Apart from the potential benefits that can be expected in a general manner by the use of SDR in the design of UWB
systems in order to reduce the development cycle and timeto-market, we can already identify concrete points of interest in terms of markets.
UWB provides a continuous class of data rates, from several kbps to hundreds of Mbps, easily adapting to the channel
propagation conditions whilst it naturally coexists with preexisting narrow-band systems. Furthermore, the basic UWB
waveform is likely to supply environment sensing characteristics (ranging, band selectivity, …). The coupling between communication and accurate channel measurements makes this technology unique. As a consequence UWB is not considered as a communication solution for a particular market, but for a plurality of markets. Among them we can mention: short-range very high data-rate communication systems including home and office environment as well as network-PC world, sensors networks, positioning systems, personal and local area network links… In addition, applications not yet clearly identified are still susceptible to augment the list.
As UWB aims at answering many needs, it may also be implemented in many flavors. Hence it would naturally gain a great benefit in supporting SDR features, for instance to integrate several systems in one, at the condition of having a common global hardware structure for analog and digital processing. The SDR approach may also be a catalyst for new ideas and applications around UWB, thanks to its intrinsic scalability and mutability properties. At least could it permit to provide systems with adaptability features, in terms of data rate or spreading gain adjustment at run-time, depending on the environment's fluctuations (other users or propagation phenomena).
Another issue pushes towards a wide adoption of SDR in the UWB field. It is a consequence of the IEEE-802.15 UWB standardization process that goes towards several solutions regarding the choice of the modulation. DSCDMA and OFDM are sources of strong oppositions and SDR is foreseen as a solution to accommodate the different proposals [3]. It might not make those different systems compatible, but could at least make them co-exist on the same hardware.
Ad-hoc networking is also considered as one of UWB's great impacts. In this context, UWB systems could be adapted to support some network responsibilities through SDR techniques. Each corresponding configuration could be directly dimensioned depending on the context of ad-hoc networking really needed. This is more flexible than preinstalled
general purpose configurations that are either overdimensioned or too weak.