Posted: 15th Jul, 2003 By: MarkJ
The next-generation of hi-speed (500Mbps) wireless technology, Ultrawideband (UWB), is finally starting to take shape, but not without a 'standards' fight first:
Texas Instruments, one of the leading chipmakers with relevant expertise, has joined the Intel-led Multiband Consortium, which now calls itself the Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA). MBOA advocates the splitting of the recently authorised ultrawideband (UWB) radio spectrum into three or seven bands.
This puts it in direct confrontation with Motorola and XtremeSpectrum, Inc, the other major grouping, who propose a continuous spectrum. The competing ideas will be considered by the 802.15.3a working group, which has until August 2004 to define the physical aspects of high speed personal wireless networking. This will connect together consumer electronics and computers at full speed without cabling, with a special focus on imaging and multimedia.
Both groups say that their solution will be flexible enough to cope with full-speed operation, approaching half a gigabit per second.ZDNet notes that all groups aim to achieve speeds of roughly 110 megabits per second (Mbps) over ten metres and 480Mbps over one metre!