Curated from Latest from TechRadar US in News,opinion — Here’s what matters right now:
Wireless innovation has shaped our digital world. From Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to Z-Wave and Thread, we’ve watched protocols emerge to solve distinct connectivity problems. Now, a new technology is stepping in not to connect devices, but to give them spatial intelligence. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is quietly transforming how devices understand and interact with their environment. It’s not as flashy as 5G or as familiar as Wi-Fi, but its impact on secure access, real-time location tracking, and automation is profound and increasingly relevant for businesses. What Is Ultra-Wideband? UWB is a short-range, low-power wireless protocol that transmits data through very short pulses over a wide frequency band, typically 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. Its defining feature is time-of-flight (ToF) measurement, enabling devices to calculate exact distance and direction between each other with centimeter-level accuracy. Where Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can tell you a device is nearby, UWB can tell you exactly where it is, how far away, and which direction it’s moving in real time. RTLS 2.0: Why UWB Is a Breakthrough Having spent years building and enabling Wi-Fi and BLE solutions used in enterprise RTLS deployments, I’ve seen some of their limitations first-hand. These technologies suffer from environmental noise, RF interference, signal distortion from multipath effects, meter-level error margins, and degraded performance in dense or metallic environments. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) solves these challenges by using precise time-of-flight (ToF) measurements rather than signal strength. This enables centimeter-level positioning accuracy (typically less than 30 cm), low-latency updates suitable for real-time automation, high reliability in cluttered or reflective environments, and energy efficiency suitable for mobile tags and long-duration deployments. Why UWB Matters: Strategic Pilots Point to Real Business Impact Across sectors, a growing number of businesses are no longer just testing UWB; they’re piloting solutions that point to long-term competitive advantage. In corporate campuses, UWB is enabling frictionless, intent-based access control that adapts to hybrid work models and improves security posture. In healthcare, hospitals are trialing UWB for staff duress alerts, equipment tracking, and patient flow management, solving problems that legacy RTLS couldn’t address with precision. In manufacturing and logistics, early adopters like Siemens and Zebra are leveraging UWB not just for asset tracking but as a foundation for digital twins and automation triggers. With enterprise infrastructure now supporting UWB through access points from Cisco and Juniper, businesses can deploy it as part of existing network upgrades. Emerging standards like Aliro, FiRa, and the Car Connectivity Consortium are reducing fragmentation, ensuring that today’s pilots evolve into interoperable, scalable deployments. These pilots aren’t just proving technical feasibility; they’re defining how UWB will power the next
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Original reporting: Latest from TechRadar US in News,opinion