Ultra wide band communication network

Abstract

An ultra wide band communication network is provided. One embodiment ultra wide band network includes an industry standard transceiver and an ultra wide band transceiver communicating with the industry standard transceiver, with both transceivers communicating using at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame. Another embodiment network comprises an industry standard transceiver and an ultra wide band transceiver, wherein one transceiver is structured and configured to manage data transmission between all of the transceivers, with each of the transceivers having a Medium Access Control Unit including a Physical layer interface. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.

1 . A communication network including an industry standard transceiver, the improvement comprising an ultra wide band transceiver communicating with the industry standard transceiver, with both transceivers communicating using at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame.  
     
     
         2 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the industry standard transceiver is selected from a group consisting of: a Bluetooth standard transceiver, an IEEE 1394 standard transceiver, a Universal Serial Bus standard transceiver, an IEEE 802.3 standard transceiver, a Hyperlan standard transceiver, a Home RF standard transceiver, and an ATM standard network transceiver.  
     
     
         3 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the industry standard transceiver is capable of communicating at a first bit rate and the ultra wide band transceiver is capable of communicating at a second bit rate.  
     
     
         4 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame comprises a start of frame slot and a plurality of data slots.  
     
     
         5 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the communication between transceivers occurs isochronously.  
     
     
         6 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the communication between transceivers occurs asynchronously.  
     
     
         7 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame comprises a contention-based time slot.  
     
     
         8 . The network of  claim 7 , wherein the contention-based time clot is selected from a group consisting of: an ALOHA time slot, a slotted ALOHA time slot, and a carrier sensed time slot.  
     
     
         9 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the ultra wide band transceiver comprises a transmit power control function.  
     
     
         10 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the ultra wide band transceiver is capable of transmitting and receiving using at least two different bit rates.  
     
     
         11 . The network of  claim 1 , wherein the ultra wide band transceiver comprises a Medium Access Controller.  
     
     
         12 . A communication network including at least two industry standard transceivers, the improvement comprising an ultra wide band transceiver communicating with the at least two industry standard transceivers, with all of the transceivers communicating using at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame.  
     
     
         13 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the industry standard transceiver is selected from a group consisting of: a Bluetooth transceiver, an IEEE 1394 standard transceiver, a Universal Serial Bus transceiver, an EEE 802.3 standard transceiver, a Hyperlan standard transceiver, a Home RF standard transceiver, and an ATM standard transceiver.  
     
     
         14 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein one transceiver is a master device and the remaining two transceivers are slave devices, with the master device configured to manage communication between all of the devices.  
     
     
         15 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame comprises a start of frame slot and a plurality of data slots.  
     
     
         16 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the communication between transceivers occurs either isochronously or asynchronously.  
     
     
         17 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the at least one Time Division Multiple Access frame comprises a contention-based time slot.  
     
     
         18 . The network of  claim 17 , wherein the contention-based time clot is selected from a group consisting of: an ALOHA time slot, a slotted ALOHA time slot, and a carrier sensed time slot.  
     
     
         19 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the ultra wide band transceiver comprises a transmit power control function.  
     
     
         20 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the ultra wide band transceiver is capable of transmitting and receiving using at least two different bit rates.  
     
     
         21 . The network of  claim 12 , wherein the ultra wide band transceiver comprises a Medium Access Controller.  
     
     
         22 . A communication network including an industry standard transceiver, the improvement comprising an ultra wide band transceiver, wherein one transceiver is structured and configured to manage data transmission between all of the transceivers, with each of the transceivers having a Medium Access Control Unit including a Physical layer interface, a slot allocation unit, and an interface to at least one higher level protocol.  
     
     
         23 . The communication network of  claim 22 , wherein the at least one higher level protocol is selected from a protocol in an Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model.  
     
     
         24 . An ultra wide band communication method, the method comprising the steps of: 
 generating a first data frame, constructed to transmt data at a first data rate;    generating a second data frame, constructed to transmit data at a second data rate; and    transmitting both the first and second data frames.    
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the first and the second data frames comprise a plurality of time bins, with each time bin capable of receiving an ultra wide band signal.  
     
     
         26 . An ultra wide band communication system, comprising: 
 a first ultra wide band device having a first data bandwidth requirement, and configured to transmit and receive data at different data rates;    a second ultra wide band device having a second data bandwidth requirement, and configured to transmit and receive data at different data rates and configured to communicate with the first ultra wide band device; and    a master transceiver configured to manage data communications between the first ultra wide band device and the second ultra wide band device.    
     
     
         27 . The ultra wide band communication system of  claim 26  wherein the master transceiver is selected from a group consisting of: an ultra wide band transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver; and a transceiver compliant with an IEEE 802.11 standard.  
     
     
         28 . An ultra wide band communication system comprising: 
 a first ultra wide band slave transceiver configured to transmit a plurality of Time Division Multiple Access frames at different data rates;    a second ultra wide band slave transceiver configured to transmit a plurality of Time Division Multiple Access frames at data rates different than the first slave transceiver; and    a master transceiver configured to manage communication between the first ultra wide band slave transceiver and the second ultra wide band slave transceiver.    
     
     
         29 . The ultra wide band communication system of  claim 28 , wherein the master transceiver is selected from a group consisting of: an ultra wide band transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver; and an IEEE 802.11 standard transceiver.