APS013 APPLICATION NOTE

The implementation of two-

way ranging with the DW1000

Version 2.4

This document is subject to change without

notice

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................................2
LIST OF FIGURES...............................................................................................................................................2
1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 DW1000 BASED TWR ................................................................................................................................ 3
2 IMPLEMENTATION OF RANGING ..............................................................................................................5
2.1 DISCOVERY PHASE ........................................................................................................................................ 5
2.2 RANGING PHASE .......................................................................................................................................... 5
2.3 MESSAGES USED IN RANGING ......................................................................................................................... 6
2.3.1 General ranging frame format ........................................................................................................ 6
2.3.2 Blink frame format .......................................................................................................................... 8
2.3.3 Poll message ................................................................................................................................... 8
2.3.4 Response message .......................................................................................................................... 8
2.3.5 Final message ................................................................................................................................. 8
2.3.6 Ranging Initiation message ............................................................................................................ 9
2.4 TWR OPTIMISATION FOR POWER CONSUMPTION ............................................................................................... 9
2.4.1 Discovery phase .............................................................................................................................. 9
2.4.2 Ranging phase .............................................................................................................................. 11
3 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 13
4 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 13
5 DOCUMENT HISTORY ............................................................................................................................. 13
6 MAJOR CHANGES ................................................................................................................................... 13
7 FURTHER INFORMATION ........................................................................................................................ 15

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: FIELDS WITHIN THE RESPONSE MESSAGE .............................................................................................................. 8

TABLE 2: FIELDS WITHIN THE FINAL MESSAGE .................................................................................................................... 9
TABLE 3: FIELDS WITHIN THE RANGING INITIATION MESSAGE ............................................................................................... 9
TABLE 4: TABLE OF REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 13
TABLE 5: DOCUMENT HISTORY..................................................................................................................................... 13

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1: TWO-WAY RANGING CONCEPT ......................................................................................................................... 3

FIGURE 2: ASYMMETRIC TWR TOF FORMULA .................................................................................................................. 4
FIGURE 3: DISCOVERY AND RANGING PHASE MESSAGE EXCHANGES ....................................................................................... 5
FIGURE 4: GENERAL RANGING FRAME FORMAT .................................................................................................................. 7
FIGURE 5: RANGING MESSAGE ENCODINGS ....................................................................................................................... 8
FIGURE 6: TWR DISCOVERY PHASE TIMING PROFILE ......................................................................................................... 10
FIGURE 7: TWR RANGING PHASE TIMING PROFILE............................................................................................................ 12

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 2 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

1 INTRODUCTION
In this application note two-way ranging (TWR) scheme as used by Decawave’s example application
(DecaRanging) is described. TWR is a basic concept to calculate the distance between two objects by
determining the time of flight (TOF) of signals travelling between them.

The distance between the objects may be calculated using the formula,

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠 × 𝑇𝑂𝐹

The DW1000 uses mathematical and electronic techniques to implement a very precise clock. By
recording the state of this clock when certain events occur during DW1000 transmission and
reception of the radio wave signals, the DW1000 has the ability to ‘timestamp’ those events.

TWR has advantages over other distance measurement and locating systems in that it can be used
by stand-alone devices which only have relative distances to measure. There is no requirement for an
infrastructure of fixed communicating devices to determine separation distances.

1.1 DW1000 based TWR

If we use a pair of DW1000s, designated as an initiator and a responder respectively, we can
describe the two-way ranging concept as follows.

The initiator transmits a radio message to the responder and records its time of transmission (transmit
timestamp) t1. The responder receives the message and transmits a response (a radio message)
back to the initiator after a particular delay treply. The initiator then receives this response and records
a receive timestamp t2. This process is depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Two-way ranging concept

Now using the timestamps t1 and t2, the initiator can calculate the round trip time troundtrip and knowing
the reply time in the tag, treply, the TOF can be determined by,

𝑡2 − 𝑡1 − 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦
𝑇𝑂𝐹 =
2

If we assume the speed of radio waves through air is the same as the speed of light c, then the

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 3 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

distance between the initiator and responder can be calculated by,

𝑡2 − 𝑡1 − 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝑐 ×
2

In the case of tag-to-anchor two-way ranging, there are a number of sources of error due to clock drift
and frequency drift [4]. Asymmetric double sided TWR method is used in Decawave’s implementation.
It reduces the error due to clock and frequency drift. Figure 2 shows a Poll-Response-Final method of
doing TWR and it also shows the formula used for calculation of TOF.

