What Is Ultra-Wideband? Pairing Construction Inventory Management with Pinpoint Tracking

If you have a smartphone—which is likely, reportedly as high as 81% of Americans as of 2019—there’s a good chance it’s an Apple iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy, as these two brands led market share of smartphones by 49% and 20%, respectively, in Q4 of 2019. It’s also likely that you’ve heard the term ‘ultra-wideband’ thrown around by both brands.

But what is Ultra-wideband? It’s not just fancy smartphone tech—it has real potential for the construction industry, for connected tools and devices, as well as for vastly improved tool tracking and security capacities.

With this in mind, we’ll break this article into two parts:

First, we’re going to unpack a few things for you about what ultra-wideband is:
• What it is, how it works, as well as its major features
• How is it typically used: Where it fits into different market sectors

Second, we’ll unpack the significance ultra-wideband has for the construction industry as well as its possible applications for location finding and security, with special attention on how it differentiates itself from current offerings in the market: Barcoding/equipment tagging, Bluetooth®, and GPS tool tracking.

Let’s get started!

What Is Ultra-Wideband (UWB)? UWB Definition and Features
Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a wireless technology for transferring data that spreads radio energy over a very wide frequency band, with a very low power spectral density. As its name suggests, it uses a wide spectrum of several gigahertz (GHz). UWB is also characterized by high bandwidth, and very high data throughput.

Fast facts
• Introduced in 2002
• Uses radio waves
• Operates at very high frequency
• Provides high-bandwidth communications over a large portion of the radio spectrum
• Range of 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz
• Traditionally used in radar imaging
• Interest in UWB declined in favor of Wi-Fi and 60 GHz network protocols

Whether you know the exact physics involved, we all have likely experienced the woes of traditional radio systems firsthand. That’s because these systems are susceptible to electromagnetic interference—unwanted radio frequency signals that disrupt and negatively impact your signal. Ever experience echoing and fuzziness on phone calls? This interference is the downfall of traditional radio systems, and what causes degraded sound or picture quality in your TV, radio, or cordless telephone or mobile device.

With UWB, this interference is greatly reduced, compliments of compliments of the extremely wide bandwidth and low power spectral density.

Benefits of ultra-wideband
• Very low power technology means ability to penetrate through traditional radio interference
• Ability to coexist with current narrow-band and wide-band radio services
• Low probability of interception and Man in the Middle attacks
• High bandwidth capable of supporting real-time, high-definition video streaming
• Ability to perform with great strength in noisy, hostile, and adverse conditions

UWB communications systems are inherently immune to detection and interception. Low transmission power means eavesdroppers would have to be extremely close to the transmitter (in the proximity of 1 meter) to be able to detect the transmitted information. This—coupled with the fact that UWB pulses are time-modulated with codes that are specific to each transmitter/receiver pair—makes UWB transmission promisingly secure, such that possible applications include military operations, those requiring the highest degree of security.

How Does Ultra-Wideband Work?
Previously known as “pulse radio,” a UWB transmitter sends billions of pulses across the wide spectrum frequency. A corresponding receiver then translates the pulses into data by listening for a familiar pulse sequence sent by the transmitter.

Pulses are sent about once every two nanoseconds. This helps UWB to achieve real-time accuracy.
In short, Ultra-Wideband is intended to transmit vast amounts of data over a short distance without using too much power.
Ultra-Wideband Uses
There are three main applications of ultra-wide band:
1. Seamless access control
2. Location-based services
3. Device-to-Device (Peer-to-Peer) services

Let’s unpack each of these a little more.

Seamless Access Control
This is a great option for streamlining while increasing security at access points of buildings. UWB can identify an individual’s approach toward or away from a secured entrance, verify security credentials, and let the authorized individual pass through the entrance without physically presenting the credential.

The automotive industry has also started incorporating UWB in their key FOBs to determine your proximity to your car, helping to determine things like whether you are in or out of the car and when to unlock the doors as you approach. The possibilities for this technology are exciting!

Location-Based Services
UWB delivers highly precise positioning, even in congested multipath signal environments.

