Bluetooth SIG Adopts UWB Solution, WiMedia Alliance

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/03/28/1511558.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/.../28/1511558.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The organizations that controls the Bluetooth standard today announced the next version of Bluetooth will see some big changes. In order to keep up with increased bandwidth requirements, the next version of Bluetooth will adopt the ultra-wideband (UWB) protocol, which uses multiband OFDM technology to transmit at speeds up to 100 Mbps over distances of 3 meters (about 10 feet)."</i><br /><br />Bluetooth is answering the need for faster connection in small physical locations by adopting the ultra-wideband protocol. The question is - will this entice manufacturers to look to Bluetooth as a viable and value-adding feature for their products?

[Phoenix]

I love the added speed and so forth (theoretically faster than WiFi-G or about the same if "Turbo-charged", which is great!), but I wish they'd increase the distance. Ten feet is just not enough. I'd like to see it support distances of fifty feet, at least.

[Duncan]

I love the added speed and so forth (theoretically faster than WiFi-G or about the same if "Turbo-charged", which is great!), but I wish they'd increase the distance. Ten feet is just not enough. I'd like to see it support distances of fifty feet, at least.

Where do you get ten feet from? Bluetooth class 2 (the most common) has a 10 metre range (c. 33 feet) - but I've actually achieved up to 15 metres (nearly 50 feet) - and Bluetooth class 1 has a 100 metre range (c. 330 feet).

[Stik]

Where do you get ten feet from? Bluetooth class 2 (the most common) has a 10 metre range (c. 33 feet) - but I've actually achieved up to 15 metres (nearly 50 feet) - and Bluetooth class 1 has a 100 metre range (c. 330 feet).

As noted below and in the above article, I think the 10 feet is a UWB limitation as of now?

" Ultra-wideband, which has yet to appear in consumer devices, enables wireless transmissions at speeds equivalent to USB or FireWire cables at distances up to 10 feet. "

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-bluetooth29mar29,1,5844395.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

I can see user problems being created already by competing UWB protocals. Will Motorola cave for the good of all?...

" Two camps—one led by Freescale Semiconductor Inc., based in Austin, Texas and an offshoot of Motorola Inc., and the other by Intel Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif.—are vying for the right to call their versions of UWB the worldwide standard. The fight over which group's technology would be named the IEEE 802.15.3a UWB standard dragged on for more than two and a half years [see "Ultrawide Gap on Ultrawideband," IEEE Spectrum, January 2004]. Then, in January 2006, the IEEE standards group finally acknowledged that the stalemate would not be broken, and it voted to disband. Now both UWB technologies—and the technologies that they enable, such as wireless USB—will have to fight it out in the marketplace. Until consumers declare a winner, there will be two incompatible types of wireless USB. "

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr06/3245

...I doubt it! :?

[Duncan]

As noted below and in the above article, I think the 10 feet is a UWB limitation as of now?

" Ultra-wideband, which has yet to appear in consumer devices, enables wireless transmissions at speeds equivalent to USB or FireWire cables at distances up to 10 feet. "

As I understand it (from an article I read about the potential UWB link-up some time ago) the Bluetooth ranges will remain as before - it will just be the top (UWB standard) speed that will be limited to just a few feet. That will be enough for most usage, while still giving plenty of oomph at greater distances.