The Ultra Wideband Blog

802.11n or Bust?

That's the question asked by BusinessWeek's Cliff Edwards in a recent blog posting.  He points out, quite rightly, that WiFi has a significant problem: the lack of what's known in the industry as Quality of Service or QoS.  Instead, WiFi uses a contention-based access scheme which is exactly what it sounds like, everybody that's trying to use the network must fight for it.  That works okay for data but it's death for video.  As Cliff says, "Since most wireless routers aren't smart enough to prioritize data streams, the more devices that are connected the slower the connection speed for all those devices. With video, the issue is particularly vexing since any data loss during transmission of these large files leads to image stuttering." Or worse.

Where does ultra wideband come down on this?  The WiMedia standard allows for bandwidth reservations for applications like video, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality viewing experience. 

Read Rick Merritt

If you're not reading Rick Merritt's blog, and you're tracking the world of connectivity, you need to.  He's up to speed on just about everything going on in the space and has some very interesting insights. 

I do take issue, however, with one recent post from Rick that talked about the Park's Connections Conference.  In it, he contrasted two panels: one that featured the views of wireless vendors and the other that focused on those of the telcos and cable providers.  His point was that the wireless wags need to pay attention to the cable camp that, guess what, is very comfortable with wires. 

My issue isn't that I disagree with Rick's point, frankly I agree with him whole heartedly.  But Rick should have noted that at least one wireless technology -- UWB -- has already demonstrated its ability to work over wires, coax in particular. Several suppliers of residential gateways, routers and set-top boxes are working to productize UWB over coax as an alternative to MoCA.  And the WiMedia Alliance has created a study group (led by one of the major telcos) to implement this as part of the UWB standard.   

Monsterous Adoption of Wireless Video

Monster -- long known as the leader in cables for high-end a/v and computing applications -- is going wireless with a new generation of products targeting the HDTV market.  They've committed to developing a range of solutions using ultra wideband including a product that integrates Wireless for HDMI, conditioned power and mounting hardware all in one consumer-installable package.  Pretty cool. 

The new Monster-branded products will come about as the result of a partnership inked with Tzero.  Monster's entry into the market further demonstrates the growing opportunity ahead for WiMedia-standards-based wireless video.  Consumers are continuing to balk at high installation costs for the HDTVs.  According to the Head Monster, Noel Lee, “HDTV prices are coming down, but hidden installation costs and hassles continue to shock consumers."  Wireless for HDMI solves the problem.  Expect to see solutions from Monster on the market in Fall 2007.  Read the full press release here.

Ultra Wideband Approved as an ISO Standard

As part of Ecma 368 and 369, the WiMedia ultra wideband standards are now officially global standards. This was announced this week and published on the Ecma website under their Wireless Proximity Systems section. This is another huge step forward for the ultra wideband community. It should help accelerate the adoption and deployment of WiMedia-standards-based products in Europe and throughout the world.

The Importance of a Standards-based Approach

You’ve heard the arguments before. Standards-based approaches are good for markets because they enable multi-vendor sourcing and reduce costs, ensure compatibility and interoperability. But in wireless communications and particularly in the emerging UWB market it’s even more critical to be standards based.

Imagine as a consumer bringing home a new non-standard UWB product. Set it up and it seems to work fine. Then go to your new Wireless USB printer. It worked well before but now it doesn’t. The non-standard product is interfering. Put on your Bluetooth headset and try to call tech support. It no longer works either. Which product do you return? If you’re like many consumers, you return them all.

Imagine being the retailer having to take all those products back. You can’t even begin to diagnose the problem. Every year, retailers receive more than $15 billion in returns because of problems like this. With nearly 300 companies soon to ship WiMedia standards-compliant products – and another 7,000 companies adopting this standard for next-generation Bluetooth devices – you can understand the magnitude of the problem that could be created by even one non-standard product.

Non-standard communications by devices result in interference and chaos, and greatly reduce the likelihood of widespread adoption. We urge all companies involved in the UWB market to take a standards-based approach, and participate in WiMedia compatibility and interoperability tests.

