Personal Telco Monthly Meeting for March 31st 2004

When and Where

Urban Grind Coffee 2214 NE Oregon St. (take 22nd Ave. 2 blocks North of Sandy Blvd.)

Wednesday, March 31st, 6pm-9pm

Agenda

Speaker

Bio

Nathaniel J. August is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree at Virginia Tech as a Bradley Fellow and a Cunningham Fellow. Previously, he worked as a validation engineer for Intel Corporation in Portland, OR and Sacramento, CA on pre-silicon validation of gigabit Ethernet adapters and post-silicon validation of PCI chipsets. His current research interests include low power VLSI design and ultra wideband (UWB) networks, systems, and hardware. The UWB systems will be used in applications such as wireless personal area networks (WPANs), radio frequency identification (RFID), and wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Most of Nathaniel’s research has been documented in IEEE conference and journal papers, and he is currently contributing to the first academic book on UWB communications, An Introduction to Ultra Wideband Communications, due out in July from Prentice-Hall. He currently lives and works in Portland to be close to his girlfriend – plus it’s a lot more fun here.

Abstract

Although ultra wideband (UWB) was one of the first forms of wireless communication, it has historically received little attention outside of the military. Recently, interest in UWB has exploded with the FCC's allocation of spectrum in February of 2002. Compared with traditional narrowband communication systems, UWB has several advantages such as high data rate, low radiated power, and simple RF circuits. Further, unlike narrowband systems, UWB has both communications and radar capabilities. Many of these potential advantages are a direct consequence of UWB's large instantaneous bandwidth, which is on the order of several GHz. The unique characteristics of UWB offer a variety of applications such as wireless home networking, sensor network communications, through-the-walls sensing, ground penetrating radar, medical imaging, precise asset location for inventory tracking, collision avoidance systems for automobiles, surveillance, and planetary exploration. It is expected that this technology will be the next driving force in the continuing wireless communications revolution. The presentation will cover the basics of UWB communications as well as applications, industry activity, and standardization.

Agenda Items

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