Use of ranging technology for ultra-wideband communications in millimeter wave communication systems

Abstract

A base station includes a millimeter wave communication unit coupled to an impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR‑UWB) communication unit. The millimeter wave communication unit is capable of wirelessly coupling to a user device using a millimeter wave communication link. Based on determining whether the user device is configured for IR‑UWB ranging and positioning, an IR‑UWB communication link is established between the base station and the user device for IR‑UWB ranging and positioning. When the IR‑UWB communication link is established for IR‑UWB ranging and positioning, the ranging and positioning associated with the millimeter wave communication unit are deactivated and the millimeter wave communication link is used for data communication that maximizes throughput by utilizing positioning and ranging information provided by the IR‑UWB communication link.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the use of ranging technology for ultra-wideband communication in a millimeter wave communication system. Background Art

[0002] Millimeter wave wireless communication systems typically spend a relatively large amount of time and transmit power performing ranging and positioning operations for wireless devices connected to the millimeter wave communication system. Having the millimeter wave communication system allocate a large amount of time on ranging and positioning, rather than on data transmission, can hinder the millimeter wave communication system's ability to maximize the throughput of user data. Therefore, there is a need to provide a millimeter wave communication system with improved data bandwidth capabilities. Summary of the invention

[0003] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transceiver, comprising:

[0004] a millimeter wave communication unit; and

[0005] An impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) communication unit is coupled to the millimeter wave communication unit, wherein based on the initiation of the IR-UWB ranging and positioning capabilities of the transceiver, the transceiver utilizes the IR-UWB communication unit for ranging and positioning and utilizes the millimeter wave communication unit for data transmission.

[0006] In one or more embodiments, the IR-UWB communication unit is configured to perform ranging and positioning via an IR-UWB communication link and the millimeter wave communication unit is configured to perform data transmission via a millimeter wave communication link.

[0007] In one or more embodiments, ranging and positioning capabilities associated with the millimeter wave communication link are deactivated when the IR-UWB communication link for ranging and positioning is established.

[0008] In one or more embodiments, the IR-UWB communication link is used to measure the time of flight (ToF) of communication signals transmitted and received back by the transceiver.

[0009] In one or more embodiments, the IR-UWB communication link is used to measure the angle of arrival of the communication signal received by the transceiver.

[0010] In one or more embodiments, the IR-UWB communication link is used to measure a time difference of arrival of communication signals received by the transceiver.

[0011] In one or more embodiments, the IR-UWB communication unit establishes the IR-UWB communication link.

[0012] In one or more embodiments, the IR-UWB communication unit has an IR-UWB communication antenna configuration having three-dimensional characteristics for the IR-UWB communication link.

[0013] In one or more embodiments, the millimeter wave communication unit provides the millimeter wave communication link.

[0014] In one or more embodiments, the millimeter wave communication unit has a millimeter wave antenna configuration having three-dimensional characteristics for establishing the millimeter wave communication link.

[0015] According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising:

[0016] establishing a millimeter wave communication link between the first transceiver and the second transceiver;

[0017] determining whether the second transceiver is configured for impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) ranging and positioning; and

[0018] An IR-UWB communication link is established between the first transceiver and the second transceiver for ranging and positioning based on whether the second transceiver is configured for IR-UWB ranging and positioning.

[0019] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0020] When the IR-UWB communication link for ranging and positioning is established between the first transceiver and the second transceiver, ranging and positioning capabilities associated with the millimeter wave communication link are deactivated.

[0021] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0022] The millimeter wave communication link is utilized as the primary data communication link.

[0023] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0024] A time of flight (ToF) of a communication signal transmitted from the first transceiver to the second transceiver and back to the first transceiver is measured using the IR-UWB communication link.

[0025] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0026] An angle of arrival of a communication signal transmitted between the first transceiver and the second transceiver is measured using the IR-UWB communication link.

[0027] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0028] The IR-UWB communication link is used to measure a time difference of arrival of communication signals transmitted from the first transceiver and the second transceiver.

