Wireless Personal-Area Network (WPAN) is a personal area network using wireless connections. WPAN is used for communication among devices such as telephones, computer and its accessories, as well as personal digital assistants, within a short range.
The reach of a PAN is typically within 10 meters. Technologies enabling WPAN include Bluetooth, ZigBee, Ultra-wideband(UWB), IrDA, HomeRF, etc., in which the Bluetooth is the most widely used technology for the WPAN communication.
Each technology is optimized for specific usage, applications, or domains. Although in some respects, certain technologies might be viewed as competing in the WPAN space, but they are often complementary to each other.
The IEEE 802.15 Working Groups is the organization to define the WPAN technologies. In addition to the 802.15.1 based on the Bluetooth technology, IEEE proposed two additional categories of WPAN in 802.15: the low rate 802.15.4 (TG4, also known as ZigBee) and the high rate 802.15.3 (TG3, also known as Ultra-wideband or UWB). The TG4 ZigBee provides data speeds of 20 Kbps or 250 Kbps, for home control type of low power and low cost solutions. The TG3 UWB supports data speeds ranging from 20 Mbps to 1Gbps, for multi-media applications.
In the following table, the main characters of the WPAN technologies as specified in the IEEE 802.15 are compared:
| Parameters | Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1) | UWB (IEEE 802.15.3) | ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) |
| Applications | Computer and accessory devices Computer to compute Computer with other digital devices | Multimedia content transfer, High-resolution radar, Ground-penetrating radar, Wireless sensor network, Radio locations systems | Home control Building automation Industrial automation Home security Medical monitoring |
| Frequency Band: | 2.4 - 2.48GHz | 3.1-10.6GHz | 868MHz 902-928MHz 2.4-2.48GHZ |
| Range | ~10 meters | ~10 meters | ~100 meters |
| Maximum Data transfer rate: | 3 Mbps | 1 Gbps | 20 Kbps 40 Kbps 250 Kbps |
| Modulation | GFSK, 2PSK, DQSP, 8PSK | OPSK, BPSK | BPSK (868/928MHz) OPSK (2.4GHz) |
| WPAN, WLAN and WMAN technologies are complementary to each other and each play a unique role in today’s wireless communications. The following table outlines the three technologies: |
| Parameters | WMAN (IEEE 802.16 WiMAX) | WLAN (IEEE802.11) | WPAN (IEEE802.15) |
| Frequency Band: | 2-66GHz | 2.4 -5.8GHz | 868 -10.6GHz |
| Range | ~31 miles | ~100 meters | ~10meters (Bluetooth and UWB) ~100 meters (ZigBee) |
| Maximum data transfer rate: | 134 Mbps | 55 Mbps | 1Gbps |
| Number of users: | Thousands | Dozens | Dozens |
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