Location-based services have a wide variety of applications:
• People easily navigating large venues, like airports or shopping malls, or find their car in a multi-story parking garage
• Digital marketing agencies running targeted campaigns and generate foot traffic data
• Retailers offering personalized deals
• Government agencies tailoring notifications
• Entertainment venues personalizing recommendations during events

Device-to-Device (Peer-to-Peer) Services
Device-to-Device, or you might think of it as Peer-to-Peer, is a great way to locate individuals: friends, loved ones. Providing precise relative distance and direction between two devices, like yours and a loved one’s smartphone, UWB allows for relative location finding of each other without infrastructures such as anchors and access points. This would allow you to easily find each other in crowded spaces or finding misplaced items. It would also come in handy for picking out where your friends are in a sea of people at Summerfest, at crowded clubs, and the like.

What Is Ultra-Wideband Transmission Technology Primarily Used For? What Industries Use It?
While primarily used in radar imaging in the past, as previously discussed, the ultra-wideband market has grown tremendously over the years and there are plenty of both civilian and non-civilian applications.

Military Operations
Since its infancy, ultra-wideband has been explored in military applications due to its resistance to interference, its scalability, and durability through harsh conditions and environments.

Consumer Electronics
As we discussed earlier, we’ve seen it find its way into the iPhone 11 as well as brands like Samsung and Sony involved in UWB projects. devices. In fact, as the first manufacturer to integrate ultra-wideband in a smartphone, Apple’s ultra-wideband chip, appropriately named U1, is a big deal, a location chip designed with special awareness in mind.

To put this into context of one of the above-mentioned ultra-wideband uses, let’s take the Peer-to-Peer example I’ve alluded to and apply it to Apple’s AirDrop Bluetooth filesharing application. Previous iterations of AirDrop have been hit-or-miss. How many times have you have accidentally sent a file to the wrong “nearby device,” to much embarrassment and shame? Well, with the pinpoint accuracy of ultra-wideband, if you were hanging out with friend in a public place, and they asked you to AirDrop them something, you’d be able to simply point in the direction of their phone and, like a laser beam locking onto a target, AirDrop your file with renewed confidence.

IoT devices
UWB’s capacity for transferring lots of data quickly, its high degree of security, and its wide range (which makes it suitable for multiple applications) makes it a natural a natural contender for the Internet of Things (IoT). One small caveat—its short range—can be remedied through antenna design.

Automotive
As mentioned above, UWB shows real promise in the automotive industry, particularly in key FOB design, where it can be used to more accurately predict proximity and the overall efficacy of these devices. In fact, automotive heavy-hitters like VW have already announced their intended use case of this exciting technology.

Ultra-Wideband: A Short Review
Okay, before we jump into the second part of this article let’s recap on ultra-wideband and its place in the mainstream:
• Ultra-wideband is a wireless technology for the transferring data that spreads radio energy over a very wide frequency band.
• Three main ultra-wideband uses:
o Seamless access control
o Location-based services
o Device-to-Device (Peer-to-Peer) Services
• Has found its way into multiple segments:
o Military operations
o Consumer electronics—including Apple’s U1 chip for pinpoint “Find My” item locating technology.
o IoT devices
o Automotive in key FOB design

What Applications Does Ultra-Wideband Have for Construction?
Now that we have an understanding of what ultra-wideband is, you’re probably wondering how it falls into our industry.

The construction space has two exceptional ultra-wideband uses:
1. Location finding
2. Security

Location Finding
This is where tool tracking comes into play. Ultra-Wideband has real potential in the asset locating.

Considering that large contractors can face upwards of $1.2+ million for replacement tools and lost productivity in a year, a robust tool tracking system is key to staying profitable.

