Coexistence and interworking between UMTS and UWB: a performance evaluation of a UMTS/UWB interoperability platform

Ultra wideband (UWB) radio technology is nowadays one of the most promising technologies for medium-short range communications. It has a wide range of applications including high data rate systems and low data rate systems with location and tracking. The interoperation of UWB with Wide Area Networks (WAN) technologies is very interesting in order to extend the scope of UWB applications, but harmless coexistence between them must be assured. Extensive research is being focused to the development of efficient mitigation techniques and the collaboration between both radio services is an interesting solution when UWB is collocated in the same device with other radio technology. In this paper a UMTS/UWB interworking platform is presented, which allows remote monitoring of a UWB body area network for medical applications. The coexistence between UMTS and UWB is evaluated and cooperative mitigation techniques are proposed and implemented in the platform.