On the UWB coexistence with UMTS terminals

Ultra wide bandwidth (UWB) spread-spectrum techniques will play a key role in short range wireless connectivity providing high bit rates, low power consumption and location capabilities. UWB can be used in the design of advanced wireless local and personal area networks providing 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 important to ensure not conflicting coexistence and, therefore, to guarantee acceptance of UWB technology worldwide. This paper investigates on the coexistence between an UWB-based system and WCDMA-UMTS terminals. UWB interference on the UMTS terminal is evaluated accounting for the UWB signals characteristics and the UWB network architecture. The dependence of the interference from the UWB signal parameters is analyzed through computer simulation and demonstrates that, in all practical cases, UWB system can coexist with UMTS terminals without causing any dangerous interference.