Power-aware design of MAC and routing for UWB networks

Ultra wide band (UWB) radio is considered as a valuable candidate for the deployment of large-scale, low data rate networks, thanks to its large bandwidth allowing for a high number of simultaneous communications. The specific characteristics of UWB, such as ranging capability and severe power limitations, call however for innovative solutions not only at the physical layer, but also at MAC and network layers as well. In this paper an integrated strategy for MAC and routing in UWB networks is proposed, which combines the multiple access capabilities and the ranging information provided by this transmission technique. The strategy exploits the distance information for reducing the power emission in the network, leading to a longer network lifetime and low multi user interference (MUI), thanks to the combination of a distance-based routing metric with a location-aware routing protocol, enabled by the adoption of a distributed positioning protocol. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is evaluated by means of simulations.