Experimental Analysis of UWB in Real-Time Short-Range Industrial Connectivity

Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is emerging as a strong candidate for short-range, time-critical industrial communication, owing to its inherent potential for low-latency and resilient performance. However, while UWB has been widely investigated for high-precision positioning, its suitability for reliable data communication in dense deployments with significant self-interference remains largely uncharacterized. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a comprehensive empirical evaluation of UWB’s feasibility for real-time communication in congested industrial environments. We conduct an extensive measurement campaign focused on round-trip time (RTT) latency and packet-level reliability. The methodology involves a systematic investigation of 32 distinct interference scenarios, varying modulation schemes, packet sizes, frequency gaps, and traffic loads. These tests are complemented by distance and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation analysis and are validated through a dynamic demonstration on a mobile robotic arm. Our results demonstrate that while UWB can achieve sub-millisecond latency with near-zero packet loss under properly managed conditions, its performance can be severely degraded by co-channel interference and spectral overlap. The findings confirm UWB’s significant potential and conclude with critical deployment guidelines, highlighting that robust performance is contingent upon disciplined management of channel occupancy via duty cycle management and strategic frequency allocation to avoid significant spectral overlap.