Bluetooth’s divorce from UltraWideBand (UWB) technology is absolute, as the short range standard focuses on Wi-Fi and 60GHz platforms for its next generations. It once expected to combine its specs with high speed, low power UWB ‘ specifically the WiMedia standard once spearheaded by Intel ‘ for an enhanced data rate implementation. But that plan was put on hold in favor of a Wi-Fi approach as WiMedia lost support, and now it has been shelved entirely.
Mike Foley, chairman of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which controls the platform, told EETimes that there were now no plans to use the UWB technology acquired in March from the WiMedia Alliance, which folded as a separate entity at that time. Its technology was taken over by its chief licensee, the USB Implementers’ Forum, which uses WiMedia as the basis of Wireless USB, and by the Bluetooth SIG. Instead, the SIG is now conducting due diligence on 60GHz technology as a possible transport for a future high rate Bluetooth.
Many technologies ‘ including, in theory, UWB ‘ can run in license-exempt 60GHz, which can support very fast speeds over short distances and is the latest hope for the future of ultrafast in-home wireless media networks. Much of the work has revolved around Wi-Fi, which could help 60GHz achieve a more mainstream role than WiMedia, though the future of the band is by no means assured at this early stage of its standardization and silicon design.
The way that WiMedia’s high hopes were dashed ‘ and by association, other implementations of UWB for the consumer market ‘ should warn us not to assume too much for 60GHz until it is firmly embedded in mainstream products. WiMedia was once set to be the high speed, low power standard that would underpin a wide range of home networks from Bluetooth to USB to IP, providing a common unifying transport layer. But in March this year, the WiMedia Alliance shut down, handing its technology to the Bluetooth SIG, the Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB Implementers Forum to continue any development. Although UWB promises much ‘ in ideal conditions it can deliver speeds up to 600Mbps at very low power over short distances ‘ it has rarely achieved those conditions. Its capabilities have been ringfenced by regulatory restrictions, industry in-fighting, and the rapid progress of high speed Wi-Fi in key UWB target markets such as the digital home. Some argue that the choice of an OFDM basis for the WiMedia platform, which was sparked off by Intel and Texas Instruments, was also a mistake in performance terms.
The same setbacks could still affect 60GHz initiatives although at least it is more successful in converging efforts with the powerful Wi-Fi, which reduces risk and brings most of the WLan community on board. In May, Wi-Fi giants like Intel, Broadcom and Atheros formed the WiGig Alliance to support a standard that has emerged from Wi-Fi, in the shape of the IEEE 802.11 committee’s Very High Throughput (VHT) project. The bulk of the handset community – Nokia, Samsung and LG ‘ also signed up, as well as dedicated handset chipmakers like Marvell and MediaTek, plus Dell, Microsoft, NEC, Panasonic and Wilocity. WiGig could be in products by late 2010, with first specifications due later this year. These specs will aim to support 60GHz short range networking at speeds of 6Gbps.
However, there are other 60GHz groupings too, which raises the risk of fragmentation and destructive splits. Most important is WirelessHD, which focuses on the wireless HDMI market and uses silicon from Amimon and also SiBeam, with actual products further down the track than WiGig. The WirelessHD spec is supported by Intel, Broadcom, LG, Samsung and Sony. The silicon has already been demonstrated in TVs from Toshiba and Panasonic. If WiGig is to succeed in hijacking WirelessHD, it would need to win over two big names of that activity, Sony and Philips. WiGig will hope to draw all these activities into a single effort. There has already been conflict within the IEEE between the VHT project and one from the 802.15 family of personal area network standards, 802.15.3c, which harnesses technology from start-up SiBeam and is more focused on handsets than VHT.
Intel is calling for a unified base standard that can then be implemented in different ‘use case profiles’ ‘ for PC-peripheral connectivity, HD video and handsets, perhaps. The WiGig spec, which is 80% complete, uses a range of protocol adaptation layers to target different applications, a technique also used by the WiMedia UWB platform and which could be harnessed by Bluetooth. Layers for WiGig include whole home video over 10 meter ranges, to wireless HDMI, to low power gigabit links over five meters for cellphones.
John Marshall, chairman of the WirelessHD group, says this group is complementary to WiGig, which targets data, PC and mobile uses rather than TV. WirelessHD has a non-interference mechanism it has described to WiGig members, he told EETimes.
At Bluetooth, the final abandoning of WiMedia may have come down to licensing battles. Foley said in the interview that the SIG asked WiMedia stakeholders to make their technology available on the same royalty-free basis as Bluetooth, so that it could be certified and licensed in the same way as the older standard. ‘Some WiMedia members weren’t amenable to that,” said Foley, wanting to hold on to their existing royalties. The former WiMedia members “can charge royalties in a market of zero units, so good luck to them,” he added. “It’s something of a poor development for the industry, but that’s where we are at.”
A spokesman for UWB start-up Alereon said the situation was more complex than Foley suggested, because the WiMedia Alliance had about 350 members at its peak and the licensing policy could not be changed without the signature of every one. “They also had the option to take the standard version of the spec from ECMA and run with it, but again they decided not to,” he added. WiGig will make its specifications royalty free once completed.