On the capacity of UWB-based wireless sensor networks

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a promising wireless communications technology and has great potential for emerging applications such as sensor networks. This paper studies the following fundamental problems for UWB-based sensor networks. For a given network instance, what is the maximum data rate (network capacity) that can be received at the base station (i.e., sink node)? What is the network capacity bound among arbitrary network instances? We show that these problems can be cast into a cross-layer formulation with joint consideration of routing, scheduling, power control, and rate assignment. For a given network instance, we find a closed-form network capacity as well as corresponding optimal routing, scheduling, power control, and rate assignment. We also find a network capacity bound among arbitrary network instances. Our results provide fundamental results for UWB-based sensor networks.