Newswise — Soon enough, every device in the home will be networked: high-definition televisions, digital cameras, computers, stereos, even toys and clocks. But how will they talk to one another, especially the ones needed to send and receive large amounts of data, like video?
Increasingly, it looks as if the answer will be ultrawideband (UWB), a wireless technology that can transport data at speeds up to 400 Mb/s, albeit over distances of only 10 meters or so. That's faster than all but the speediest of wired networks. Spurred by an IEEE Standard, 802.15.3a, in June some of the main players in the computer and consumer electronics industries formed an organization called the MultiBand OFDM Alliance, which now includes the likes of Hewlett Packard, Infineon, Intel, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, and Texas Instruments.
In this article, the second of a two-part IEEE Spectrum special report on the latest wireless technologies, expert Steve Stroh explains ultrawideband technology and describes its decades-long odyssey from military experiment to research lab to the brink of commercialization. Along the way, UWB has had to contend with one of the most complex U.S. Federal Communications Commission proceedings ever and a heavily marketed competing technology, Bluetooth.
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