[0029] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0030] The IR-UWB communication link is established using a first IR-UWB communication unit and a second IR-UWB communication unit.

[0031] In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0032] The millimeter wave communication link is established using a first millimeter wave communication unit and a second millimeter wave communication unit.

[0033] According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a base station, comprising:

[0034] a millimeter wave communication unit capable of wirelessly coupling to a user device using a millimeter wave communication link;

[0035] An impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) communication unit is coupled to the millimeter wave communication unit, wherein based on determining whether the user equipment is configured for IR-UWB ranging and positioning, an IR-UWB communication link is established between the base station and the user equipment for IR-UWB ranging and positioning.

[0036] In one or more embodiments, ranging and positioning associated with the millimeter wave communication unit is disabled and the millimeter wave communication link is used for data communication utilizing positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] By referring to the accompanying drawings, the present invention may be better understood and its numerous features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art. The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

[0038] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system according to some embodiments.

[0039] Figure 2 According to some embodiments Figure 1 Block diagram of a transceiver utilized in a wireless communication system.

[0040] Figure 3 According to some embodiments, Figure 1A flow chart of a method for switching from millimeter wave ranging and positioning capabilities to impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) ranging and positioning capabilities in a wireless communication system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] Figures 1 to 3 Systems and techniques for switching from millimeter wave ranging and location capabilities to impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) ranging and location capabilities in a wireless communication system are shown. Figures 1 to 3 As referenced in the , ranging is the action of estimating the distance between wireless communication devices in a wireless communication system, whereas positioning is the action of determining the location of a wireless communication device in a wireless communication system (location finding). For millimeter wave communications, due to the physical propagation characteristics of millimeter waves, accurate relative location information of such communication devices is required to allow for maximum communication data rates between communication devices. Therefore, millimeter wave communication systems depend on aligning the beams of transceiver antennas in order to maximize signal exchange or data communication between antennas, which in this case is assisted by the use of IR-UWB ranging and positioning. Switching from millimeter wave ranging and positioning to IR-UWB ranging and positioning depends on whether the wireless communication device facilitating the communication is IR-UWB capable. Using an IR-UWB capable wireless device for ranging and positioning allows the corresponding wireless device to offload the millimeter wave ranging and location finding capabilities typically associated with, for example, a millimeter wave-based base station to the IR-UWB unit of an IR-UWB capable device, thereby allowing the millimeter wave portion of the base station to focus on non-ranging and non-positioning activities, maximizing the throughput of data transmission by utilizing the positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.

[0042] Figure 1 A wireless communication system 100 according to various embodiments is shown. The wireless communication system 100 includes a base station 109, a user equipment (UE) 105, and a UE 107. The base station 109 includes a transceiver 114. The UE 105 includes a transceiver 110. The UE 107 includes a transceiver 115. The wireless communication devices (e.g., the base station 109, the UE 105, and the UE 107) of the wireless communication system 100 are configured to operate at various frequencies using several wireless communication standards. For example, the base station 109, the UE 105, and the UE 107 can be configured for impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) communication to operate at 4224-4752 MHz, 7392-7920 MHz, and 7920-8448 MHz for the IEEE 802.15.4z standard. For mmWave communications, base station 109, UE 105, and UE 107 may be configured to operate between 24 GHz and 300 GHz using, for example, the 5G or IEEE 802.11ad standards.

[0043] During operation, the base station 109, which is equipped with both millimeter wave and IR-UWB communication capabilities, broadcasts a control signal to determine whether the UE 105 is configured to establish an IR-UWB communication link 150 with the base station 109. Before transmitting the control signal to the UE 105, during transmitting the control signal to the UE 105, or after transmitting the control signal to the UE 105, the base station 109 may have established a millimeter wave communication link 140 with the UE 105 with ranging and positioning capabilities that are well known in the art. In various embodiments, whether the UE 105 is configured to establish the IR-UWB communication link 150 depends on whether the UE 105 is equipped with an IR ultra-wideband communication unit (e.g., in Figure 2 IR-UWB communication unit 232 depicted in FIG.