Tround1 Treply2
Initiator time
Poll Resp Final
TX RX TX

RMARKER
Tprop Tprop Tprop

Responder
Poll Resp Final
RX TX RX
Treply1 Tround2
The Final message communicates the initiator’s Tround and Treply
times to the responder, which calculates the range to the
initiator as follows:

Tround1 × Tround2 ̶ Treply1 × Treply2

Tprop =
Tround1 + Tround2 + Treply1 + Treply2

Figure 2: Asymmetric TWR TOF formula

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 4 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

2 IMPLEMENTATION OF RANGING
In Decawave’s two-way ranging demo, two units operate as a pair. One unit acts as a “Tag” initiating
the ranging exchange and the other unit acts as an “Anchor” listening for the tag messages and
performing two-way ranging exchanges with it. This is shown in Figure 3 below.

Unpaired Anchor is in Discovery Phase Unpaired Tag sends

listener mode listening periodic blinks, listens for a
for Tags’ blink messages response and sleeps

Idle

Idle

Anchor decides to pair with this Tag

Tag sees the Ranging Init
for ranging and sends Ranging Init
response to pair with the
message
Anchor
Ranging Phase

Anchor calculates the range and

(optionally) sends a ranging report
back to the Tag either immediately
or in the next Response message

Anchor listens Tag idles before

for next Poll sending another Poll

Figure 3: Discovery and Ranging phase message exchanges

2.1 Discovery phase

Initially the tag is in a discovery phase where it periodically sends a Blink message that contains its
own address, and listens for a Ranging Init response from an anchor. If the tag does not get this
response it sleeps for a period (default of 1 second) before blinking again. The anchor will initially
listen for blinks, and when it receives a Blink message, the anchor will send a Ranging Init message
to the tag, which will complete the Discovery Phase and enter the Ranging Phase.

2.2 Ranging phase

In the Ranging Phase the tag periodically performs two-way ranging exchanges with the anchor. Each
two-way ranging exchange consists of the tag sending the Poll message, receiving the Response
message and then sending the Final message. In the case where it is necessary for the tag to be
aware of the range, the anchor may optionally send an immediate message to the tag with the
calculated TOF or may wait until the next Response message to send a previous TOF. In either case,
the tag can use the TOF to calculate the range.

For clarity, this optional message is not shown in the remainder of this document.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 5 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

2.3 Messages used in ranging

Five messages are employed: two in the Discovery Phase (the Blink and Ranging Init) and three in
the Ranging Phase (the Poll, the Response, and the Final), as shown in Figure 4. Although these
follow IEEE message conventions, these are not standard RTLS messages, the reader is referred to
ISO/IEC 24730-62 for details of standardised message formats for use in RTLS systems based on
IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB. The formats of the messages used in the Decawave implementation are
given in the following sections.

2.3.1 General ranging frame format

The general message format, shown at the top of Figure 4, is the IEEE 802.15.4 standard encoding
for a data frame. The two byte Frame Control octets vary between the messages as some use 8-octet
(64-bit) addresses and others 2-octet (16-bit) addresses. A single 16-bit PAN ID (value 0xDECA) is
used for all the messages. The only exception is the Blink message which is described in 2.3.2 below.
In a real deployment, the PAN ID might be negotiated as part of associating with the network or it
might be an installation configured constant. The blink message follows the format defined in clause
5.2.2.7 Multipurpose blink frame of the IEEE Std 802.15.4e™-2012 (Amendment to IEEE Std
802.15.4™-2011).

The sequence number octet is incremented modulo-256 for every frame sent, as per IEEE rules. The
source and destination addresses are either 64-bit numbers programmed uniquely into each unit
(during manufacture) or 16-bit addresses temporarily assigned. The 2-octet FCS is a CRC frame
check sequence following the IEEE standard, (this can be generated automatically by the DW1000 IC
and appended to the transmitted message).

