Ultra Wideband
Precise, Real-Time Location Technology

Unlike standard RFID and GPS based systems, PLUS’s powerful ultra wideband (UWB) radio sensors go beyond the limits of traditional technologies. Using short pulses of energy, moving at the speed of light, the result is more precise, real-time data of how people and objects are moving within a space.

Benefits of Ultra Wideband for RTLS

Conventional RF systems can all be thought of as narrowband when compared with UWB, even though in practice their bandwidth varies. The common feature of narrowband systems is that they transmit a long train of RF waves. UWB is different because it transmits short pulses of RF. Transmitting short pulses gives UWB the following advantages over conventional RF:

• Very precise range measurement for tracking systems. It's simply easier to measure accurately when using a fine measurement scale - how can you measure the width of a human hair with a yardstick? UWB can measure ranges to within a few inches as opposed to several feet for a narrowband system.
• Excellent performance in very difficult RF environments. A difficult RF environment is one which is very reflective, like inside a building, factory, ship etc. When signals bounce around, they can overlap and cancel each other, or at the very least confuse a tracking system trying to time the arrival of signals. Very short pulses rarely overlap, making the task of maintaining excellent performance in highly reflective RF environments a key UWB feature.
• The ability to track very large numbers of tags. Short pulses simply don't take very long to transmit, meaning that many of them can be on the air at the same time without colliding. This translate into an ability to keep track of thousands of tags per second when using UWB.