[0044] After the base station 109 determines that the UE 105 is equipped with an IR ultra-wideband communication unit, the base station 109 establishes an IR-UWB communication link 150 with the UE 105 and activates ranging and positioning functionality of the base station 109 and the UE 105. The IR-UWB communication link 150 is established when both the base station 109 and the UE 105 are capable of receiving and transmitting IR signals according to, for example, the IEEE 802.15.4 standard as known in the art. Once the base station 109 has established the IR-UWB communication link 150 and activated the ranging and positioning functionality of the base station 109 and the UE 105, the base station 109 deactivates the ranging and positioning functionality of the base station 109 corresponding to the millimeter wave communication link 140 and provides a notification to the UE 105 to deactivate the ranging and positioning functionality of the UE 105 corresponding to the millimeter wave communication link 140. Once the millimeter wave ranging and positioning functionality of the base station 109 and the UE 105 has been deactivated, the IR-UWB communication units of the base station 109 and the UE 105 continue the ranging and positioning operations previously performed by the millimeter wave communication units of the base station 109 and the UE 105, and the millimeter wave communication can be dedicated to data transmission that maximizes the throughput of data transmission by utilizing the positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.

[0045] In various embodiments, during operation, instead of the base station 109 broadcasting a control signal to determine whether to establish an IR-UWB communication link, the UE 105 broadcasts a control signal to determine whether the base station 109 or the UE 107 is configured to establish the IR-UWB communication link 150 or the IR-UWB communication link 151. In various embodiments, whether the base station 109 or the UE 107 is configured to establish the IR-UWB communication link 150 or the IR-UWB communication link 151 depends on whether the base station 109 or the UE 107 is equipped with an IR ultra-wideband communication unit.

[0046] Similarly, after UE 105 determines that base station 109 or UE 107 is equipped with an IR ultra-wideband communication unit, UE 105 establishes IR-UWB communication link 150 or IR-UWB communication link 151 with base station 109 or UE 107. Once UE 105 establishes IR-UWB communication link 150 or IR-UWB communication link 151, UE 105 deactivates the ranging and positioning functionality of UE 105 corresponding to millimeter wave communication link 140 and millimeter wave communication link 141 and provides a notification signal to base station 109 or UE 107 to deactivate the ranging and positioning functionality of base station 109 or UE 107 corresponding to millimeter wave communication link 140 and millimeter wave communication link 141. Once the millimeter wave ranging and positioning functionality of UE 105, base station 109 and UE 107 has been disabled, the IR-UWB communication units of UE 105, base station 109 and UE 107 continue the ranging and positioning operations normally performed by the millimeter wave communication units of UE 105, base station 109 and UE 107, and millimeter wave communications can be dedicated to data transmission that maximizes the throughput of data transfer by utilizing the positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.

[0047] Figure 2 Shows Figure 1 The wireless communication system 100 of the present invention includes a transceiver 110 and a transceiver 114. The transceiver 110 includes a millimeter wave communication unit 220 and an IR-UWB communication unit 232. The transceiver 114 includes a millimeter wave communication unit 222 and an IR-UWB communication unit 234. In various embodiments, the transceiver 110 and the transceiver 120 are configured to perform millimeter wave communication using the millimeter wave communication unit 220 and the millimeter wave communication unit 222 (via the millimeter wave communication link 140) and to perform both IR-UWB communication using the IR-UWB communication unit 232 and the IR-UWB communication unit 234 (via the IR-UWB communication link 150). That is, during millimeter wave communication, the transceiver 110 is wirelessly coupled to the transceiver 114 via the millimeter wave communication link 140 using the antenna configuration 292 and the antenna configuration 293. During IR-UWB communication, transceiver 110 is wirelessly coupled to transceiver 114 via IR-UWB communication link 150 using antenna configuration 292 and antenna configuration 295. Thus, transceiver 110 and transceiver 114 are configured to operate using a millimeter wave standard such as 5G, the IEEE 802.11ad standard, and an IR-UWB standard such as the IEEE 802.15.4z standard.

