By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Ultra-wideband (UWB) is possibly the most underrated and underreported RF technology of recent times – in particular since UWB is now poised to deliver a flood of new use case value to enterprise Wi-Fi networks. Pinpoint AP-to-AP positioning, navigation, and sensing are just a few of UWB’s most promising applications. Leading enterprise Wi-Fi vendors Cisco and Juniper already support the new technology, Qorvo says.
Can UWB power the accurate location services that Wi-Fi network vendors have coveted for at least a decade? If you ask Qorvo, the answer is a resounding yes – in fact, it’s already happening. Both Cisco and Juniper now offer Wi-Fi 7 APs with integrated UWB and this is just the beginning. The future looks bright for UWB with practically all enterprise Wi-Fi vendors expected to integrate UWB systems, Qorvo says.
“UWB works exceedingly well in tandem with enterprise Wi-Fi networks – in fact, it’s really the perfect complement. For location, UWB delivers accuracies down to the centimeter level. At the same time, the UWB coverage area is in practice virtually the same as for a Wi-Fi 7 AP. This enables an array of new, high-value enterprise networking use cases,” says Shadi Hawawini, Director of Ecosystem Development at Qorvo. Qorvo released its first fully integrated low-power UWB SoC last month (read more here).
UWB – formerly known as pulse radio – sends out very low-power and very short 500 MHz-wide pulses (in most cases around 8 GHz) to determine location by time-of-flight methods. Because of its wide bandwidth UWB is much more accurate than for example Wi-Fi’s FTM (IEEE 802.11mc) and – remarkably – versions of UWB have been incorporated in the iPhone since iPhone 11 (2019) and Google Pixel since 2021. There’s plenty of momentum behind UWB adoption and for good reason, Qorvo says.
“Hundreds of new user experiences are being enabled right now with UWB. But for enterprise networking we’re talking mostly about AP-to-AP auto-positioning, indoor navigation, asset tracking, and occupancy sensing. For example: Precise AP placements – which are important for accurate, high-performance Wi-Fi network designs – can be achieved using GPS and UWB together,” Shadi Hawawini says.
Meanwhile UWB-based indoor navigation is teeming with use cases ready to be explored, Qorvo says. While GPS is non-existent indoors and Wi-Fi for the most part is not sufficiently accurate, UWB could be the catalyst to finally enable the indoor wayfinding market. “Imagine navigating effortlessly from meeting to meeting at CES or Mobile World Congress, through LAX airport, a giant healthcare facility, or finding the right product on the right shelf within a large retail facility. All of this is now possible with the accuracy afforded by UWB,” he says.
But that’s not all. Real-time asset tracking with 20 cm accuracy allows equipment to be located down to the room level for example in a health facility or UWB tracking can be used to optimise industrial processes, for example in manufacturing. Add to this that UWB power consumption is inherently very low with devices operating for years on coin batteries. “And of course the fastest and most effective way to get UWB out there is to integrate UWB capabilities into enterprise Wi-Fi networks. And that’s exactly what’s happening at warp speed today,” Shadi Hawawini says.
For more about UWB technology and use cases don’t miss Qorvo’s Shadi Hawawini speaking at Wi-Fi World Congress USA 2025 in Mountain View this April 28-30 – for more information click here. For more about Qorvo’s UWB technology read here.
/Claus.
