Analysis ofWiMedia-based UWB Mesh Networks

Regarding maximum transmission rates, Ultra Wideband (UWB) seems to be the wireless technology which could successfully replace most of the data-cables in office and home environments: With up to 480 ^Mb/s gross data rate, wireless high-definition video streaming and data synchronization become feasible. Of course, these advantages come at a price: UWB is designed for short-range communication, limited to 10 m. While this suffices for some application, it does not fulfill the vision of ubiquitous wireless access in the fully-connected home. A straightforward solution to increase the network coverage is given by Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). In this paper, we analyze if the combination of UWB and WMN is able to provide the required coverage and the expected data rates. Several different deployment concepts (including ad- hoc networking and dedicated mesh relays) are evaluated with a realistic system model, which is able to compute the resulting network capacity. The results show that under the assumptions of the model, i. e. a MAC which is able to exploit spatial divided frequency reuse, UWB mesh networks are able to provide a stable capacity of more than 100 ^Mb/s in a typical scenario of up to 250 m². Hence, the combination of the two technologies is able to succeed in much more application scenarios in comparison to the current UWB standard.