An Overview of the IEEE 802.15.4z Standard and its Comparison to the Existing UWB Standards Petr Sedlacek 1 , Martin Slanina 1 , and Pavel Masek 2 1 Department of Radioelectronics, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic 2 Department of Telecommunications, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic Contact author’s e-mail: sedlacekp@phd.feec.vutbr.cz Abstract—This paper focuses on the new standard of IEEE 802.15.4z, which is seeking to enhance the already existing stan- dards for the Impulse Radio Ultra - Wideband (UWB) technology. We describe the current state in regards of standardization of the UWB technology and also the proposed changes to be made. In the last part, we compare the new enhancements to the existing standards and describe the proposed improvements to be made in ranging capabilities, power consumption and security for both HRP and LRP UWB PHYs while also naming several practical applications where these new enhancements will be used. Keywords—IEEE 802.15.4z; Ultra-Wideband; Positioning; Power consumption I. I NTRODUCTION The UWB standards available so far incorporate the Impulse Radio part mainly for precise indoor tracking, but also for secure access control of vehicles and for the automotive industry in general. However, since the market demand for this kind of technology is on the rise, there is an increasing demand for improved capabilities that the current standards cannot provide. This paves the way for a new standard called IEEE 802.15.4z. In order to introduce this new standard, a new formal organization called the UWB Alliance was formed. This not-for-profit organization consists mostly of UWB sil- icon chip manufacturers such as DecaWave or Ubisense, but also large technology providers like Apple and Samsung and also automotive manufacturers such as Hyundai and Kia. The goal of the alliance is to increase the interoperability of the UWB technology, introduce a more secure ways for access control systems and to open its’ way into the world of smartphones [1]. Several members of this alliance have been working on the new 802.15.4z standard and formed an IEEE 802.15.4 Enhanced Impulse Radio (EIR) Task Group 4z. The group intends to incorporate several improvements on the existing standards, such as higher data throughput, higher security and larger distances between the transceivers. One goal is to also to promote UWB technology to the general public, so it will become as well known as other already existing positioning technologies, like GPS for example. Another goal is to also introduce UWB technology in regions, where it is currently not possible since no regulations enable its operation, such as India for example. Finally, the Alliance aims to ensure interoperability with new and existing Wi - Fi standards, to ensure its members will be able to use the spectrum with no interferences with this technology [1]. The paper is divided in three parts, the first one focuses on a brief overview of the existing standards to give the reader an idea on the state of the art regarding the Ultra - Wideband technology. The second part focuses on description of the new techniques that the standard aims to introduce and the third part compares these new techniques to the already existing ones to give a comment on what to expect from this new standard. II. STATE OF THE ART A. The IEEE 802.15.4a standard In theory, UWB communication has been around for a long time, but there was no ratified standard to ensure its wide adoption across the world. Although a first form of regulation of UWB technology came from the American Fed- eral Communications Commission (FCC) in 2002, there was no standard incorporating it into a network. This regulation simply allowed UWB to communicate in an unlicensed fashion in the given frequency range with a very strict power spectral density of - 41.3 dBm / MHz to ensure that this new technology will not interfere with already existing wireless systems in the given band. In 2007, the IEEE 802.15.4a standard was introduced, which came as an addition to the original IEEE 802.15.4 standard for WPAN networks, introducing the new UWB PHY into the already existing WPAN standard. At that time, it introduced a new way to achieve a power efficient and high data rate enabled communication technology that is also capable of a very precise ranging by utilizing UWB. This marks a first standard for the UWB technology that could pave its way into a worldwide use. This original standard introduced a high rate pulse repetition (HRP) UWB PHY. However, even today there are several countries across the world that severely limit the use of UWB technology, either in the operating frequency or its maximum transmission power [2]. B. Additional standards Two more amendments were made to the original standard of 802.15.4a. The first revision came in 2011 as a new standard called 802.15.4 - 2011. This standard came as an addition to the exiting ones, and the changes here were mainly editorial