Posted on 09/14/2002 11:37:58 AM PDT by sourcery
In February, the Federal Communications Commission authorized the commercial deployment of a new wireless technology that can transmit data, voice and video over short distances with more flexibility than other radio frequencies. Known as ultra wideband (UWB), the FCC said the technology holds "great promise for a vast array of new applications."
The agency somberly noted that UWB promises "significant benefits" for public safety, pointing out the technology's ability to power radar imaging of objects buried under the ground or behind walls, providing a rescue workers at catastrophic disasater sites with a valuable, lifesaving tool. UWB also may lead to breakthroughs in medical imaging and also has wired potential as well.
And, oh yes, the FCC also noted ultra wideband's potential for short-range, high-speed data transmissions. Despite the public safety or medical imaging aspects of UWB, it has been this last category of wireless broadband transmission -- fully capable of supporting broadcast quality video -- that has set off a flurry of commercial activity that has UWB's proponents predicting a boom in UWB-driven home networking products that will find themselves under next year's Christmas tree.
Unlike conventional wireless radio systems that operate within a relatively narrow bandwidth (i.e. Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a) ultra wideband operates across a wide range of frequency spectrum by transmitting a series of very narrow and low power pulses. The UWB industry says this combination of broader spectrum, lower power and pulsed data means that ultra wideband causes less interference than conventional narrowband radio solutions.
Ideal for Multimedia? In more practical terms, ultra wideband technology, on paper at least, seems to be ideal for consumer electronics applications such as camcorders, laptops, DVDs, and digital cameras to wirelessly communicate with each in a home environment. The wirelessly networked home, of course, has long been an elusive goal for consumer electronics companies. Wireless transmission of video is seen as the key to making it become a reality.
Today's digital video transmissions use MPEG-2 for encoding and require up to 12 Mbps to broadcast the video. In addition, higher rate encoding standards such as HDTV and MPEG-2HD (High Definition) use higher rate transmissions in excess of 20 Mbps per video stream. Leading DVD companies have stated that they are moving to MPEG-2HD, underscoring the need for a wireless home technology that can deliver extremely high bandwidth for multiple channels of digital video transmission.
According to the Consumer Electronics Association of America, DVD equipment sales for North America are forecasted to reach approximately 17 million units in 2003, representing a significant market opportunity for wireless connectivity solutions.
"Companies are definitely ramping up for a Christmas 2003 major rollout," said David Hoover, an analyst who tracks ultra wideband for the Precursor Group, an independent, investor side research firm in Washington, D.C. "It's a lot easier to stream audio and video with UWB. The consumer electronics market is what we believe will be the first niche market for UWB."
The Players Indeed, since the February FCC ruling freeing spectrum for the commercial use of UWB, Intel, Cisco, and Motorola have all said they will enter the UWB market with products in late 2003.
Huntsville, Ala.-based Time Domain Corp., one of the earliest players in the ultra wideband field with U.S. West as a minority partner, announced in June it was expanding the company's semiconductor design capabilities with the opening of a new design center in Nevada City, Calif. The company is working on its third-generation chipset, which is targeted to deliver hundreds of megabits per second throughput for multimedia traffic.
In July, XtremeSpectrum, a Northern Virginia UWB developer that attracted a $12 million investment round in June and counts Texas Instruments among its investors , demonstrated the "extreme bandwidth" and "wire-like" video quality of its new Trinity chipset.
Using the popular MPEG2 video format, XtremeSpectrum broadcast six video streams to six separate flat panel displays simultaneously across the room using a single ultra wideband connection. According to the company, the streaming video, enabled by the Trinity chipset, offered "true wire-like" performance while co-existing with an 802.11b system, a microwave oven, a cellular/PCS phone and a cordless phone, all in simultaneous operation.
"With six simultaneous streams of video, this demonstration is intended to showcase not only the high performance capabilities of our ultra-wideband product, but Trinitys ability to co-exist with systems and products in the popular 2.4 GHz and PCS/cellular ranges found in most homes today," said Martin Rofheart, XtremeSpectrum's CEO. "And, not only does Trinity co-exist with these various technologies, but the video remains unperturbed despite moving people, furniture and walls, all of which are factors in a typical residential scenario. Based on this demonstration, we believe ultra wideband will become the pervasive wireless technology for consumer connectivity applications."
XtremeSpectrum officials and other UWB proponents are predicting television sets that wirelessly send different programs to other television sets in the house, camcorders that wirelessly connect with monitors and portable, flat screen computer monitors that can be wirelessly tethered to a CPU located anywhere in the home, not mention to wireless connections between VCRs and televisions to streamline that rat's nest of wires behind the home entertainment center.
With existing FCC restrictions in place, XtremeSpectrum is predicting that its products will have a range of 30 feet with data rates around 100 Mbps with no drop off. Intel's director of wireless technology, Ben Manny, says his company has a goal of 500 Mbps.
"One of the major consumer opportunities is solving the problem of wireless digital video and audio distribution within the home. Consumers want it, consumer electronics OEMs want to provide it and now, with emerging technologies, wireless companies are ready to deliver it. Indeed, by adding wireless to everything from TVs to home theater gear to set-top boxes, this vision can become reality," Rofheart said earlier this summer.