As an inventory or tool managers, you likely turn to a few methods to keep track of your tools and equipment, and none of them are without their faults:
• Barcoding, also known as equipment tagging, is a simple, cost-effective way to keep tabs on a wide variety of tools and equipment. The downside, you only get visibility each time they’re scanned in. Are your guys remembering to scan in their stuff when it gets to or returns from the jobsite? Hopefully! But you don’t have real-time tracking capabilities.
• GPS Trackers. We all know about GPS. Everybody uses GPS to reliably get from point a to point B, but there are also plenty of downfalls to GPS… like when you can’t get a signal. Disadvantages to GPS for tool tracking:
o GPS is great, when it’s great… Like I just alluded to, GPS requires establishing a satellite connection. When you’re unable to establish a connection, like when you’re out in the boonies, well, then, you’re out of luck. In the construction industry in particular, where jobsites are oftentimes off the beaten path, this becomes increasingly problematic.
o GPS can be costly. Think about the expense involved in equipping your entire inventory. Then, what if a unit gets stolen? That’s why GPS makes the most sense for higher-ticket items. Bluetooth vs GPS for tool tracking (which we’ll touch on below), however, certainly makes sense in other instances, like where cost is a factor, and in remote, construction site settings where creating a mesh network among onsite crew may be more feasible.
o GPS draws on a lot of battery. Like I said above, GPS requires making a connection with a satellite… in space! That’s a lot of atmosphere to cover, and naturally that causes it to use a lot of your mobile device’s battery. I remember, the last time I got lost in the backroads on my motorcycle, and had forgotten to bring my phone charger—I had to secure my phone into my handlebar mount and pray like hell my battery wouldn’t die before I reached familiar ground. Now, think about relying on that kind of power-consumption for a day’s work on the job. That’s a fatal combination.
o Bluetooth Trackers: Bluetooth trackers like the TICK™, as well as connected smart tools and equipment that are engineered to have compatibility in Bluetooth tool tracking systems like the One-Key inventory app, draw on your mobile device’s Bluetooth connection and require your enabled tools or TICK’d items to come within 100-ft of a device that has the app installed to generate a location update. Tracking your tools with Bluetooth offers far more visibility to the whereabouts of your equipment, providing far more location updates than a manually scanned barcode, especially when backed by an industry-leading tracking network. However, the biggest gripe we, and anyone in Bluetooth tracking for that matter, get is it lacks the real-time data and precision locating capabilities of GPS. The Bluetooth tracking tag landscape has grown to address some these gripes, with high-tech features like NFC and accelerometers, as well as more robust tracking functionality (e.g., a greater 300-ft range, built-in speaker for easier finding when item visibility is an issue, and in-app software features like “Find Item” (similar to Apple’s “Find My”), a detailed location history to contextualize equipment whereabouts, and “tool kitting,” to troubleshoot in-the-vicinity item locating and smooth out multi-site tool transfers.

Here’s where Ultrawide-Band comes in.

The Case for Ultra-Wideband for Tool and Equipment Tracking
The biggest attraction to GPS for inventory tracking is its accuracy. Its biggest downsides: its exceeding expense and its excessive battery consumption.
Ultra-wideband distinguishes itself from GPS because it is able to transfer great volumes of data, with lightning speed, while also being low power. It’s also able to perform with exceptional accuracy in the harshest environments. Enter: the jobsite.
Just as short-range Bluetooth low energy (BLE) works well for jobsites that are off the beaten path, ultra-wideband’s range is short. This range and reception can be improved with multiple UWB receivers throughout building sites, precisely tracking tool movement down to the centimeter level. UWB tags could be embedded on a tool to track it at a jobsite.

Security
If we consider again the security checkpoints that ultra-wideband delivers in commercial buildings, to verify security credentials, this same principle could be applied across your operations—from entering your headquarters to checking in and out tools from the crib or tool room.

Its resistance to interception also helps inhibit attackers from trying to snoop in on what’s happening across your systems.

This kind of security, when coupled with embedded smart tool security, brings new meaning to the term 2-factor-authentication (2FA).
Ultra-Wideband Technology: Creating a Wireless, Yet Fully Connected World for Construction

While it’s not necessarily the new kid on the block, ultra-wideband is finally finding its way into smartphones, and for good reason—its pinpoint accuracy and security features lend itself to many industries, from military ops to digital marketing campaigns to, yes, construction project management.

With so many possibilities for utilization, I expect ultra-wideband to enter the construction sphere in the coming years.

About the Authors
Johnny Lienau is an electrical engineer with extensive experience and expertise in wireless technology. Previously, he worked at Laird Connectivity, designing everything from smart watches to wireless pacemakers. He also recently has been employed at Harley-Davidson, where he was responsible for rider wireless headsets, updates to their infotainment system for 2018 and 2019 motorcycles, and helped design the H-D Connect platform currently deployed on their electric motorcycle. Currently serving as Engineering Manager for Milwaukee Tool, he works closely with the One-Key team designing compatible devices.

Lucas Marshall serves as a Content Marketing Manager for Milwaukee® Tool, where he and his team are responsible for raising awareness about the company’s SaaS platform, ONE-KEY™, and educating its users on inventory best practices through how-to articles, tutorial videos, interactive training materials, and more.