On the interference between UMTS and UWB systems

Ultra wide bandwidth (UWB) spread-spectrum techniques will play a key role in short range wireless connectivity supporting high bit rates availability, low power consumption and location capabilities. UWB can be used in the design of wireless local and personal area networks providing advanced integrated multimedia services to nomadic users within hot-spot areas. Due to the very large UWB signal bandwidth, the assessment of the possible interference caused by UWB devices on already existing narrowband systems is fundamental to ensure not conflicting coexistence and, therefore, to guarantee acceptance of UWB technology worldwide. In this paper we study the coexistence issues between an UWB-based system and an UMTS terminal. We consider a realistic UWB master/slave system architecture and through computer simulation we show that in all practical cases UWB system can coexist with UMTS terminal without causing any dangerous interference.