UWB (Ultra Wide Band)

The advange of the ultra-wideband technology is the high level of transmission security. The UWB signal is difficult to detect and to locate, because the spectral power density lies beneath the thermal backround noise. This is why the technology is very popular for military purposes. UWB was already used more than 70 years ago for onboard radio on navy ships. 

With a bandwidth of at least 20% of center frequency or at least 500 MHz a very large frequency range (3,1 GHz - 10,6 GHz) is used. This opens up a great number of possible applications.  

Solcon focuses mainly on real-time locating of individuals and objects indoor or in short distances. Often, this kind of localisation is described as precise locating. Examples of use are for purposes of collision prevention or applications for optimizing process safety, availability to increase transparency and loss prevention in manufacturing and intralogistics. 

The UWB locating technology uses a defined sequence of short digital impulses to transmit information. The signal hereby receives the required bandwidth and the transfer is distributed over a large spectral range.

RTLS (Real-Time Locating System)

A Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) locates and tracks individuals or objects normaly inside or in a restricted area outside.  Wireless RTLS tags are attached to objects themselves or the individual's clothing. Fixed reference points receive wireless signals from the tags and are then able to detect the location. Examples of use for RTLS are tracking of vehicles along the production line, pallets localisation in warehouse logistics or locating medical equipment in hospitals.

RTLS technology is based on radio frequence (RF) communication. Solcon uses reliable and secure ultra-wideband technology for its location solutions, which is one kind of RF. Transmitter, router or both together can be used as tags and reference points. This makes a combination of many different technologies possible. Other systems use opticial (infrared communication) or acoustical (ultrasound) technologies additionally or instead of RF. 

Real-time Location Systems are a form of Local Positiong Systems (LPS) and normally have nothing to do with GPS or mobile communication tracking. Typically LPS do not include sensors for speed, directions or spatial orientation detection. Solcon however combines RF technlogy with all those sensors to be able to offer a more reliable locationg solution to its customers. 

Indoor-Locating / Local Positioning System (LPS) using BLE, RFID and Radio Travel-Time Measurement

As opposed to GPS (global positioning system), the LPS describes a locating system for inside use. The space satellites used for GPS hit their limit when it comes to indoor locating. They are replaced with so-called beacons, which operate very similar. Used as receiving stations the beacons can determine the location of individuals or objects within a restricted area. The technologies used for a LPS vary, depending on the requirements and environment.

While the beacon-technology is based on Bluetooth Low Energy, which uses  the Bluetooth technology of smartphones, Solcon’s own Local Positioning System uses radio travel-time measurements and RFID auto-identification to locate and track the location of individuals and objects through certain algorithms. Smartphone-based systems are often used in museums, airports or exhibitions to provide the customers with location-based (and sometimes personalized) information within a 50 meter distance. RFID-based systems are more suitable for logistics and industrial manufacturing using RFID tags to track and locate goods or cargo. In these cases receiver at fixed points within the area determine the position of the objects indirectly, hence this concept is indirect or zone locating. Fields of application are radio-scanner locating, load carrier management or production controlling.