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 6 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

Frame buffer indices: 0, 1 2 3, 4 5 to 12 13 to 20 21 and up

2 octet 1 octet 2 octets 8 octets 8 octets Variable # octets 2 octets

Frame Sequence Destination Source Ranging
PAN ID FCS
Control (FC) Number Address Address Message
0x41 0xCC 0xCA 0xDE

Frame Control (FC)

Bit 0 Bit 1 Bit 2 Bit 3 Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit7 Bit 8 Bit 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 DestAd drMode 0 0 SrcAdd rMo de

Data Frame SEC PEND ACK 1 1 1 1

64-bit 64-bit

Frame buffer indices: 0, 1 2 3, 4 5 to 12 13 to 14 14 and up

2 octet 1 octet 2 octets 8 octets 2 octets Variable # octets 2 octets

Ranging Init Message Frame Sequence

PAN ID
Destination Source Ranging Init
FCS
Control (FC) Number Address Address Message
0x41 0x8C 0xCA 0xDE

Frame buffer indices: 0, 1 2 3, 4 5 to 6 7 to 8 9 and up

2 octet 1 octet 2 octets 2 octets 2 octets Variable # octets 2 octets

Poll, Response, or Final Frame Sequence Destination Source Poll, Response, or
PAN ID FCS
Message Control (FC) Number Address Address Final Message
0x41 0x88 0xCA 0xDE

Frame buffer indices: 0 1 2 to 9 10 and 11

1 octet 1 octet 8 octets 2 octets

Blink Message Frame Sequence

Tag 64-bit ID FCS
Control (FC) Number
0xC5

Figure 4: General ranging frame format

The content of the ranging message portion of the frame, (the “Variable # octets” part of the Poll,
Response, Final and Report message shown above in Figure 4), defines which of the four ranging
messages it is. We will also refer to this section of the message as the "application level payload ".
These are shown in Figure 5 and described in sections 2.3.3 to 2.3.6 below. In these, only the
ranging message portion of the frame is shown and discussed. This data is encapsulated in the
general ranging frame format of Figure 4 to form the complete ranging message in each case.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 7 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

Frame buffer indices: 9 10 to 11 12 to 13

1 octet 2 octets 2 octets
Ranging Init Function Tag short Response
Message code address delay

0x20 - -

Frame buffer indices: 9 Frame buffer indices: 9 10 to 13

1 octet 1 octet 4 octets

Poll Message Function Response Message Function Calculated

code code Time-of-Flight

0x61 0x50 -

Frame buffer indices: 9 10 to 13 14 to 17

1 octet 4 octets 4 octets

Final Message Function Resp RX time – Poll TX Final TX time – Resp RX

code time time

0x69 - -

Figure 5: Ranging message encodings

2.3.2 Blink frame format

The Blink message frame format is used for sending of the tag Blink messages. The Blink frame is
sent without any additional application level payload, i.e. the application data field of the blink frame is
zero length. The result is a 12-octet blink frame. The encoding of this minimal blink is as shown in
Figure 4.

2.3.3 Poll message

The Poll message is sent by the tag to initiate a single range measurement. For the poll message,
the ranging message portion of the frame is a single octet, with the value: 0x61.

2.3.4 Response message

The Response message is sent by the anchor in response to a poll message from the tag. The
Response message is 5 octets in length. Table 1 lists and describes the individual fields within the
Response message.

Table 1: Fields within the Response message

Octet #’s Value Description

1 0x50 This octet value of 0x50 identifies the message as a Response
This four octet field is the anchor calculated time-of-flight, representing the
2 to 5 - estimated distance between the tag and the anchor. The time units are as
defined in note 1 in 2.3.5 below.

2.3.5 Final message

The Final message is sent by the tag after receiving the anchor’s response message. The Final
message is 9 octets in length.
Table 2 lists and describes the individual fields within the Final message.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 8 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

Table 2: Fields within the Final message

Octet #’s Value Description

1 0x69 This octet identifies the message as the tag “Final” message
This four octet field is the difference between the Final TX timestamp and
the Response RX timestamp. This value is pre-calculated by the Tag
2 to 5 - software and embedded in the message. The DW1000’s delayed send
mechanism is used to ensure that the actual send time matches the value
inserted here. The time units are defined in note 1 below.
This four octet field is the difference between the Response RX timestamp
6 to 9 -
and the Poll TX timestamp. The time units are defined in note 1 below.

Note 1: The time units used are those defined in the IEEE standard and native to the DW1000, where
the LSB represents 1/128 of the fundamental UWB frequency (499.2 MHz), or approximately 15.65
picoseconds.

2.3.6 Ranging Initiation message

Upon receiving the Blink message the unpaired anchor will send the Ranging Init message to the tag
that has sent the Blink message.