[0048] refer to Figure 1During operation of the wireless communication system 100, the transceiver 114 of the base station 109 initiates IR-UWB communication with the transceiver 110 of the UE 105 using a control signal in order to determine whether the base station 109 can establish an IR-UWB communication link between the transceiver 110 and the transceiver 114. That is, the IR-UWB communication unit 234 uses the antenna configuration 295 to transmit a control signal to the transceiver 110 to determine whether the transceiver 110 has an IR-UWB communication unit with ranging and positioning capabilities, such as the IR-UWB communication unit 232 with the antenna configuration 294.

[0049] When the IR-UWB communication unit 234 determines that the transceiver 110 has an IR-UWB communication unit 232 with ranging and positioning capabilities, the IR-UWB communication unit 234 establishes an IR-UWB communication link 150 with the IR-UWB communication unit 232. After the IR communication link 150 has been established, the transceiver 114 initiates the ranging and positioning functionality of the IR-UWB communication unit 234. Once the ranging and positioning functionality of the transceiver 114 is activated, the IR-UWB communication unit 234 provides a deactivate millimeter wave ranging and positioning signal 252 to the millimeter wave communication unit 222 to deactivate the millimeter wave ranging and positioning operations involving the transceiver 114 and only perform data transmission operations, wherein the transceiver 110 maximizes the throughput of data transmission by utilizing the positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.

[0050] To deactivate the millimeter range operation of the transceiver 114, the IR-UWB communication unit 234 is configured to provide a deactivate millimeter wave ranging and localization signal 252 to a control system 274 of the millimeter wave communication unit 222. The deactivate millimeter wave ranging and localization signal 252 provides an instruction to the control system 274 of the millimeter wave communication unit 220 to deactivate the ranging and localization (RL) unit 272 while continuing data communications provided to the transceiver 110 via the data communication unit 273.

[0051] In order to signal the transceiver 110 of the UE 105 that the millimeter wave RL unit 282 is deactivated, a flag bit is provided to the IR-UWB communication unit 232. The flag bit is located in the header of a packet sent to the IR-UWB communication unit 232 to establish the IR-UWB communication link 150 and is configured to instruct the IR-UWB communication unit 232 to notify the millimeter wave communication unit 220 to deactivate the millimeter wave ranging operation performed by, for example, the RL unit 282. Based on the flag bit provided to the IR-UWB communication unit 232 by the IR-UWB communication unit 234, the IR-UWB communication unit 232 provides a deactivate millimeter wave ranging and positioning signal 251 to the control system 284 of the millimeter wave communication unit 220. The deactivation of the millimeter wave ranging and positioning signal 251 provides an instruction to the control system 284 of the millimeter wave communication unit 220 to deactivate the RL unit 282, while continuing data communications provided to the transceiver 114 via the data communication unit 283, thereby maximizing the throughput of data transmission by utilizing the positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.

[0052] In various embodiments, millimeter wave communication unit 220 and millimeter wave communication unit 222 may continue to utilize millimeter wave ranging operations involving other millimeter wave devices wirelessly connected to transceiver 110 or transceiver 114 .

[0053] In various embodiments, for example, when the transceiver 110 does not have IR-UWB communication capabilities, the millimeter wave communication unit 220 and the millimeter wave communication unit 222 are configured to perform ranging and positioning operations. Therefore, using the millimeter wave communication unit 220 and the millimeter wave communication unit 222, the positioning information of the transceiver 114 is obtained based on the positioning reference signal of the transceiver 110 as known in the art. In one embodiment, for example, the transceiver 114 (which can be, for example, a base station) can transmit a positioning reference signal to the transceiver 110 (which can be, for example, a user equipment). Subsequently, after reception of the positioning reference signal, the transceiver 114 determines the time of arrival (ToA) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) information associated with the positioning reference signal to be transmitted to the transceiver 110. Finally, the transceiver 114 calculates the distance to the transceiver 110 based on the received TOA or TDOA.

