Walter

Ultra Wide Band (UWB) is an emerging technology for the broadband transmission of data using spectrum efficient and flexible radio techniques. Initiatives such as the WiMedia Alliance have developed concepts to use UWB as a standard radio platform allowing transport of upper level protocols such as the wireless USB (WUSB), wireless Firewire and the next generation of Bluetooth.

Even if the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is producing harmonised standards to foster UWB adoption in Europe, Europe is still late compared to USA and others. To pursue the needed European standardisation and regulation efforts, while reinforcing the European leadership in the field of wireless networks, a new range of UWB testbeds has to be developed.

The testbed will make use of the strong European expertise in conformance and interoperability testing. Based on a comprehensive analysis of requirements and precise specifications definitions, it will be flexible enough to address both short-term needs (industry and regulators) and long-term needs (research communities). The testing of mitigation techniques is of particular importance.

A number of international experts in the UltraWideBand field have been invited to participate to this workshop, to encourage bi-directional communication: in one direction to disseminate the information on WALTER project and its activities, in the other direction to collect the input and feedback on the regulatory and standardization work, industrial activity and research studies..
The list of participants in the WALTER project included the following categories:

• Professionals specialised in UWB regulatory, at an European, American and Asian level ;
• Professionals contributing to other UWB FP projects like PULSERS, EUWB or UCELLS ;
• Members of standardisation organizations (WiMedia, ETSI, AT4Wireless) ;
• Academics specialised in UWB research. The following research areas were included: UWB signals interferences on Satellite DTV and GPS receivers (NIST), UWB propagation through antennas (University of Karlsruhe), or localisation in UWB communication systems (UPC and CTTC);
• Vendors of test equipments (Agilent, Rohde-Schwarz, Tektronix).

Round tables took also place, in order to discuss about UWB test measurements challenges, Regulatory and SDO requirements, or the future development of UWB (like 60Ghz and DAA). WALTER participants had also the opportunity to visit the anechoic chamber of the Joint Research Center (where the meeting occurred), which is one of the largest in Europe.

“This workshop was a real opportunity for the project WALTER because it allowed us to clearly understand the wireless researches, innovations and main issues currently occurring. It is a real success, and we want to thank the Joint Research Center for organizing such an event, and all persons who came for pushing forwards the work on the UWB thematic” said Franck Le Gall, from inno AG, coordinator of the WALTER project..