Introduction
The ATA8352 device is a low-power Ultra-Wideband (UWB) transceiver with an integrated security layer for secure distance bounding and point-to-point data communication. The ATA8352 Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) Transceiver Data Sheet (DS70005450) and ATA8352 Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) Transceiver User's Guide (DS50003125) describe this distance bounding application using the Verifier and the Prover modes and the data communication with the RX and TX modes.
This application note describes the Time-Difference-of-Arrival (TDoA) mode of the ATA8352 device using the RX and TX modes for distance measurements and localization applications. During the TDoA mode operation, timestamps are captured when data telegrams are transmitted or received. For more details on the TDoA handling, refer to the ATA8352 Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) Transceiver User's Guide (DS50003125). A TDoA demo application software to demonstrate the timestamp capturing is available for the UWB demo kit. Additionally, a Double-Sided Two-Way-Ranging (DS-TWR) application software is available to measure distances between the two demo kit nodes. At the Anchor node, the UWB node can act as a TDoA receiver or responder of the DS-TWR measurement. At the Tag node, the UWB node can act as a TDoA transmitter or initiator of the DS-TWR.
The distance measurement using the TDoA mode differs from the verifier and prover operation of the device, as
- The TDoA mode uses RX and TX modes, which do not use scrambled payload and, therefore, do not have the physical layer security as given by the VRs/VRso/PRs/PRso verifier and prover modes. For more details about physical layer security and payload scrambling, refer to the ATA8352 Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) Transceiver User's Guide (DS50003125). Nevertheless, the host controller can encrypt the payload data to achieve security at the data layer.
- The application software running on the host controller controls the TDoA mode, and the UWB device controls the ranging operation in hardware while in Verifier and Prover mode.