The Ranging Initiation message is 5 octets in length. Table 3 lists and describes the individual fields
within the Ranging Initiation message.

Table 3: Fields within the Ranging Initiation message

Octet #’s Value Description

1 0x20 This octet value of 0x20 identifies the message as a range report
This 16-bit field specifies the 16-bit address to be used by Tag for the
2 to 3 -
ranging phase instead of its 64-bit address.
This 16-bit number gives the response time to be used in the following
4 to 5 -
ranging exchange. The time units of this are ms.

2.4 TWR optimisation for power consumption

Minimising power consumption for a battery powered tag is an important consideration in order for the
operational lifetime of the battery powered tag to be maximised. There are a number of factors to be
considered here. These are described below with respect to the different stages in the ranging
operation.

2.4.1 Discovery phase

To optimise power usage, while in this phase, the receiver on-time needs to be minimised. As the
Ranging Init message is sent after a particular delay (shown in Figure 6), the tag should only turn on
its receiver after this delay, and employ a receive timeout, to turn off the receiver if the ranging
initiation frame does not arrive.

Figure 6 shows the time the tag spends in each of the states for the case when the anchor is using an
800 µs response time for the Ranging Init message.

Note: The absolute minimum response time that can be achieved would be around 200 µs, this is
microprocessor dependent, it depends how quickly the microprocessor can see the completion of
reception and start the transmission. However in the example in Figure 6, an 800 µs delayed
response time is used. This is because when the “Smart Tx Power” option is enabled for the 6.81
Mbps data rate, only 1 frame can be transmitted in 1 ms in order comply with ETSI and FCC
regulations on TX power.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 9 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

All times shown in Figure 6 are in microseconds (µs).

TWR DISCOVERY-PHASE TIMING PROFILE
OUTCOME 2 TIMEOUT AND SLEEP

Receiver
timeout

DISCOVERY PHASE DEEP SLEEP

1s

OUTCOME 1 START TWR EXCHANGE

Prepare and Process rx Prepare &
Tag Wake- start “Blink” Turn on “Range init” start “Poll”
up transmission Rx transmission

state DEEP SLEEP IDLE FRAME TX IDLE RX ON FRAME TX IDLE

only one transmission is allowed in 1 ms when using smart tx power setting

1s 6,000 135 45 600 16 200 135 45 120

Tx Rx Tx
Tx preamble Tx preamble
data data data

Prepare &
schedule
delayed Turn on
Process “Range Init” Rx and Process
Listen for
received
Anchor “Blink” received frame listen for
“Poll”
“Blink” transmission “Poll”

state RX ON IDLE FRAME TX RX ON IDLE

- 135 45 620 135 45 - 135 45 120

Rx Tx
Rx preamble Tx preamble
data data

Blink

Range Init

Poll

Figure 6: TWR discovery phase timing profile

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 10 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

2.4.2 Ranging phase

To save power, in this phase, the tag needs to complete these operations as quickly as possible, and
then return to low power mode (Sleep state).

In this example, to reduce the transmission, and reception times, a preamble length of 128 is used
together with shortened ranging messages (section 2.3 describes the message formats), and the
highest data rate of 6.81 Mbps. As a result of using this configuration the total frame transmission
time is about 180 µs, and the reception time is about 215 µs. The reception time is longer because of
a 16 µs receiver start-up delay, and due to the execution time of the leading edge detection search
that is part of our receive time-stamping and takes up to 60 µs after SFD detection.

To reduce the time spent in the idle state, the duration of SPI transactions also need to be minimised.
This is limited by the microcontroller’s SPI peripheral abilities. As DW1000 supports SPI speeds of up
to 20 MHz the microcontroller should be configured to run at 20 MHz if possible (We have used an
STM32 device which is limited to 18 MHz). Measures should be taken to send all the bytes of an
individual SPI transaction back-to-back without any dead time between them (e.g. by employing DMA
on the host processor if possible). As well as the physical speed of SPI operations the application also
needs to make sure that the number of SPI read and write operations are minimised (i.e. only read /
write the necessary registers for the required operation).

The short response times mean that 32-bit timestamp arithmetic can be used, i.e. since 232 divided by
the LSB of timestamps (128 x 499.2 MHz) is 67.2 ms. This further minimises the processor execution
time and saves power.

