In the confusing world of existing and emerging wireless standards – some short range, others long range, some oriented for high-volume data or high-speed – Bluetooth and UWB may manage to simplify things a bit.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) said today it intends to work with the developers of the wireless technology commonly known as ultra-wideband (UWB) to combine strengths of both technologies. Two groups involved in UWB's development, the WiMedia Alliance and the UWB Forum, both said today that they welcomed the idea, suggesting that interoperability between wireless standards will simply the world of consumer electronics for both manufacturers and buyers.
This decision will allow Bluetooth technology to meet future demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data as well as enabling high quality video applications for portable devices, SIG said. UWB will benefit from Bluetooth technology's manifested maturity, qualification program, brand equity and comprehensive application layer, according to the group
The Bluetooth SIG's goal is to work towards an architecture that allows devices to take advantage of UWB data rates for scenarios that require high speed. Bluetooth will still be used in those devices to maintain backward compatibly with existing devices on the market and future products not requiring the higher data rate, the group said.
UWB is an emerging high-speed wireless networking standard that may or may not compete with WiFi's next incarnation, 802.11n, depending on whom one asks. Bluetooth has already been established in Europe for sometime, where it comes standard on many cell phones, and has begun to make inroads in the U.S. market, in devices such as wireless phone headsets.
With a collaborative approach, it will be possible to maintain existing Bluetooth core characteristics such as low power, cost and ad hoc connectivity while enabling future usage scenarios requiring higher data throughput, the SIG said. Such an example would be streaming high quality video between portable devices. As digital content size increases, the bit rate required to move data from device to device increases, thus typical Bluetooth usage today of exchanging a file is more likely to require UWB speeds in the future.
"It has been apparent that members of the Bluetooth SIG would like to enable products with higher data rates. I feel that it is the responsibility of the industry to recognize synergies and limit fragmentation as much as possible," Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. "Joint development between Bluetooth technology and UWB is the fastest and most economical pathway for both technologies to meet the future demands of companies and end users.
Chipmaker Intel Corp., which has been involved with both UWB as well as Bluetooth applications, lauded the idea as well. "The Bluetooth SIG's intention to employ UWB in their next generation products is a very positive step in allowing consumers to connect seamlessly between PCs, phones and consumer electronics equipment. This is an extremely positive move," Stephen Wood, a UWB technology strategist at Intel, said in a statement.
As for UWB developers, by collaborating with the entrenched Bluetooth technology, UWB can skip many time-intensive and costly hurdles in technology and market development, the SIG suggested.
But the details still need to be worked out, the group acknowledged. Before bringing products incorporating both technologies to market, some fundamental issues of UWB implementation need to be resolved, like potential interference with Wireless LAN, WiMax and new cellular bands, in addition to the lack of a worldwide spectrum allocation for UWB.
