The Ultra Wideband Blog

Bluetooth and UWB

Last week, there was a little controversy surrounding Bluetooth and its continued support of ultra wideband. The headline to a Techworld post read "Reversing an earlier decision, Bluetooth backers choose Wi-Fi over UWB for the technology's next version."

The source of the report is, however, the real story. John Barr of Motorola was involved with the UWB development within Motorola (later Freescale). Motorola had purchased XtremeSpectrum, a developer of the Direct Sequence-based UWB system, an effort which was shut down. Gearlog, which covered this story says, "And now you see why Barr 's comments are essentially sour grapes."

The Gearlog piece also quotes Mike Foley, the executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, as disagreeing with the Techworld story. The specification to enable Bluetooth profiles to run on top of different transports will be released in 2008. Both UWB and WiFi are high-speed technologies which can be utilized for this purpose, and the suitability will be determined by the devices and applications.

WiMedia Continues to Do Its Job

Testing and registering Physical Layer chipsets (PHYs) is one of the most critical components of the WiMedia Alliance's charter.  By doing this, they ensure that compatibility and co-existence between all devices that employ WiMedia standards including Wireless USB and Bluetooth 3.0 products. 

This week, the WiMedia Alliance announced PHY registration for four companies: Alereon, Inc., Realtek Semiconductor Corporation, Tzero Technologies and Wisair Ltd. These companies successfully tested their chipsets against the WiMedia spec and were able to successfully interoperate.

For more information on the WiMedia certification program, visit www.wimedia.org.

UWB Overtakes WiFi

According to the most recent report from market researcher In-Stat "UWB sales will overtake WiFi volume in the near future." That's some pretty heady news considering that the firm has already publicly stated that 280 million WiFi chip sets will be sold this year alone. 

So exactly how much and when?  Good questions.  For the answers, you'll have to purchase the report authored by In-Stat's Qasim Inam.

We're not the only ones to pick up on this news.  WirelessWeek, among others, covered the story last week.   

HDCP Approved Retransmission Technology

Content protection continues to be one of the biggest issues facing service providers, electronics manufacturers and the content providers themselves. This is especially true as new technologies become available for the distribution of high-definition video wirelessly and over over coax cabling.

Several months ago, the Digital Content Protection organization (DCP LLC), licensor of the HDCP content protection technology specification, asked for submissions of these new technologies for review and certification as part of a new Approved Retransmission Technology program. They used a rigorous set of criteria.  And thus far, only one manufacturer has stood up to the test -- Tzero. 

This week, Tzero becomes the first manufacturer to have its products approved for use with content protected by HDCP. In fact, DCP LLC has granted Tzero’s ZeroWire™ authorization as an Approved Retransmission Technology for both wireless and wired implementations.  Read more. 

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.   

The Retailer's View

Last week, ultra wideband was one of the hot topics of conversation at the RetailVision, a Gartner Group event that attracts 200 or so buyers from national and regional chains.  Tzero's ultra-wideband-based Wireless for HDMI won Best New Technology underscoring the growing interest in the application of wireless high-definition video and UWB products in general.

Even more telling were the comments from these retail buyers.  One buyer commented that Wireless for HDMI was "a game changing solution."  Others remarked that they could see it easily fitting into their line and that selling these products was a "no brainer."   In other words, they get the value proposition -- the world is going wireless.  They've seen it in the data world and now they're on the verge of it for video. Replacing the tangle of cables behind the media cabinet and simplifying installation will solve  huge problems for their consumers, and those are very good things.

One cautionary note was sounded by these buyers.  Their concern was over proprietary products and implementations.  They want standards-based solutions that ensure interoperability.  Our advice to retailers, make sure you ask if the solution you're considering is WiMedia compliant.    

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.