Note: The absolute minimum response time that can be achieved would be around 200 µs, this is
microprocessor dependent, it depends how quickly the microprocessor can see the completion of
reception and start the transmission. The anchor will respond immediately, but the tag will only send
the Final 1 ms after the transmission of the Poll. This is because when the smart tx power option is
enabled for a 6.81 Mbps data rate, only 1 frame can be transmitted in 1 ms to meet the ETSI / FCC
regulations on transmitted power.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 11 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

All times shown in Figure 7 are in microseconds (µs) unless otherwise stated.

TWR RANGING-PHASE TIMING PROFILE

ONE TWR EXCHANGE NEXT TWR EXCHANGE
Prepare &
schedule
Prepare and delayed “Final” Timeout Prepare and
start “Poll” Turn on Process rx frame and go Wake- start “Poll”
Tag transmission Rx “Response” transmission to sleep up transmission
state IDLE FRAME TX IDLE RX ON IDLE FRAME TX SLEEP IDLE FRAME TX

135 45 205 16 200 400 135 45 500,000 6,000 135 45

Tx Rx Tx Tx
Tx preamble Tx preamble Tx preamble
data data data data
delayed response time = 580 us

Prepare &
schedule
Turn on delayed Turn on
Rx and Process “Response” Rx and Process received Process
Anchor listen for received frame listen for “Final” and received
“Poll” “Poll” transmission “Final” calculate ToF “Poll”

state RX ON IDLE FRAME TX RX ON IDLE RX ON IDLE

- 135 45 215 135 45 - 135 45 120 - 135 45

Rx Tx
Rx preamble
data
Tx preamble
data Poll

delayed response time = 395 us Response

Final

Figure 7: TWR ranging phase timing profile

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 12 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

3 CONCLUSION
This application note has given an overview of two way ranging as it is implemented by Decawave in
its DecaRanging application. We have also outlined optimisations that can be applied to minimise
power consumption for a battery powered device.

4 REFERENCES
Reference is made to the following documents in the course of this application note: -

Table 4: Table of References

Ref Author Version Title

[1] Decawave Current DW1000 Data Sheet
[2] Decawave Current DW1000 User Manual
[3] Decawave Current APS003 Real Time Location Systems
APS011 Sources of Error in DW1000 Based two-way
[4] Decawave Current
ranging (TWR) Schemes

5 DOCUMENT HISTORY
Table 5: Document History

Revision Date Description

1.0 15th December 2014 Initial release
1.1 31st March 2015 Scheduled update
2.0 31st December 2015 Scheduled update
2.1 30th June 2016 Scheduled update
2.2 31st March 2017 Scheduled update
2.4 17th May 2024 Scheduled update

6 MAJOR CHANGES
Revision 1.0

Page Change Description

All Initial release

Revision 1.1

Page Change Description

All Change Copyright notice to 2015
1 Change revision number to 1.1
11 Fix incorrect reference
Add 1.1 to revision table
13
Add this table
14 Add new page

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 13 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

Revision 2.0

Page Change Description

All Updated references and page numbers
1 Change revision number to 2.0
Updated the text to refer to the asymmetric TWR method and related message
formats and timings
All
Update all diagrams to use the asymmetric TWR method.

Revision 2.1

Page Change Description

All Updated references and page numbers
All Typographical corrections
1 Change revision number to 2.1
7 Repaired “Reference not found” error

Revision 2.2

Page Change Description

All Updated references and page numbers
All Typographical corrections
1 Change revision number to 2.2
5 Modification to figure 3 to show optional response
5 Modification to explanatory text
13 Addition of v2.2 to revision history table
14 Addition of this table

Revision 2.3

Page Change Description

All Updated references and page numbers
1 Change revision number to 2.3
All New Logo and template
13 Addition of v2.3 to revision history table
14 Addition of this table
15 New “Further Information”

Revision 2.4

Page Change Description

All Modification to footer.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 14 of 15

 APS013: DW1000 and two-way ranging

7 FURTHER INFORMATION
Decawave develops semiconductors solutions, software, modules, reference designs - that enable
real-time, ultra-accurate, ultra-reliable local area micro-location services. Decawave’s technology
enables an entirely new class of easy to implement, highly secure, intelligent location functionality and
services for IoT and smart consumer products and applications.

For further information on this or any other Decawave product, please refer to our website
www.decawave.com.

© 2024 Qorvo, US, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Page 15 of 15