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TechnologiesThree radios that answer three different questions.
Ultra-wideband tells you where something is. RFID tells you what passed a point. mmWave tells you whether anyone is there. Confusing these is the most expensive mistake in a sensing project.
Side by side.
Figures below are typical of the technology in normal conditions, not guarantees for a particular site. Real numbers come out of a site survey, and they are usually worse than a datasheet and better than a sceptic expects.
| Ultra-wideband | RFID (passive UHF) | mmWave radar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gives you | An x, y and often z coordinate, continuously | Identity, timestamp and direction at a read point | Presence, count, motion and micro-motion in a zone |
| Typical resolution | Tens of centimetres | Zone or portal — no coordinate | Sub-metre in range; coarser in angle |
| Does the target carry anything? | Yes — a powered tag | Yes — a battery-free tag | No |
| Tag cost | High, and each one has a battery to manage | Very low; effectively unlimited life | Not applicable |
| Infrastructure | A surveyed anchor grid across the whole covered space | Readers and antennas at choke points only | One sensor per zone of interest |
| Identity | Yes, per tag | Yes, per item | No — and that is often the point |
| Main enemy | Blocked line of sight and poor anchor geometry | Metal, liquid and tag orientation | Clutter, occlusion and multi-target separation |
| Indian band | 1.6–10.6 GHz, very low power · GSR 1046(E) | 865–867 MHz · GSR 564(E) | 76–77 GHz short-range radar · GSR 699(E) |
What you pay for resolution is infrastructure.
The three technologies are not competing points on one scale. They sit in different places on two axes at once — how finely they resolve space, and how much has to be installed to get it.
Most deployments need two of the three.
The combinations recur because the gaps are complementary. A few that come up constantly:
Position plus identity
UWB follows the carrier — a trolley, a pallet, a fixture. RFID reads what is on it at each station. Tagging every item with a powered tag would be absurd; tagging the carrier is not.
Tagged assets, untagged people
Equipment gets a tag because equipment does not object. People often should not have to carry anything — patients, shoppers, visitors. mmWave covers them without issuing a thing.
Cheap coverage, no tags on people
Readers at the doors answer “what came in”. Sensors in the aisles answer “is anyone there”. Together they cover a retail floor with no anchor grid at all.
The three, in detail.
Ultra-Wideband
A coordinate, typically to a few tens of centimetres, from time-of-flight measurements across a grid of surveyed anchors.
Read more → IdentityRFID
The identity of an item at a known read point, from a tag that has no battery and costs very little.
Read more → PresencemmWave Radar
Presence, count and motion of people who are carrying nothing at all — and no image is ever formed.
Read more →Start with a site, not a specification.
Send us the space, what moves in it, and the accuracy the decision actually needs. We will tell you which of the three technologies fits, which does not, and what a first deployment would involve.