[0054] In various embodiments, the IR-UWB communication unit 232 and the IR-UWB communication unit 234 are configured to perform ranging and positioning using standard IR-UWB ranging and positioning techniques known in the art. For example, the IR-UWB communication unit 232 and the IR-UWB communication unit 234 can be configured to utilize time-of-flight technology, which is a technology for determining the distance between two objects or markers on objects. Using this technology, the transmitter of the transceiver 110 or 114 transmits a waveform (usually a linear frequency modulation or pulse), which is retransmitted by another transceiver. Based on the amount of time required for the retransmitted signal to reach the receiver of the originating transceiver (transceiver 110 or transceiver 114), the distance between the objects can be calculated.

[0055] In another example, the IR-UWB communication unit 232 and the IR-UWB communication unit 234 may be configured to utilize an angle of arrival technique, which is a technique for measuring the angle of arrival of a transmitted signal. That is, each transceiver (transceiver 110 or transceiver 114) may determine the angle of arrival of a signal transmitted by the opposite transceiver. In various embodiments, the same signal may be received three times by an antenna or antenna configuration of a receiving transceiver, which may be, for example, a 3-dimensional antenna of transceiver 110. A 3-dimensional antenna or antenna configuration (e.g., antenna configuration 292, antenna configuration 293, antenna configuration 294, and antenna configuration 295) may be defined as an antenna having three orthogonal axes x, y, and z. The difference between the three axes of the antenna of the received signal indicates the direction between transceiver 114 and transceiver 110. From this, and in combination with the distance determined by measuring the time of flight between transceivers, the location of the originating transceiver (of transceiver 114 ) may be determined to be within a 360 degree sphere around transceiver 110 .

[0056] Figure 3 According to various embodiments, Figure 1 Method 300 for switching between millimeter wave ranging and positioning capabilities to IR-UWB ranging and positioning capabilities in a wireless communication system 100 of the present invention. Figure 1 and 2, at block 310, a millimeter wave communication link 140 with ranging and positioning capabilities is established between the base station 109 and the UE 105. The millimeter wave communication link 140 is established using the millimeter wave communication unit 222 and the millimeter wave communication unit 220, respectively. At block 320, the transceiver 114 of the base station 109 determines whether the UE 105 has IR-UWB capabilities. When the transceiver 114 determines that the UE 105 has IR-UWB capabilities, at block 330, the IR-UWB communication unit 234 of the transceiver 114 establishes an IR-UWB communication link 150 with the IR-UWB communication unit 232 of the transceiver 110. At block 340, the IR-UWB communication unit 234 determines whether the IR-UWB 232 has ranging and positioning capabilities by, for example, determining whether the ranging bit is set to ranging as known in the art. At block 350, when the UE 105 has ranging and positioning capabilities, the millimeter wave ranging and positioning capabilities are offloaded to the IR-UWB communication unit 234 of the base station 109 and the IR-UWB communication unit 232 of the UE 105. At block 360, the millimeter wave communication unit 222 and the millimeter wave communication unit 220 deactivate the ranging and positioning capabilities of the transceiver 114 and the transceiver 110 by correspondingly deactivating the RL unit 272 and the RL unit 282. Thus, the base station 109 and the UE 105 are allowed to utilize the millimeter wave communication unit 222 of the transceiver 114 and the millimeter wave communication unit 220 of the transceiver 110 primarily for data communication, while using the IR-UWB communication unit 234 and the IR-UWB communication unit 232 for ranging and positioning.

[0057] In some embodiments, certain aspects of the techniques described above may be implemented by one or more processors of a processing system that executes software. The software includes one or more sets of executable instructions stored or otherwise tangibly implemented on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The software may include instructions and certain data that, when executed by one or more processors, manipulate one or more processors to perform one or more aspects of the techniques described above. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may include, for example, magnetic or optical disk storage devices, solid-state storage devices such as flash memory, cache memory, random access memory (RAM) or other non-volatile memory devices, and the like. The executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be in the form of source code, assembly language code, object code, or in the form of other instruction formats that can be interpreted or otherwise executed by one or more processors.