The EU and UWB

Last week, the European Union took another welcome step to enable the widespread adoption of ultra wideband -- in a range of applications -- beginning later this year. 

The Commission of the European Communities issued a decision to approve frequencies for use of UWB devices and stated that it "must be applied within the next six months throughout the EU's 27 Member States." That's good news for all of us in the UWB community and ultimately for consumers throughout Europe.

One other key point made by the Commission included the clear identification of video distribution as an important application area for UWB. "Furthermore, video signals will be transmitted using predominantly high-efficiency coding," said the decision. This essentially mandates the use of compression and validates Tzero's Wireless for HDMI product.

See the full decision by visiting the European Commission website.

BusinessWeek's Technology & You

We had the chance to talk with Steve Wildstrom from BusinessWeek a few days ago regarding his column entitled Juicing Up Home Networks.  The focus of the piece was on two powerline networking products and his tests of their effectiveness for distributing video content around the home. 

Steve made a number of good points in his column and in the discussion.  He differentiated between the marketing claims of maximum throughput for powerline -- which were purported to be 200 megabits per second (Mbps) -- and the average throughput which proved to be dramatically less, somewhere in the range of 12 to 20 Mbps.  He talked about the different types of video, both standard definition or broadcast TV quality, and high definition, and the demands these two classes of content put on a network. High-definition video, according to Steve "choked" the powerline products he tested.   

So if powerline isn't the solution to distributing high-definition video around the home, what is? Obviously, we believe that UWB will play a significant role in this application across a range of devices -- both wireless and wired.  Steve expects to write more about this topic in the future.

By the way, if you haven't listened to Steve's Technology & You podcast , definitely give it a try. 

Another Milestone

Last week, ultra wideband passed another major milestone with the announcement of the finalization of the WiMedia Alliance's Certification program.  One of the organization's charters is to provide coexistence and interoperability between the different applications and products that use UWB standards and specifications.  And this new certification program goes a long way to helping ensure that interoperability and fuel the growth in adoption of the technology.

As part of the program, the WiMedia Alliance also conducts organized compatibility and interoperability testing for UWB products.  They test both the PHYs (or Physical Layer implementations) as well as the platforms.  Last week, six companies -- including Tzero -- received initial registration of their PHYs, paving the way for the next major milestone of platform certification later this year. 

Look for more information about certification on the WiMedia Alliance website. 

No More Mysteries

Techdigs is a great new site focused -- according to its banner -- on "demystifying your entertainment tech."  They recently published an overview of UWB that's very well done, providing insights into the current state of the market as well as the consumer offerings that will soon be available.  Visit Techdigs to see the full article. 

Writer Greg Keene also did a very thorough review of products that use home powerlines for data networking.  The review cuts through all the claims and hype around this technology and does a good job of exactly describing the user experience, from setup through every day use.  Here's a link to that review.  If you're considering any home networking alternative, it's definitely worth a read.

More about .11n

Pre-N and now Draft N 802.11 implementations have been on the market for several months now, long enough for people to begin testing them in earnest.  A recent – and very thorough – set of tests was just published by Anandtech.

What they found was that performance was mixed, and that there were a number of nagging problems with the implementations:

In our preliminary mixed mode testing we experienced the "bad neighbor" effect several times. Not only with our own internal 802.11g network but also visits from actual neighbors who were upset with having to constantly reboot their systems during our testing phase.

In addition, Anandtech observed:

We would notice stutters when saving large files to the network or trying to stream compressed (DivX) video from our server.

Many of our customers have also been testing .11n for use in video distribution in consumer electronics devices.  What they’ve found is similar to the results reported in the Anandtech article.  And in particular, these customers are continuing to prove to themselves that WiFi in any flavor isn’t suitable for video.  Some have gone as far as to build prototypes and take them to tradeshows only to have them fail onsite.

For the full report on 802.11n, visit the Anandtech site.