SPP 1202:  Ultra-Wideband Radio Technologies for Communications, Localisation and Sensor Applications (UkoLoS)

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2006 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 13758399

Ultra wideband (UWB) radio systems basically use the whole frequency range from about 100 MHz to beyond 10 GHz. As a result, the absolute as well as the fractional bandwidth are very large. The large absolute bandwidth allows high temporal and spatial resolution of sensors and localisation systems without range ambiguities. Because of the low frequencies included in the UWB spectrum, penetration into and through non-metallic objects becomes feasible.
For application in wireless communications, UWB has the flavour of a flexible, deregulated overlay system, which allows transmission of high data rates over short distances. Alternatively, energy efficient transmission of low data rates becomes feasible. Very low spectral power density and high correlation gain are essential for coexistence of UWB systems with established narrowband systems. Solving the coexistence problem will be of primary importance for the technical and commercial success of UWB systems.
For sensor, navigation and localisation application, UWB offers unprecedented high range resolution in short range and indoor environments. There is a vast variety of applications in view including robust terminal localisation in rich multipath environment, wall penetration radar for civil engineering, imaging for biomedical applications, identification and imaging of objects and environments for security applications by distributed UWB sensor networks, etc. In contrast to conventional narrowband solutions, UWB sensors can obtain much more information about material properties and structures of scanned media or bodies.
Because of the very large bandwidth, UWB technology makes completely new requirements to system concepts, RF circuit and component design, signal processing, parameter estimation, and physical interpretation of measurement results. In general, UWB requires a change of paradigm from narrowband to wideband principles. By joint UWB research in the areas of communications, localisation and sensors, remarkable synergy effects and technological development can be expected. The Priority Programme UkoLoS supports interdisciplinary projects towards a nationwide network of UWB research activities in Germany and fosters participation in international research networks in the same field.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Canada

Projects

• 60 GHz UWB transmission with blind and semiblind channel estimation affected by low ADC resolution and imperfect synchronisation (Applicant Fettweis, Gerhard P. )
• Antennas and Propagation for On-, Off- and In-Body Communications based on UWB (Ultra WideBand) technology (Applicant Manteuffel, Dirk )
• Coding, Modulation and Detection for Power-Efficient Low-Complexity Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband Transmissions Systems (CoMoDe IR-UWB) (Applicant Fischer, Robert )
• Components and Concepts for low-power mm-wave pulsed angle modulated ultra wideband (UWB) communication and ranging (Applicants Vossiek, Martin ;  Weigel, Robert )
• Cooperative Localisation and Object Recognition in Autonomous UWB Sensor Networks (CoLOR) (Applicants Thielecke, Jörn ;  Thomä, Reiner ;  Wiesbeck, Werner ;  Willms, Ingolf )
• Design of Power Aware Scheduling schemes for Low Power and Low Data Rate Ultra-Wideband Networks (Applicant Jobmann, Klaus )
• Development and evaluation of low complexity physical layer concepts for energy efficient UWB communications (Applicant Wolf, Mike )
• Erweiterter Fußgängerschutz durch breitbandige automotive Radarsysteme (ESPURS) (Applicant Rohling, Hermann )
• High-performance UWB systems for biomedical diagnostics and short-range communications (Applicants Lindner, Jürgen ;  Menzel, Wolfgang ;  Schumacher, Hermann )
• Information Fusion for Wireless Sensor Networks with Integrated UWB Communication and Radar Capabilities (UWB-InFuCoRa) (Applicant Mathar, Rudolf )
• Infrastructure-Aided Localisation with UWB Antenna Arrays (Applicants Kaiser, Thomas ;  Solbach, Klaus ;  Wiesbeck, Werner )
• Intra-corporal localization and communications using UWB (Applicants Lindner, Jürgen ;  Menzel, Wolfgang ;  Schumacher, Hermann )
• Non-contacting characterisation of the dielectric properties of objects of irregular shape (Applicant Knöchel, Reinhard )
• Physical layer optimisation for the multiband impulse radio UWB architecture (MIRA) (Applicants Finger, Adolf ;  Jondral, Friedrich K. )
• Power, Rate and Location Control for Multi-User Ultra-Wideband Communication (Multi-User UWB Communication) (Applicant Mathar, Rudolf )
• Real-World Design of a cognitive MIMO-UWB Communication System (Applicants Blume, Holger ;  Kaiser, Thomas ;  Zwick, Thomas )
• RF-Hardware Components for UWB Localization and Sensing: System architectures and circuit techniques for integrated UWB-RF-transceivers (Applicants Heinen, Stefan ;  Kraemer, Rolf ;  Sachs, Jürgen ;  Weigel, Robert )
• Strategies for highly efficient UWB impulse radio systems architectures (Applicants Boche, Holger ;  Wiesbeck, Werner )
• Ultra-Wideband medical sensor systems (Applicants Hein, Matthias ;  Hilger, Ingrid ;  Sachs, Jürgen ;  Seifert, Frank )
• UWB for Wireless Sensor Networks: Cross-Layer Optimization (UWB4WSN) (Applicant Jorswieck, Eduard Axel )
• UWB Nahbereichskommunikation - insbesondere Chip-to-Chip und On-Chip Kommunikation (Applicants Noll, Tobias G. ;  Nossek, Josef A. ;  Russer, Peter )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Reiner Thomä