[0058] Computer-readable storage media may include any storage media or combination of storage media that can be accessed by a computer system during use to provide instructions and / or data to the computer system. Such storage media may include, but are not limited to, optical media (e.g., compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), Blu-ray discs), magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, magnetic tapes, or magnetic hard drives), volatile memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM) or cache memory), non-volatile memory (e.g., read-only memory (ROM) or flash memory), or micro-electromechanical system (MEMS)-based storage media. Computer-readable storage media may be embedded in a computing system (e.g., system RAM or ROM), fixedly attached to a computing system (e.g., a magnetic hard drive), removably attached to a computing system (e.g., an optical disc or universal serial bus (USB)-based flash memory), or coupled to a computer system via a wired or wireless network (e.g., a network accessible storage device (NAS)).

[0059] It should be noted that not all of the activities or elements described above in the general description are required, a part of a specific activity or device may not be required, and one or more additional activities may be performed or one or more additional elements may be included in addition to those described. In addition, the order of activities listed is not necessarily the order in which the activities are performed. And, the concepts have been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. Therefore, this specification and drawings should be viewed in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and it is intended that all such modifications are included within the scope of the invention.

[0060] Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems are described above with respect to specific embodiments. However, benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any features that may make any benefit, advantage, or solution appear or become more apparent should not be interpreted as key, required, or essential features of any or all claims. In addition, the specific embodiments disclosed above are merely illustrative, as the disclosed subject matter may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent ways that are obvious to those skilled in the art who benefit from the teachings herein. Except as described in the appended claims, it is not intended to limit the details of construction or design shown herein. Therefore, it is apparent that the specific embodiments disclosed above may be changed or modified, and all such changes are deemed to be within the scope of the disclosed subject matter. Therefore, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A transceiver, characterized in that: include: millimeter wave communication unit; as well as an impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) communication unit coupled to the millimeter wave communication unit, wherein based on the initiation of the IR-UWB ranging and positioning capabilities of the transceiver, the transceiver utilizes the IR-UWB communication unit for ranging and positioning and utilizes the millimeter wave communication unit for data transmission, wherein the IR-UWB communication unit is configured to perform ranging and positioning via an IR-UWB communication link and the millimeter wave communication unit is configured to perform data transmission via a millimeter wave communication link, and Wherein the ranging and positioning capabilities associated with the millimeter wave communication link are deactivated when the IR-UWB communication link for ranging and positioning is established.

2. The transceiver according to claim 1, characterized in that: The IR-UWB communication link is used to measure the time of flight (ToF) of communication signals transmitted and received back by the transceiver.

3. The transceiver according to claim 1, characterized in that: The IR-UWB communication link is used to measure the angle of arrival of communication signals received by the transceiver.

4. The transceiver according to claim 1, characterized in that: The IR-UWB communication link is used to measure the time difference of arrival of communication signals received by the transceiver.

5. The transceiver according to claim 1, characterized in that: The IR-UWB communication unit establishes the IR-UWB communication link.

6. The transceiver according to claim 1, characterized in that: The millimeter wave communication unit provides the millimeter wave communication link.

7. A method, characterized in that include: establishing a millimeter wave communication link between the first transceiver and the second transceiver; determining whether the second transceiver is configured for impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) ranging and positioning; establishing an IR-UWB communication link between the first transceiver and the second transceiver for ranging and positioning based on whether the second transceiver is configured for IR-UWB ranging and positioning; and When the IR-UWB communication link for ranging and positioning is established between the first transceiver and the second transceiver, ranging and positioning capabilities associated with the millimeter wave communication link are deactivated.

8. A base station, characterized in that: include: a millimeter wave communication unit capable of wirelessly coupling to a user device using a millimeter wave communication link; An impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) communication unit is coupled to the millimeter wave communication unit, wherein based on determining whether the user equipment is configured for IR-UWB ranging and positioning, an IR-UWB communication link is established between the base station and the user equipment for IR-UWB ranging and positioning, and wherein ranging and positioning associated with the millimeter wave communication unit are deactivated and the millimeter wave communication link is used for data communication utilizing positioning and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.

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