What does ‘uwbmac: connected/disconnected’ mean in PANS Shell (si) output?

Wireless Connectivity Ultra-Wideband
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1

Hello,

I am using the DWM1001C-DEV kit with PANS, and I would like to clarify how to determine the communication status in Shell mode.

According to the documentation, the communication capability is defined by the Link Margin. I also understand that even if communication is possible, distance measurement may fail due to environmental effects such as signal degradation or multipath. Therefore, the maximum communication range and the maximum ranging (distance measurement) range can differ depending on the environment.

What I want to understand is:
In PANS Shell mode, when the lec command does not show any distance value, how can I verify whether UWB communication is still active?

For testing, I first confirmed that ranging works correctly with a fixed Tag and Anchor setup. Then I moved the Tag away from the Anchor in a long indoor hallway without obstacles blocking the line-of-sight. During movement, the distance value (lec) disappeared, but the uwbmac status still showed connected. When I moved further away, the status changed to uwbmac: disconnected. Ranging successfully works when Tag and Anchor are placed close, so I assume the PAN ID and addressing configuration are correct.

Based on this behavior, I would like to ask the following:

  1. What exactly does the uwbmac status represent in PANS Shell mode?
  2. What is the communication meaning of uwbmac: connected vs. uwbmac: disconnected?
  3. In this experiment, can I assume that a negative Link Margin corresponds to uwbmac: disconnected and a non-negative Link Margin corresponds to uwbmac: connected?
    If so, could you please explain the reasoning behind this?

Any clarification on the relationship between Link Margin, communication connectivity, and the UWB MAC status would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to your response.

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2

Hello @universe
The uwbmac: connected/disconnected means if the node is connected to the UWB network but it has its own timeout so it takes a while to show disconnect after signal loss.

What maximum operating range (working TWR) you have been able to get?

Cheers
JK

3

I’ve had some similar issues with the uwbmac not showing disconnected despite moving tags well out of the range of the network. @leapslabs do you know how long the timeout is? Is it possible tags are detecting anchor/bridge nodes further away than they are able to successfully range to?

4

Hi,

It should disconnect it within a few tens of seconds. How long did you wait in your test?

The Tag should be able to range even with a single Anchor if that Anchor is connected, i.e. being a part of an active network.

Cheers,
TDK