Ultra Wide Band promoter, the WiMedia Alliance, is handing over all current and future specification development of its version of ultrawideband (UWB) to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the Wireless USB Promoter Groupx and the USB Implementers Forum, reports EE Times today.
Once the handoff is completed, the WiMedia Alliance will shut down.
WiMedia Alliance uses Ultrawideband (UWB) in a band of frequencies from 4.2 to 4.8 GHz or higher. Their Wireless USB standard claims a data rate of 480 Mbits/s and works by compressing and expanding HD video images.
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) allowed sharing of spectrum with other users. It used pulse radio at very low power for personal-area networks. UWB, it was hoped, would have attained consensus in the IEEE 802.15.3a draft PAN standard. However, after several years of deadlock, the IEEE 802.15.3a task group was dissolved in 2006. The WiMedia Alliance became the most supported commercial supporter of the UWB technique.
According to Stephen Wood, president of the WiMedia Alliance, the move is, “a modification to the industry structure we’ve been discussing and negotiating with the [three groups] since about July of last year.”
The group succeeded in preventing Freescale Semiconductor from dominating the IEEE 802.15.3a standards process. After that process stalled, WiMedia successfully lobbied for the global acceptance of the WiMedia radio.
Stakeholders said handing off the spec to separate groups won’t create a specification development schism or new intellectual property issues. The reason, they said, is that member manufacturers want a single IC SKU. Two major WiMedia IP holders, Alereon and Staccato, will license IP under the Bluetooth SIG’s RAND-Z (zero royalty) rules. WiMedia has posted a FAQ.
Related UWB stories on Dailywireless include; USB 3.0 Emerges, Wireless USB Crashes UWB for Wireless USB: In Trouble?, MIMO 4×4 On a Chip, Gigabit Wi-Fi, and Wireless HDTV: Battle in the Home.