Powering Up Low Power The FCC has been attempting since 1998 to a find a way to approve and promote UWB technology because of the potential commercial applications. However, the agency had to fight the concerns of military, aviation, fire, police and rescue officials that interference from UWB devices could potentially disrupt critical public services and crucial military operations.
UWB also presented a novel regulatory issue to the FCC because time pulse technology does not displace existing frequency users but, instead, overlays wide swaths of existing spectrum.
In its February ruling, the FCC decreed that UWB devices must operate in the frequency band 3.1-10.6 GHz. It also said the equipment must be designed to ensure that operation can only occur indoors or it must consist of hand-held devices that may be employed for such activities as peer-to-peer operation.
"The standards adopted today represent a cautious first step with UWB technology. These standards are based in large measure on standards that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) believes are necessary to protect against interference to vital federal government operations," read an FCC statement issued in February. "Since there is no production UWB equipment available and there is little operational experience with the impact of UWB on other radio services, the Commission chose in this First Report and Order to err on the side of conservatism in setting emission limits when there were unresolved interference issues."
The FCC said it intends within the next 6-12 months to review the standards for UWB devices and issue a further notice of proposed rule making to explore more flexible standards and address the operation of additional types of UWB operations and technology.
That "cautious" first step by the FCC brought a finger-pointing, table-thumping lecture from Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), a strong supporter of UWB technology, at a June House hearing convened to deal with the potential ultra wideband interference issues raised by the NTIA.
Tauzin cited a 1989 ruling by the FCC that opened the door for widespread use of cell phones and other wireless devices including PDAs and laptops. At the time, the NTIA, the military and other agencies contended the use of these devices could interfere with applications already running in the spectrum, fears that the FCC ignored and were ultimately proved to be unfounded.
"In 1989, the FCC told the NTIA to prove it and not deal in imagined problems," Tauzin said. "Sound spectrum management involves a balancing of governmental and non-governmental interests. While balancing these interests always involves policy issues, good spectrum management requires that sound policy be supported by sound engineering. I don't think that necessarily happened this time."
Tauzin then specifically asked Julius P. Knapp, deputy chief, Office of Engineering and Technology at the FCC, and Michael Gallagher, deputy assistant secretary of the NTIA if "there is any evidence of interference" from UWB devices. Both replied no, but contended there are not currently enough UWB devices operating to empirically prove the point.
"It's really no more than background noise -- it's under the radar and it is inherently more secure," said Precursor analyst Hoover.
Another analyst said UWB technology allows an "unprecedented amount of high-density bandwidth applications" without requiring assignment of a new frequency bandwidth, essentially "creating" a new band of spectrum in the noise floor.
Whither 802.11x? So what happens to 802.11x if ultra wideband technology becomes the de facto home networking standard?
"If you ask the (UWB) industry guys if ultra wideband is a potential threat to 802.11, they will all say absolutely not," a wireless analyst who asked not to be identified told Internetnews.com. "They are not looking to take on fights but, yes, UWB, because of its inherent advantage in streaming video, is a threat to 802.11."
Chris Fisher, vice president of marketing for XtremeSpectrum, disagrees. Prior to joining XtremeSpectrum, Fisher worked for Radiata, a developer of IEEE 802.11a technology that was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2001.
"802.11a is going to be hugely successful for data networking, but it was never designed to support video streaming," Fisher said.
802.11a carries a data transfer rate of 54 Mbps and can reach roughly twice that speed using proprietary 'turbo' architectures. In theory, 802.11a has a hypothetically greater range than UWB. However, as an Ethernet derivative designed as a packet based data networking protocol, it is unsuitable for intensive multi-media applications since it depends on data packets arriving in order and in time.
"Our customer base (consumer electronics manufacturers) made their own internal evaluations. They looked at 802.11 and Bluetooth and decided they were not adequate for the transmission of wire-like video," said Fisher, who sees a future for 802.11x in demanding enterprise or public access markets.
Another fundamental flaw in 802.11a technology is that it's power consumption requirements of around 1.5 to 2 W makes it almost completely unsuitable for battery dependent devices like PDAs, and even many laptops with short battery lives.
And then there is the question of cost. Currently, consumer NIC cards for 802.11a are roughly $150 to $200, which could be too high for broad consumer adoption. XtremeSpectrum's chip set is approximately $20 per 100,000 units.
Further bolstering the hopes of both the nascent UWB industry and 802.11x supporters is a June market research report by InStat/MDR analyst Gemma Paulo predicting that UWB will gradually grow its marketshare in the home market, with the first UWB devices unveiled at next January's Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, followed by shipping products by Christmas season 2003.
According to Paulo these initial product shipments won't gain market momentum until 2004 and beyond, but Paulo is conservative about UWB's share of the total wireless home market, anticipating that UWB won't comprise more than 5 percent of the total shipments through 2006. Until that time, 802.11x should be the dominant home wireless technology
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