Alan Stevens

Everyone knows that recent advances in wireless communication offer business benefits, but there is far less agreement on the underlying technologies and standards, and this can make life very confusing for buyers.

Now there is yet another wireless technology for IT professionals to analyse and worry over, known as Ultra Wideband or UWB.

UWB differs from other wireless architectures in that it isn't restricted to using a single waveband. It transmits streams of extremely short energy pulses, typically around 10 to 1,000 picoseconds, which can be spread across a broad range of frequencies.

The power levels needed for UWB are very low, even lower than those for mobile phones, which is a real advantage when it comes to mobility and battery life. Added to which the broad frequency spread makes UWB very resistant to interference. It can also carry a huge amount of data - potential bandwidth is quoted in hundreds of megabits per second, making it a lot faster than Bluetooth at 2Mbit/s, and the latest 54Mbit/s Wi-Fi standards.

Security is less of a problem with UWB as the short pulses are far harder to intercept, but range remains an issue. Signals can travel no more than around 10 to 20 metres, which effectively rules UWB out as a rival to the 802.11 WLAN technologies.

It could, though, sound the death knell for Bluetooth, not least because of the involvement of Intel, which is championing a new Wireless USB interface, based on UWB, that is expected in 2005. With support for the same 480Mbit/s rate as USB 2.0, but without cables, this could leave Bluetooth trailing.

Elsewhere developers are planning to use UWB to link everything and anything, from PDAs and mobile phones to domestic DVD players and TV sets. It could also be used to link medical probes to monitoring equipment and in covert security and surveillance systems. In fact, wherever a cable is moving large amounts of data, UWB could be used instead. As with all new technologies, however, there are one or two hurdles to overcome first.

Regulatory approval is one. The FCC in the US, for example, has only authorised limited use of UWB across a fixed set of frequencies. Another concerns signal modulation. Two rival techniques are being proposed. One, direct sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA), is borrowed from the cellular world. The other is orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM), as used in fixed frequency 802.11a/g WLAN products. Motorola is the big name behind DS-CDMA, supported by a couple of others. Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments and others are pushing for OFDM. Neither has so far garnered enough support to become part of the proposed IEEE 802.15.3a standard for UWB, effectively stalling the specification. Despite this, Motorola is pressing ahead with product development while the OFDM proponents have formed their own special interest group, the Multiband-OFDM Alliance.

No doubt it will all be sorted out in the end, but in the meantime it might be a good idea to keep those cables for just a little longer.

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