by Anton Shilov
05/05/2005 | 03:19 PM
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced its intent to work with the developers of the wireless technology commonly known as Ultra-wideband (UWB) to combine strengths of both technologies.
<%BANNER[article]%>This decision will allow Bluetooth technology to extend its long-term roadmap to meet the high-speed demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data as well as enabling high quality video applications for portable devices. The Bluetooth SIG believes UWB may benefit from Bluetooth technology’s manifested maturity, qualification program, brand equity and comprehensive application layer.
While details are still being worked out, the goal is to work towards an architecture that allows devices to take advantage of UWB data rates for scenarios that require high speed. Bluetooth will still be important to maintain backward compatibly with existing devices on the market and future products not requiring the higher data rate.
“It has been apparent that members of the Bluetooth SIG would like to enable products with higher data rates. I feel that it is the responsibility of the industry to recognize synergies and limit fragmentation as much as possible,” said Michael Foley, Ph. D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “Joint development between Bluetooth technology and UWB is the fastest and most economical pathway for both technologies to meet the future demands of companies and end users. At the same time it is important to understand that Bluetooth is a global standard to a great extent driven by the adoption into mobile consumer devices like mobile phones, so not only is a requirement that world-wide regulation is achieved but also that it is done in a way so co-existence with future mobile standards is realized.”
“The Bluetooth SIG’s intention to employ UWB in their next generation products is a very positive step in allowing consumers to connect seamlessly between PCs, phones and consumer electronics equipment. This is an extremely positive move” said Stephen Wood, UWB technology strategist, Intel.
UWB is a wireless technology designed to transmit data within short range (up to 10 meters) at very high bandwidths (up to 480Mbps) while using little power. One of the main advantages of UWB is it does not interfere with other wireless technologies already in use, such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and cellular wide-area communications.
Wireless USB will be one of the technology implementations that will use UWB as the radio technology. The goal of Wireless USB is to deliver the same ease of use and high speeds associated with USB 2.0, but without wires. The first version of Wireless USB specification was targeted to be completed by the end of March, 2005, and the MBOA medium access controller (MAC) is scheduled to be completed by mid-year.
It is unclear when products featuring the result of the Bluetooth and UWB designers’ collaborative effort may be available commercially.