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Recently, with the release of Apple AirTag, a new round of attention has been raised in the market for UWB technology. In fact, as early as the release of iPhone 11, Apple announced that all mobile phones would be equipped with U1 chips that support UWB technology.
Apple has said that the U1 chip will significantly enhance the spatial awareness capabilities of the iPhone. Through the Airdrop application, Apple also demonstrated fast file sharing based on UWB technology.
With this release, let us take a fresh look at UWB technology.
Choice of positioning technology
Speaking of positioning, I believe everyone is familiar with it. We often use apps such as Baidu Maps, which have positioning and navigation services.
Positioning services help us understand location information, indicate directions, increase our sense of security and control, and bring great convenience to our work and life.
So, what is the difference between UWB technology and the positioning technology we commonly use now?
The positioning technology we most commonly use now is satellite positioning .
Satellite positioning is a technology that uses artificial satellites to measure points. Its characteristics are very obvious, that is, high accuracy, high speed and low cost.
The well-known GPS and Beidou belong to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which can provide satellite positioning services. (Extended reading: What is the GNSS technology behind Beidou?)
In order to better eliminate errors and improve response speed, GNSS will introduce some space-based or land-based auxiliary means. GNSS combined with auxiliary means is also called A-GNSS. A stands for Assisted.
A-GNSS, which is more commonly used now, transmits enhanced correction data through land-based mobile communication networks, provides auxiliary information, strengthens and accelerates the search and tracking performance and speed of satellite navigation signals, shortens positioning time, and improves positioning accuracy.
A-GNSS System Architecture
Both GNSS and A-GNSS have an obvious disadvantage, which is that they cannot achieve indoor positioning . The reason is obvious: satellite signals will be blocked by buildings.
However, with the development of the times, the business scenarios of indoor positioning are increasing, and users have a stronger demand for indoor positioning, such as navigating in underground garages, finding stores or companions in shopping malls, and even finding lost children.
Therefore, some people began to try to use various short-range communication technologies to develop high-precision indoor positioning systems to meet user needs and make a little money. The available technologies include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB, etc.
Everyone is familiar with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. What is UWB?
UWB, which stands for Ultra Wideband, is derived from the pulse communication technology that emerged in the 1960s.
Students who are familiar with communications know that general communication systems use a high-frequency carrier to modulate a narrowband signal, and the actual bandwidth occupied by the communication signal is not high.
UWB is different from traditional communication technology. It realizes wireless transmission by sending and receiving extremely narrow pulses with a duration of nanoseconds or microseconds. Since the pulse time width is extremely short, ultra-wideband spectrum can be achieved: the bandwidth used is above 500MHz.
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has allocated a total of 7.5 GHz frequency band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz for UWB, and has also imposed stricter restrictions on its radiation power than FCC Part 15.209, limiting it to the -41.3dBm frequency band.
In short, this technology achieves fast data transmission at low power consumption levels through ultra-large bandwidth and low transmission power.
Since the time width of UWB pulses is extremely short, high-precision timing can also be used to measure distance.
That’s all I’m going to share with you here. If you want to know more, please click “ Read Original Text” .
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