracy provided by UWB is an indispensable feature for applications requiring highly accurate positioning. Results also show that good network connectivity is an additional mandatory condition for designing robust location-aware protocols.